For this week's blog, you are going to write two 200 word responses. This blog is the final one of the semester and is worth 100 points.
#1-Google "Dorothea Lange photography" and look at images she took during the Great Depression. Write 200 words on which photograph(s) made the greatest impact on you and why.
#2-Google "causes of the Great Depression". Write a 200 word response on at least THREE different events/causes that led to the Great Depression.
In the photographs Dorothea Lange took they had pictures during the Great Depression era and all that was happening and going on during that time. When looking through the pictures she took they all have a said vibe with it. The Great Depression was a horrible era and it is sad to actually look at the photos and actually see what the people were going through or even how rough they look during it all. I saw a photo of a man just laying over putting his head in his lap just looking so awful and he was outside and his barrel thing was flipped over bedside him. He just looked awful and it was sad to see that people during that time were going through these hard trials. Another picture I saw was this woman who was very very dirty I mean she was filthy. And if you look closely you see she has two little girls laying their heads on her shoulders. That was really sad for me to look at in all honesty. Their life was so hard and they all were trying to survive this era in history and you just see the girls just laying on her and she was okay with it. (209)
ReplyDeleteWhen looking up and learning about the Great Depression you wonder what really caused the Great Depression that happened in our history. In the beginning the twenties was roaring and booming and doing good. One cause of the depression starting would be the economy. It was going good and then it had its “dramatic crash” when the stock market crashed cause one of the causes of the Great Depression. Another cause for the Great Depression would have to be the Dust Bowl. The dust bowl was during the time when all the crops were getting destroyed because of the dust flying around everywhere and it was honestly just destroying a lot in general. It made life hard and people could not do the things they really needed to do during that time. It would make farming harder and kill the cattle because of so much dust getting in their systems and with none of that working it was a rough time to get food like they all needed. But a lot of people blamed the real cause was that the federal reserve didn’t make enough money and that was one of the problems. (203)
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ReplyDeleteDorothea Lange photography:
ReplyDeleteThe first photograph I chose to write about was of a mother in California who with her husband and her two children will be returned to Oklahoma by the Relief Administration. This family had lost a two-year-old baby during the winter as a result of exposure. This picture was extremely heart breaking. It becomes very clear In the picture that poverty and serious emotional damage is a big issue that the mom is suffering through. This photograph impacted me but also made me feel convicted because I feel like we all constantly take even the simple things for granted. It is amazing that Dorothea Lange can capture true emotion in hard times. After this, I discovered the topic “striving for normalcy” and looked at the photograph Dorothea took of a baseball game. Despite the economy dying and people being poverty stricken, they still found hope and joy in the simple things. This is impactful in a positive way for sure. This is such a good reminder to stay thankful for what you do have and to only worry about and focus on the things that you can control. Even in times of the a Great Depression, people still find hope. (200)
Causes of the Great Depression:
Of course the stock market crash in 1929 really seemed to be the start of the Great Depression but over time things could have recovered so there are several other reasons and causes of the Great Depression. In the 1930’s over 9,000 banks went out of business. The more that banks would fail, the more people would lose money. Not only that, banks that were still functioning decently were scared and way more hesitant about what they would do for people. The economy was slowly going downhill. Along with the problems in the economy, the badly timed weather conditions did not play a helpful part at all in the Great Depression. There was a severe drought that put farmers out of business and had a lot of other not so helpful effects because soon following it was named the Dust Bowl. Businesses were having to let people go and when people finally started to become employed, the Great Depression came back a little harder. There were several factors playing into the cause of the Great Depression. Banks were told to close and the amount of homeless and unemployed people went up. However, a little while after Roosevelt was elected, the Great Depression finally came to an end. (207)
Dorothea Lange was a well known photographer and photojournalist in America during the Depression-era. Lange is recognized for her chronicles of Great Depression and her photographs of migratory farm workers. She worked for the Farm Security Administration, and she had countless pictures of poverty- stricken families and people during this time period. After looking through Google to analyze some of her famous photographs, I have come across a few that have particularly peaked my interest. One photo taken by Dorothea Lange that stands out to me immediately is titled "Migrant Mother". This picture stands out to me because it is very clear to see that the mother and two children in this picture are, as the era is titled, depressed. The photograph depicts the two children crying over their uneasy mother's shoulders, and I personally feel that this picture represents much of this time period. I know that a lot of people were living sad, poor lives during this era, but seeing this first hand provides an entirely new perspective on the matter. Another photograph that stands out to me from Lange's collection is a girl laying down in a field during the dust bowl. This young girl seems like she has nothing interesting to do or to look at besides the sky above her. It fascinates me that this era took place in our history because of how far we have come as a country from this point. (Word Count:239)
