Summary of Now and On Earth by Jim Thompson
Jim Thompson's Now and On Earth tells the story of a family's struggles in San Diego, California. The story was based between 1930 and 1942, which was World War Two as well as the great depression. James Dillon is the main character, he struggles with money as well as his family. He lives with his mother, as well as his wild family who never seems to calm down. James has many struggles, he doesn't make enough money to properly fund his family. They are always strapped for cash, and James has an addiction to alcohol. The great depression left many families without jobs, money, and homes. This book is about James Dillon's struggles during the 1930's. Money was, for many people, the key to happiness as well as the cause of sorrow. For many Americans life revolved around money. Money separated people, the size of their wallet determined the level of happiness, as well as their social class, during that time the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Money was scarce, but James had a job, a low paying job that didn't give him much, but enough to get him and his family by.
Life during the depression was hard, and money was the key to happiness. James and his family needed money but were always strapped for cash. A good example as to how money was such an important thing is mentioned in the book, a worker went into a dinner and asked for a beer and a cheese sandwich, he handed the waitress a dollar and she gave him but a dime in return, he asked if there is some mistake and she said "Oh no. Sandwich, fifty. Beer, forty. No mistake." "Funny, What's those?" in a rather sarcastic tone. "Why their my breasts, you fool! What'd you think they were?" He responded "Didn't know. Everything else is so high in here I thought they might be the cheeks of your ass.". This attitude was a common one, people were commonly in a bad mood. This is because money was short and it causes problems. People don't want to pay 90 cents for a beer and a sandwich and when they only have a dollar.
The story takes place in 1937 during the Roosevelt recession. A 15-year-old girl named Mary Alice is sent to live a year with her grandmother while her mother and father live in Chicago. Her parents couldn’t afford to keep and feed her or her brother. Her new life in the country is much different than her old life in the big city. She learns many things about how the people there got by with the little they had. During her time there she learns how make the best of with what she had.
The economical and societal conditions and their changes during the film had a dramatic affect on the story. The movie starts off with James J. Braddock, in the twenties which was a great economical time, and it shows when he comes home, with a bundle of cash from the boxing match he has just one, to a beautiful house that is filled with nice objects in a nice suburbia neighborhood. This shows the audience the wealth of this time period and how many people could do no wrong and buy whatever they want. During the twenties unemployment was low and the stock market was up. This scene also points out where the Braddock family is now because it all changes in the very next scene. The next scene flashes forward to the thirties during the Depression and the setting changes to a small dim apartment located in the Bronx. During this time Braddock’s kids are not playing with any fancy toys or anything but his daughter has what looked like a home made doll. The significance for the movie to do this is to show the audience the hard times and the living conditions of the Depression. People did not have a lot of money. Braddock gives his meal up to his daughter when she says she is still hungry after she finished hers. He had to give up his...
To begin, the novel highlights how important family is to the Joad’s. The Joad’s are a farming family, who have lived on their farm land for as long as many of them can remember. Unfortunately due to the Great Depression, the Landowners are forced to make the majority of the families living on their land leave, including the Joad’s The novel begins
In the early 1930s, vast dust storms and droughts in the Midwest region of the United States left homes destroyed and farmlands unfertile. This time period was known as the “Dust Bowl”, which lasted about ten years. This greatly impacted the lives of many who lived in this region, particularly the southwest, who were hit the worst with the storms (Nelson, "About the Dust Bowl."). Those who made a living off of their farmland could no longer support their families due to the lack of income because of the drought. This led to a great migration of families westward toward California in order to find jobs, food, and shelter. The immense hardships faced during this migration caused many families and individuals to work for very little money, reside in unsanitary camps, and face extreme conditions. Those who were unfortunate enough to not find work ended up homeless, jobless, and would ultimately die of starvation. An excellent example of this occurs in John Steinbeck’s international bestseller The Grapes of Wrath, where the Joad family is forced to migrate westward and must face adversity head on after being hit with an enormous dust storm and losing their valuable farmland. In order to illustrate how Steinbeck’s novel represents themes of family commitment and losses of sanity within society during this era, many analysts and literary critics have used characterization, conflict, and the theory of new historicism within the novel to break down these particular themes.
During the time in our country's history called the roaring twenties, society had a new obsession, money. Just shortly after the great depression, people's focus now fell on wealth and success in the economic realm. Many Americans would stop at nothing to become rich and money was the new factor in separation of classes within society. Wealth was a direct reflection of how successful a person really was and now became what many people strived to be, to be rich. Wealth became the new stable in the "American dream" that people yearned and chased after all their lives. In the novel entitled the great Gatsby, the ideals of the so called American dream became skewed, as a result of the greediness and desires of the main characters to become rich and wealthy. These character placed throughout the novel emphasize the true value money has on a persons place in society making wealth a state of mind.
