Hopeless and Homeless: The Despair of the Great Depression
When a teacher teaches about the Great Depression or when an elderly relative mentions an experience he had during it, the listener will politely lend an ear and then move on with his life five or so minutes later. “That was a long time ago”, they think or they feel sorry and sad for the time being but usually never pause to reflect what actually happened. Have you ever had something going so unbelievably good for a while and then, out of the blue, it turns terrible so quickly that you can’t believe it was ever better? Like when you buy a dozen chocolate cupcakes and before you eat o ne, the frosting falls off and the cupcake actually turns out to be a pasty vanilla flavor. The roaring twenties was the time to be alive, to have fun and be exciting until that fateful day, October 29th 1929, when the stock market unexpectedly crashed. Soon afterward, the nation went into debt and everyone lost everything. Today, we can get a feel for what it was like by studying some unique yet tragic photos taken during this time. There are many photos that marvelously capture the essence of the Depression but the image, “Children of rehabilitation clinic in Arkansas” is particularly riveting. It seems most people forget that children were hit just as hard, possibly even worse, with the then new state of the country. The two boys in the photo are dirty, worn and with no shoes. Their parents probably lost their job and their home considering they were staying at a clinic. Because of the lack of money, the family could not afford anything to provide for the boys so they remained homeless. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the president of the United States during the Great Depression and he was determined to not sit idly by and watch his country succumb to suffering. He created many economic programs that would aide America in crisis. These programs were under, The New Deal program. The programs were carefully created to meet a certain need of