ReplyDeleteThe Great Depression was an awful yet fascinating time in American history. So many things lead up to this depressing period of time that caused our country's economy and state overall to "crash". One thing that started our country's fall into depression was the stock market crash of 1929. This crash caused a huge panic on Wall Street and took out millions of people who had invested. Two months after the original crash in October of that year, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. Another related cause was bank failures. Throughout the duration of the 1930's, over 9,000 banks closed, which was nearly 25% of all American Banks. These giant economic failures only spiraled into bigger and bigger monetary problems for our country. A perfect example to use when explaining these two causes would be the "snowball effect". Once those initial, large issues took place, our economy seemed unfixable. Another reason that also has to do with the economy was Herbert Hoover's views on it. Our 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover, did not believe that the government should have much involvement in the country's economy. So, as one might expect, he did just that and did not intervene to help the monetary situation of our country. Overall, these things resulted in a horrible low point in our country's history, but it is good to see how far The United States have come. (Word Count: 237)
The first two photos I saw, while looking at Dorothea’s work, I saw a mother with two children who were hugging the mother. You could see how filthy they were and you can tell that they were living in poverty. The look on the mothers face was a mixture of confusion and mourning. She looks like she’s doing all that she possibly can but knows nothing will ever come of it. She’s taking care of them right now but doesn’t know how much longer they can hold on. All of Dorothea’s photos that she takes/draws are a serious perspective on what poverty and what it was like back in the day. Poverty to us today might be nothing compared to what it was like in their time. Another photo I noticed was a kid that was about 11 years of age and had a cigarette in his mouth. He didn’t seem to be enjoying it but at the same time he did. It looks as if he were crying and didn’t know what to do except smoke. He’s dirty and looks as if he hasn’t bathed in months, but the look on his face reveals how he really feels about his situation. These photographs make you only feel sympathy’s towards any one at this point in time.(223)
ReplyDeleteThere was no “1 cause” of the Great Depression it was just a mixture of so many flaws the our economics that it just failed causing a Great Depression. However there were a few failures that made big leaps towards the Depression by themselves, one of them was the Stock Market crash of 1929. This made banks lose nearly $40 billion dollars causing the first downfall. This made banks become broke and unable to pay back the people their money because a lot of banks were uninsured.
Another large factor was that people stopped buying products to pay off all the ones they have already purchased. This caused all manufacturing to slow down and prices to go lower putting people out of work. All kinds of business went broke and caused a 25% unemployment rate. People had previously used installment plans to help pay for the new “toys” they bought, which installments were basically credit and if you didn’t pay off the credit then banks would take more and more interest until you could no longer pay your debt. People would lose their houses to banks because they couldn’t afford all of their new house appliances. Farmers got some of the worst of it,they would lose their farms, houses and even their jobs. People couldn’t pay for their crops any more so they had to raise their prices. Then the dust storms hit causing them to lose their crops/business and ruining their life’s.(228)-Sam Griffey
ReplyDeleteThese pictures are said and depressing. She took photos of starving children, women in need, men working twice as hard to get some money for their family. One picture that she took was of a man sitting down with a upside down wheel barrel looking down at the ground. Why I think she took this picture was because the man was working and the money was going away and he had nothing to work for because he wasn’t getting paid. He was depressed because of he can not provide money for his family. I don’t know if this is what was going on or not, but the by the way the guy was sitting you could tell that some of those things were reasons he looked liked that. Another picture that looked sad was that these boys were smoke cigarettes and their parents letting them do it. I don’t know how he got the cigarette but back then they were allowed to smoke and not get in trouble with them. The boy had on overalls and had short blonde hair and looked rough. While looking at these you kind of wonder why and how these people even survived this event. (201)
One of the three causes of the Great Depression was the money issue. One day in September of 1929 the stock market crashed and everyone’s money went away, this tragic event was and is know as “Black Thursday.” Everyone was putting in money which declined the interest and lost all their money because everyone was just pulling in money for the market but didn’t get anything out of it. The rich became poor, the poor became poorer and it just crashed. The second reason I think the the Great Depression happened was that the small local and state banks lost all the money for the locals. Because of the stock market crashing they closed up all the banks. By this several people lost maybe multimillion dollars or several thousand dollars and never got that back. Fun fact: banks could hold how much you wanted but when you lost it they can only save a thousand dollars for you to have, which was interesting. When they closed up and people became very angry mad and disappointed. The third reason I think the Great Depression happened was that the ground was not fertile for plants. Farmers across America couldn’t grow anything because the ground became dust, so they burned their crops. By this the food they were going to grow and eat was ruined or could never be grown. The animals would suffocate on the dust from the ground and/or anything outside when the winds picked up. The Great Depression was not a joke to play around with. People actually died. (240)
Dorothea Lange Great Depression Photography
