American Studies Blog 10

My image portrays a demonstration by a group of unemployed men in the 1930s. From the picture you can see that there is a wide range of jobless men who can work various trades. This includes: Firemen, painters, labourers and cooks, which implicates that the great depression of the 1930’s did affect everyone. Most people were affected during this crisis, with many people becoming unemployed, homeless and some on the urge of starvation, especially those in less urban places. Focusing on the urban areas of the 1930s, the cities became a lot more populated with the idea that people living in more rural areas would be able to seek more employability by moving. This made the population denser and therefore there was a lot more competition. John Steinbeck, wrote in an 1936 article that “thousands… [were] destitute and hungry and homeless, ready to accept any pay so that they may eat and feed their children.” People were completely desperate.

My next image portrays the more recent recession of that in 2008.  It is a more comical picture in comparison to my first. It portrays the idea that some people did benefit from this Great Recession, however it is easy to see the contrast between those who were successful and those who were not. The Great Recession saw a huge economic decline and is noted to be the worst since the Great Depression. In 2008 and 2009, the U.S. labour market lost 8.4 million jobs, (6.1% of all pay roll employment).

Interestingly, when looking at these two images, it shows people being put into vulnerable positions due to a money shortage. America is known as the land of opportunity, where anyone with a dream can be seen to thrive. However, realistically, we know that this isn’t always the case. There are a lot of aspects of which are needed in order to achieve. To me, these images show America as weak, and contradict this idea of the “America Dream”. Despite these images nearly being eighty years apart, it indicates that there are still flaws in America.