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During the Great Depression, Americans living in the West developed characteristics such as self-sufficiency, resourcefulness, tenacity, and occasionally optimism, qualities that helped them survive through this period of hardship. Despite the lack of aid and attention from the government and the influential upper classes of society, lower-class Americans survived the Great Depression through various means, often unconventional and illegal.
However, the collective poverty and struggle had a positive aspect, in that those living in the West looked after each other through the difficult times. A major cause of the development of specific characteristics in struggling Westerners was the lack of aid from those in power. Though the Roosevelt administration attempted to help citizens in the West through Works Progress Administration jobs, the federal government and the upper classes largely overlooked the West.
Chapter 15 of The Grapes of Wrath introduces a class of “shitheels,” upper class Americans traveling through the West who, surrounded by sights of poverty, can only view the West as dirty and uncivilized. In The Philanthropist, the portrayal of a rich man carelessly eating five-cent apples while a poor apple-seller looks on represents the unconcern that the rich felt towards those affected by the Great Depression. The rich man does not understand the underlying cause of unemployment and simply purchases apples to eat, showing how the upper classes continued to survive on the struggling working-class.
However, …when I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year, who played me for a fool???then there will be no speaker in all the world say the name: “The People,” with any fleck of a sneer in his voice or any far-off smile of derision. (Sandburg 71). This poem serves as a reminder that the common people held the power to change the world, and that although the masses “forget” the injustices inflicted upon them and continue to be taken advantage of by authorities, the consequences of the people remembering would result in new respect for the common man.
The lack of aid for struggling workers led to unconventional methods of survival; from buying eggs on credit to resell elsewhere to bootlegging alcohol, Westerners were forced to become resourceful when times were difficult. Bootlegging was especially widespread; “‘there were so many bootleggers,’ Lloyd French recalls, ‘that they had to wear badges to tell each other apart. ‘” (Parfit 51). The absence of grass for cattle to graze on prompted ranchers to burn spines off cactus plants, to be used in lieu of pastures to feed cattle.
Those who were without employment occasionally sold five-cent apples for profit, evidenced in The Philanthropist, resulting in apple-sellers becoming a symbol of widespread poverty. The versatility of the laborers, both those who remained in the West and those who migrated, during this time period contributed towards their survival through the Depression. Almost immediately after Black Friday the Last Man’s Club was formed, open to those who pledged to be the last to leave the Texas Panhandle.
Although many Westerners left for California, Texas, or Arkansas, their belongings packed onto trucks, those who stayed survived primarily through grim determination. Even so, “many [of those who stayed] admit that good fortune may have helped as much as fortitude” (52). The remaining Westerners clung to hope, as “Lawrence Powers’ father insisted every year on planting a crop, whether there was much hope for rain or not” (52) and they occasionally saw the humor in their situations; one joke was that when “one man was hit on the head by a raindrop, he was so overcome that two buckets of sand had to be thrown in his face to revive him” (52).
Many Westerners often looked out for each other, such as Mae in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, who sells bread and gives away expensive candy to a poor migrant worker. In return, truck drivers at Mae’s hamburger stand leave her a larger tip. However, one is reminded of the realistic circumstances of those living in the Great Depression when Al, Mae’s coworker, tallies the number of plays on their slot machines and wins the jackpot after the truck drivers leave.
The lack of external support from the government and upper classes led to the development of certain traits in Westerners, such as determination, optimism, and resourcefulness, for survival during the Great Depression. As a result, these Americans banded together to endure the hardships of the Depression, looking after the less fortunate, using humor to lighten their dismal situations, and constantly harboring hope for a better future. As a result of the financial difficulties of this era, Americans living in the West grew stronger due to the human desire to survive