GREAT DEPRESSION LITERATURE PHOTOGRAPHY STEINBECK LANGE JOHN STEINBECK

GREAT DEPRESSION LITERATURE & PHOTOGRAPHY STEINBECK & LANGE

JOHN STEINBECK • 1902 -1968 • Born in California’s Salinas Valley • Graduated from high school; went to Stanford but didn’t graduate • The Protest Novel – Many novelists of the time were moved by a sense of injustice brought on by The Great Depression • First major success: Of Mice and Men in 1937 • Grapes of Wrath (1939) – won the Pulitzer Prize • East of Eden (1952)

“THE HARVEST GYPSIES” • Series of 5 articles written by John Steinbeck in 1936 and published in the San Francisco News • Major themes: • Labor and resistance • Health • Dignity

OF MICE AND MEN • Short novella written in 1937 • Takes place in the Salinas Valley, where Steinbeck grew up • Social commentary on Steinbeck’s view of the American Dream • Even though this is written nearly 10 years after Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby and so much in America has changed (Great Depression), this idea of the American Dream is still an appealing notion to Americans

DOROTHEA LANGE • Photographer in California during this time period • Most famous photograph: The Migrant Mother • Her photographs really tell the story of migrant farmers and their struggles

DOROTHEA LANGE ASSIGNMENT • Find a photograph by Dorothea Lange taken between 1934 and 1939 • You cannot choose The Migrant Mother • Choose a trait: desperate, fearful, or ashamed • Place the paragraph on an 8 x 11 sheet of construction paper (see me) next to the photograph you chose • Analyze the photograph, finding details that suggest your chosen trait; demonstrate that the migrant farmers were exhibiting that trait by using proof from “The Harvest Gypsies” • Use at least one quotation from “The Harvest Gypsies” • Cite it as (Steinbeck n. pag. ) • Due: Friday 10/21/16

FEARFUL In “The Harvest Gypsies” by John Steinbeck, the migrant farmers feel fearful. Steinbeck illustrates this by describing their facial expressions, saying that these expressions are of “absolute terror of the starvation that crowds in against the borders of camp” (Steinbeck n. pag. ). Dorothea Lange also captured this fear in many of her photographs. In regards to this photo, the viewer can see the mother sick with fear of starvation. She has at least three children who rely on her to be fed. The canvas background implies they are in the camps or on their way to one. Tousled hair and dirty clothes suggest lack of hygiene and thus, funds for nutrition.