ReplyDeleteOne photograph of Dorothea Lange’s from The Great Depression that I found very interesting was called Migrant mother. This picture shows a very poor mother with her children crowded around next to her. The mother and children appear to be homeless. The mother and her children look like they are very hungry and the mother seems like she is very stressed about something . Another photograph by Dorothea Lange that is very interesting to me is called daughter of migrant Tennessee Coal Miner. This is a photograph of a young lady sitting in a chair with her hand on her head looking very sad and very miserable. Another Dorothea Lange photograph that looks interesting to me is the one called Ditched, Stalled, and stranded. The picture shows two people sitting in a car that appear to be stuck or out of fuel. The last Dorothea Lange photograph that is interesting to me is a photograph that is titled “Tractored Out.” The picture shows a small house on a giant piece of farm land with the fields plowed, no plants dead grass and it also looks like it has been abandoned for a few days and has not really been cared for. ( 200 words)
Causes of The Great Depression
There are many causes and events that eventually led to the Great Depression but here are just three of those certain events. One event that eventually led to the Great Depression was the Stock Market Crash that occurred on October 29 1929. The Stock Market Crash caused people who had stocks to lose a ton of money. A second event that eventually led to the Great Depression but wasn’t a direct cause was the drought that occurred in the year 1930 in the Mississippi Valley known as the Dust Bowl. The author John Steinbeck talked about the Dust Bowl in his book called “The Grapes of Wrath.” The dust storms killed livestock and killed crops and also made people very sick. A third event that eventually led to the Great Depression was American Economic Policy With Europe. Congress passed a tariff act in 1930 called the Smoot Hawley Tariff. This act was made to protect United States industry from competitors overseas. There were a lot more causes and events that occurred that eventually led to The Great Depression than these three but I think that these three are more important to talk about than the other causes and events of The Great Depression. ( 203 Words )
Dorothea Lange has many pictures that had a big impact on me. To start the pictures from the dust bowl had a huge impact on me because seeing farms get destroyed is bad. How can a man feed his family if he has no income coming in from working or if his whole job got destroyed? Another reason is the people who buy things from the farmers can’t feed their families because the farmer doesn’t have things to sell. If I was in this situation where I couldn’t provide for my family I don’t know what I would do. Lastly seeing family without a house is hard to see. Understanding that their house got destroyed or they couldn’t pay for it during the Great Depression is sad because seeing the people living in tents and having to move it as they move. My next topic is people getting fired and looking for new jobs. Many families were left hanging due to dads having a rough time trying to find work and trying to make money. Many dads have to take their family on the move to wherever they felt they could find work but during that time they had nowhere to live so they basically slept on roads which is depressing.
ReplyDelete(Word Count:210)
There were many causes of the Great Depression. Three of the main causes was the Stock Market Crash, Bank Failures, and lastly drought conditions. To start Stock Market was a cause because many people all around the U.S had invested so much money in stock, so when the stock market crashed their money basically counted as nothing or nowhere near as much as it was before. Stockholders in the U.S. had lost more than 40 billion dollars. Many people believe this is the main cause. Next Bank Failures was also a big cause of the Great Depression due to banks not being able to pay the people who put all their money in stock. Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks closed in the U.S.. Banks that were still open was cautious about loans due to other banks closing because of their loan problem. Lastly because of drought conditions. The drought caused plants not to grow which mean animals couldn’t eat the plants which mean you didn’t have plants or meat coming in as food to buy. Many farmers had to sell their farms and property for really cheap just to supply for their family. Everything bad happened at one time and this affected our world allot.
(Word Count:209)
Dorothea Lange Photography
ReplyDeleteThe first photograph I chose from her pictures, was a photo of what it seemed like a mom, and her three children. The reason why this certain photo stuck out to me is because ever since the last couple of months the Lord has put a nurturing motherly love in my heart. I mean, I always had this feeling in my heart, but I never truly understood it until I got into a more intimate relationship with the Lord. Just seeing this picture of the mother and the children is heart wrenching. The children are all dirty and the mother is distraught. You can tell that she’s been working all day and trying to take care of the children as well. There’s also no father in the picture as well. So, I’m uncertain of whether or not there’s a father figure in the mix. If that’s the case then she’s doing double labor. My second choice is of a family living at the railroads. It breaks my heart to see people barely scraping by. I don’t like to see people hurt or suffering. In the picture there’s a mother, father, and two children. One child is playing with a stick while the other is dazed. The mother looks tired and upset while the father seems also dazed. Honestly, the family as a whole looks confused.
A reason why the Great Depression took place is because of the stock market crash. During the early 1920’s due to people losing money and the banks taking homes. Another case/cause of the Great Depression is the so called “Drought Condition”, in the Mississippi Valley. People had to sell their farms because of the taxes and their debts. This area was also called the “Dust Bowl”. Round three, the American Economic policy with Europe failed. A tariff was created in 1930, the Smoot-Hawley, in order to protect American companies. Because of the Smoot-Hawley tariff there became less trade. The tax on the imports were too high for America and foreign countries to do their trading deals. There was also some economic retaliation. There were several causes for the Great Depression. Each event/cause left its mark not only on the people but on the country as a whole. America would not be the America that it is today without the Great Depression. I’m very thankful that I was born in this day and age. The Great Depression was America’s “winter” season. I’m blessed that I’m living in America’s “spring” season.(419)