To Watch The Faces Of The Poor Analysis

“Identity” can be seen as a person’s perception of themselves, however, it is becoming more prominent to define “identity” in a social way or how people express themselves based on the demand for acceptance by others. Chris Cunningham, in “To Watch the Faces of the Poor”: Life Magazine and the Mythology of Rural Poverty in the Great Depression”, details the desire for middle-class citizens to be viewed as or compared to “the pioneer” due to the positive reputation given by the media (200). Cunningham describes the effects of labeling through the changing attitudes of citizens towards each other once they were segregated into socio-cultural groups (200). Tom Delph-Janiurek takes an innovative look at the masculine-feminine discrepancies in “Sounding …show more content…
Readers during the Great Depression were easily influenced by Life Magazine, which had the effortless impact to discriminate these stereotypes as the “worthy poor”(Cunningham 200) and “unworthy poor” (Cunningham 200). Poverty, which can be defined as the economic hardship, regardless of race or class, endured by those who are deprived of basic needs, was a way for people to identify themselves in terms of their ideal standings or rank (Cunningham 203). Life Magazine therefore encouraged middle-class readers to define their ‘identity’ as the wealth and social status that is decided by their physiological attributes (Cunningham 204). More specifically, to strive to be categorized as “New Pioneer[s]” (Cunningham 200) that “are not inherently inferior, but are victims of nature and geography” (Cunningham 200) and degrade the rankings of socio-economic status or ‘identities’ given by Life Magazine belonging to those considered as “white trash” (Cunningham 200), “blacks” (Cunningham 204), and “Negroes” (Cunningham 206) all of which, “whose destiny is inherent in their inbred genes or in their profligate ways” (Cunningham 201). Life Magazine not only exemplifies the fact that one’s identity is attained by the genes of nature but also establishes ‘identities’ that are based on socio-economic status that allow readers to desire to become accepted and belonging to a group (Cunningham 207). However, these ‘identities’ as seen by Life Magazine ranks “Negroes” (Cunningham 206) as the lowest, do not represent socio-economic status effectively (Cunningham 206). Additionally, being “poor white” (Cunningham 206) is ranked higher than someone seen as a “Negro” (Cunningham 206) although the economic difference