Dust Bowl Thesis

During the 1930’s, the American people were suffering a horrible depression, also during this time something equally awful, maybe worse, was occurring in the southern plains. It’s name was the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a number of dust storms that occurred in the southern plains (grasslands). The land during this time was very dry, therefore the wind easily picked up dirt and topsoil. The dust accumulated so quickly, it infested households, churches, and any building, car, or human in its way. There were also a great number of deaths during the Dust Bowl. Death from these storms were usually caused by the dirt getting inside a person’s lung and suffocating them. The Dust Bowl caused many farmers to make a hard migration, people’s daily lives …show more content…
The daily lives of the people living in the southern plains changed drastically as a result of the Dust Bowl. Just plain being alive was difficult. They could not eat, sleep, or breath with normalcy, “when those dust storms blew and you were in them it would just coat the inside of your nose literally. And sometimes your mouth would just get cotton dry because, well, you spit out dirt sometimes” (Yancey 25). This dust suffocated people, and filled them up with dirt. Because of these storms there was dust not only outside, but on the inside as well. Both falling asleep and waking up was hard, just as stated in this passage, “One night when I was sleeping in a little room…..And the ceiling started falling with dust so heavy on it” (Yancey 25). This poor little girl cannot sleep at night. This is because she knows that ceiling has so much dust it could fall on her and maybe hurt her any minute. Besides living being difficult, the average daily routine became a burden as well. It became oppressive to go anywhere, or do anything. In this passage a man describes that difficulty, “The blowing dirt made daily routines burdensome and depressing. Whether one was trying to keep house, run a small business, go to school, or go to church, one had to fight the weather” (Yancey 25). Fighting rain, or sleet is not easy. In fact many people in our generation complain about having to drive in the rain or snow. What our generation …show more content…
Items such as cooking or cleaning became more and more demanding. They had to be done so many times, mothers and maids were often exhausted, “I’m writing this lying on the living room floor, dripping sweat and watching the dirt drift in the windows and across the floor. I’ve dusted the whole house twice today and won’t do it again” (Yancey 25). Every storm that came, it was a necessity to clean the house of dirt. The problem was the dirt came so fast with so much, it was extremely hard to keep a home clean. Other than keeping the homes clean, food was also a subject of worry. It was hard to cook food because women had to create innovative ways to keep the food from dust, just as shown in this passage, “Women learned to mix bread dough in a side drawer with a towel over their hands and arms to keep it free from grit” (Yancey 27). Even cooking was hard! They had to learn how to improvise, and the dust still got in the way! The dust caused everyday to be oppressive and repeated. The same thing was done everyday, just some days worse than others. The cooking could only be after certain other household chores were completed, “Mama couldn 't make bread until I carried water to wash the bread mixer. I couldn 't churn until the churn was washed and scalded. We just couldn 't do anything until something was washed first. Every room had to have dirt almost shoveled out of it before we could wash