Diamond dust

identifying one of the big themes we saw with our prior knowledge of the Dust Bowl as migration, and how the movement of people and their identities played a role in how events and responses unfolded in the advent of a natural catastrophe. From there, we discovered that we were both passionate about teaching on marginalized histories, and after hearing the statistic that 95% of Americans living in the Great Plains during the Dust Bowl were white, we knew we wanted to focus on the non-white 5%.…

Depression, there was an increased sense of nationalism throughout the United States, and the Olympic athletes gave hope to the struggling people of America. The book takes place at the start of the Great Depression. The 1930s was also the time of the Dust Bowl, which gave this time period the name “Dirty Thirties”. “The whole country seemed to have withered and browned under the searing sun (Brown, Daniel pg. 120).” People were starving and began moving east in search of better lives. “There…

When the Civil War was over Americans went west. Whites, Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Mormons moved out west for cheap land and religious freedom. The Americans formed a new America. These areas that were settled were like colonies. They had their own ideas, laws and currency. Before the Civil War the whites made their homes in the Great Plains (also known as the Great American Desert). The Great Plains were usually very hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter. This weather made it hard…

The Great Depression and a series of dust storms had devastated their farmlands and their livelihoods. It is evident the displaced are leaving not only because of unjust governments, but also to gain a sense reclamation. Whether for government or economic motivations, the parallels are striking…

1890’s, they plowed under the grass (“ Dust Bowl, 1934-1938"). Grass keeps soil from drying out, and it keeps the soil from blowing away (“ Dust Bowl, 1934-1938"). The number of acres of wheat in the Great plains tripled in the 1920’s and the total cultivated land in the US was at it’s highest in the 1930’s, reaching 530 million acres (“ Dust…

for the top spot on the list of infamous environmental calamities. One listed candidate is the catastrophic Dust Bowl of the 1930s, as described in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The Dust Bowl choked the lands, animals, and people of the American plains, dislocating tens of thousands of people and…

Throughout the novel written by John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, social injustice is illuminated. The human person is programmed at birth with certain necessities. The material programmed into the bodies of humans consist of rights and responsibilities. Catholic teachings teach us to be kind to others even when it is nearly impossible. The quote “treat others as you want to be treated” is a core value in the Catholic religion. Steinbeck revolves his whole book on these main points. When…

unemployment rates, and the Dust Bowl are what brought on the hardships of numerous Americans.…

Colorado, and New Mexico. Since, the soil in this region lacked a strong root system it became prone to dust storms. Unfortunately, this event caused many Sharecroppers to lose their jobs and most importantly their homes. John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath was awarded the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for it’s realistic representation of a migrate family being directly affected by the Dust Bowl. In the year 1940, John Ford was celebrated for his interpretation of Steinbeck’s…

Form, structure, and plot: The Grapes of Wrath story structure split into two parts; One part is focused on a migrating family called the Joads and the other part was focused on a broader view of what was happening during that time period. The impact of structure is allowing the reader to have a better understanding of the hardships that the main characters went through. The even chapters in this book are from a view on the Joad family. This quote is within chapter 4: "Oh, I heard. Ma sent me a…