America Through Hardship Essay

America through Hardship Much of America’s history is filled with challenges created by a foreign enemy, such as the Central Powers during World War I, or a domestic adversary, which could be anyone from the U.S. government to a specific group of people, like racist white Southerners. When faced with difficult times, Americans respond in a variety of ways but one of the main three responses is with defaming the group or person who is causing them fear, frustration, or pain. Another usual way Americans respond is with protesting or having a rebellious attitude when faced with frustrating decisions made by the U.S. government. And the last way Americans might respond is with violence. Not only over the course of the 20th century did Americans respond to global or local problems in these ways, but also from the beginning of the United States all the way up to the present day do they still remain accurate. First, Americans might deal with a problem by defaming the person or persons who caused or seemed to them to have caused their hardship. An example of this is can be found from WWII propaganda posters and cartoons depicting …show more content…
The first example of this is from the Great Depression when the Bonus Expeditionary Army assembled and camped in front of the U.S. capitol in Washington, D.C. asking for an early repayment for their services in WWI under the World War Adjusted Compensation Act. Faced with the harsh reality during the Great Depression, these WWI veterans desperately needed their money and resorted to a protest. A second example is during the Vietnam War when the counterculture of the 1960s began. Many Americans were responding to the war effort with anti-war attitudes and even musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Bob Dylan, were writing music portraying an anti-war attitude as