Dust Bowl

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…

Unemployment rates skyrocketed as citizens were dragged into debt, and people were made to migrate from their homes as storms of the Dust Bowl ruined agricultural opportunities. The population could be found in a world of barren earth and broken dreams, an era many believed to be “the final destruction of the old Jeffersonian idea of agrarian harmony with nature” (“Dust…

Red Dirt: Growing Up Okie is a bittersweet autobiography about growing up poor in Oklahoma during the depths of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. It unveils the bleak realities of the social hierarchy and the struggles of poor white Americans who choose to believe in the American Dream through the story of one family. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz shares her experience growing up as an Okie, and in doing so, gives a voice to the lower class, the “white trash” who were victimized by a system that…

Wrath begins with a depiction of Dust Bowl, the occasion which causes all that happens in the rest of the book. Steinbeck shows a visual of the land post dust bowl, “in the morning the dust hung like fog, and the sun was as red as ripe new blood” (3). Such vivid imagery of the land through the use of color and personification. The Oklahoma farmers will feel that circumstances seem hopeless, farming families look in bewildered disbelief at the damage the dust bowl has done to their fields. There…

The Worst Hard Time is a chronological book that follows the history of the homesteaders particularly in the dust bowl region of the United States. Centered mainly in the 1920’s and 1930’s, Timothy Egan shares various accounts of people who lived in the area during theses times. He shares with us their stories of hardship in dust storms, crop failures, deaths and political strife. Egan begins by giving historical information which lead up to this period such as the Homestead Act back in 1862. He…

town waving goodbye to us, the small town of newport texas. 4Where before the raging dust bowl swept so violently across the arid land, children ran alongside their mothers, men worked in the street. 5 The church bell ringing with people flocking in like sheep to a shepard. 6Once lively and filled with people now deserted and caked with dust you can hear the low mournful moan of the wind and the stinging of the dust in your eyes. 6 Walking past the the window where so many times white hooded…

In the article “Mass Exodus From the Plains”, 2.5 million people left the Plains and migrated to the west coast because of the relentless dust storms and drought. If that didn’t drive the remaining people away to California, then certainly the bank foreclosures did. Out of the 2.5 million who had left the Plains, 200,000 of them had moved to California. Unfortunately, their movement wasn’t accepted in California- the police chief of California went so far as to call forth 125 policemen to turn…

“The Grapes of Wrath” The film starts off with a man by the name of Tom Joad walking down a dirt road in Oklahoma. Joad encounters a man driving a truck and he asks for a lift. The man takes him as far as he can and on the way Joad explains that he was a convict for homicide. It is later learned that he killed a man with a shovel, which is explained to the former priest that baptized Tom. Tom explains that he is heading back to reunite with his family after being put on parole 4 years into his…

A novel written by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath illustrate the families that migrated to California during the Dust Bowl in order to find jobs, then result in uniting together to help each other cope and endure with difficult circumstances that they were faced. This thesis clearly support chapter 17 as Steinbeck elaborate how little groups spring up among the migrant agriculturists. Around evening time they group together looking for sanctuary, food, and water. Twenty families get to be…

windows. Wildlife is scrambling to run away and the disaster covers the house in dirt. The daughter says she can taste and feel the dirt in her mouth and teeth despite the wet towel over her face while awaiting the storm to end. This disaster is called a Dust Storm, In the 1930’s many midwestern states had hundreds of these storms which were the worst in the history of America. They destroyed land, economy and lives. These problems are what caused families to migrate west to seek refuge from the…