The dawn of the 20th century was met with an unprecedented catastrophe: an international technological war. Such a horrible conflict perhaps threatened the roots of the American Dream! Yet, most do not realize how pivotal the following years were. Post war prosperity caused a fabulous age for America: the “roaring twenties”. But it also was an era where materialism took the nation by storm, rooting itself into daily life. Wealth became a measure of success and a facade for social status. This “Marxist materialism” threatened the traditional American Dream of self-reliance and individuality far even more than the war a decade before. As it morphed into materialistic visions (owning a beautiful house and car), victims of the change blindly chased the new aspiration; one such victim was Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. As his self-earned luxury and riches clashed with love, crippling consequences and disasters occur. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby delves into an era of materialism, exploring how capitalism can become the face of social life and ultimately cloud the American Dream.
John Steinbeck’s novel, The Grapes of Wrath is one of the most influential books in American History, and is considered to be his best work by many. It tells the story of one family’s hardship during the Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. The Joads were a hard-working family with a strong sense of togetherness and morals; they farmed their land and went about their business without bothering anyone. When the big drought came it forced them to sell the land they had lived on since before anyone can remember. Their oldest son, Tom, has been in jail the past four years and returns to find his childhood home abandoned. He learns his family has moved in with his uncle John and decides to travel a short distance to see them. He arrives only to learn they are packing up their belongings and moving to California, someplace where there is a promise of work and food. This sets the Joad family off on a long and arduous journey with one goal: to survive.
The years berween 1929 and 1933 were trying years for people throughout the world. Inflation was often so high money became nearly worthless. America had lost the prosperity it had known during the 1920's. America was caught in a trap of a complete meltdown of economy, workers had no jobs simply because it cost too much to ship the abundance of goods being produced. This cycle was unbreakable, and produced what is nearly universally recognized as the greatest economic collapse of all times. These would be trying years for all, but not every American faced the same challenges and hardships. (Sliding 3)
People, especially blacks, were being put out of work everywhere; the wave of depression had hit the entire country. Banks were failing, and the cities, in a desperate attempt to provide relief, were running out of money. Because President Hoover was confident that business conditions would soon improve, federal funds were not used to provide relief; relief was the responsibility of private charities. City allowances soon ran out, and there was no money left. Pennies were used to buy food and fuel. Many people went without food in order to p...
The Great Depression was the greatest economic downturn America had ever faced. With the fall of the stock market in one day the entire country was in chaos. People’s entire life saving as well as plans for the future were destroyed in minutes. This paper will discuss how The Great Depression affected family dynamics and everyday life as the result of economic hardship.
The book is set in the time of the depression. There was no work, no
Due to the politics and power, the society had a major impact towards civilians and the economic society. A similarity presents its way towards Frazier’s timeline as well with the Civil War. During Frazier lifetime while writing the novel, a financial problem occurred regarding the amount of money an average person earns, towards the amount of money he or she needs to pay to acquire accessories. In 1997, the average income of an American citizen included 30 thousand a year, though the average cost of a new house valued $137 thousand dollars ($76 thousand for an average house) excluding groceries, bills, and gas. Furthermore in the assertion, the cost of a car valued $16 thousand dollars with a $576 dollar interest rate per month. In 1997, having a family would harm the individual since it would financially harm them due to the amount of money they'd need for groceries, supplies for the baby, and a babysitter to look after the baby. Accordingly, not only Inman and Ada had problems, whether the entire financial crisis occurred in the confederacy side. During the Civil war, not only Ada and Inman had a difficult time
The short story is set in the period of The Great Depression, and lower classes especially struggled in this hard time. The Great Depression attacked the nation by society class. The lower levels struggled even more than usual. Lizbeth lived in a small rural town with a few members of her family. Her father and mother worked all day and Lizbeth and her brother, Joey, would hang out with other teenagers in their community to waste the daylight. The community always helped each other out but there was this one woman, Miss Lottie who played an important role in young Lizbeth’s
When he wrote the book he wanted to divide up the classes of people and show that each class of people faced problems of their own. He also wanted it to represent the American dream which at the time was social mobility, which is the idea of moving up the social ladder or the poor becoming rich, and the want for material things. Many of the characters in the book aspire to move up on the social ladder which at this time was almost impossible. They all had different motives for wanting to achieve success, such as Gatsby’s love for Daisy, or Myrtles desire for the finer things in life.
In the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, the two central characters Lennie and George are itinerant workers who share an extraordinary friendship. They travel from town to town trying to accomplish their dream of having their own land by working hard, during the harsh depression time of 1930’s America. This was known as ‘The Great Depression’. Whereas, the other novel ‘The Great Gatsby’, the central character Gatsby’s and his desire is to pretend being from the upper class, in order to win the affection of his first love.