UAS writingQ

AMERICAN LITERATURE: THE EXPRESSIONS AND CRITICS TOWARD THE GREAT DEPRESSION YEARS

EVA NUR MAZIDAH

120710209

English Department Faculty of Humanities Airlanga University Surabaya

Abstract

Every period of history has produced unique story, in this case especially to American Literature. It is apparently what people can find in several American writers’ works. One of the histories is the Great Depression. In the Great Depression, there were economic, social and political changes. These elements, later on, influence the literature world itself. The influences can be seen from the way they represent the story in literature way. Though probably they made it into fiction version, the atmosphere of the fiction was the real tragedy of the years.

This journal article describes what the causes of the Great Depression were, how the Great Depression was, how far the Great Depression results in

literature. I believe that it is needed to be understood the real phenomena happened in the Great Depression. Besides, there is also explanation about literary works for children and literature as the critics and expressions toward the Great Depression.

The result of the discussion is that the history does affect the literature in the US and how literature can be bridge to Americans to know the history of the Great Depression in other forms.

Keywords: the Great Depression, American literature, novel, poetry, expression, critics, fiction, children’s books, creativity

INTRODUCTION

There are great literary works to read as there are many places to travel. Literary works are the travel books of written world because they give reportage, travelogues and impression. Besides, literary works are the time machine which can bring us to old life story. These are that is going to be explained in the journal about American literature toward the Great Depression.

Before 1920, United States gained such prosperous life with rapid economic growth-business. Calvin Coolidge said,” The main business of American people is the business.” It described the condition of government policy at that time. During 1920, Coolidge, vice president of US, did support conservative economic policy. In his years, private business accepted substantial force including loans, beneficial contracts, etc. but in the other side, e.g. farming, his policy with Republican Party gained so many critics because farmers only get small part of prosperity unlike in 1900 to 1920 when they gained their prosperity. At that time, the unexpected demand to agricultural products increased due to World War. This made them to produce more and they also gained much money. Unfortunately, in the late of 1920, war-time demands suddenly stopped and their agriculture product price sharply decreased. There were several factors but the main was the vanishing of abroad demands. They could not sell to other countries because of the restriction and high tax of import charge policy. Slow but sure, when the Great Depression came, they had already weakened. For business, in the early twentieth was not the beginning of their big strike because private business still conquered e.g. auto business.

It can be said that auto business was considered important though agriculture was about in depression. Between 1920 and 1925, the use of automobiles was from 9,000,000 to 20,000,000 and to 27,000,000 by 1930. It indicated that other supporting aspects were also influenced by auto business for instance oil industries, repairing garages, auto dealers, roadside restaurants and so forth. This was so significant that national government would sacrifice their policies and state building to highway working system to give best facilitation to society. In fact, economics in some sectors were in big trouble but people ignored it. This condition drew that they crazily expanded their business and forgot the main ideology core of their capitalism. Simply, they need mass consumption if they produce mass production. Mass consumption indeed needs distribution to make them stand still-this was what they forgot-no consumers.

Many of the riches spent and gambled to speculate stock market boom without regarding to company performance. When the tragedy in October 1929 came, they got bankrupt. They were destroyed. They suffered great loss. Not only USA, but also British, Germany and French fell together as well. It was like mass bankrupt. This is why the tragedy so-called the Great Depression.

In the Great Depression, people suffering from great depression became poor. They lost their belongings. In 1932, three of four in more than 12,000,000 people were unemployed. People lost their homes. To Hoover, what happened in the Great Depression was part of normal business cycle and by international factors and not USA ones. Since America adopted Laisses Faire system, they only depended on the business world itself. To him, prosperity was just around the corner that the best thing for the country to do would be waiting the crisis out (Mabry, 2003). Though there were aids given by government, many of them could not help with themselves. The reconstruction finance was aided much to the riches. This Republican policy was cursed by many people so they created an assumption that Republicans were interested in the rich. Then, in that era they created so-called “Hoovervilles” to signify their critics and great loss.

There were underlying causes of the depression. First, in 1920’s was instable world economic condition. American dollars indeed helped Western Europe to meet deficit and their recovery from 1925 to 1930 in turn brought prosperity to America. Unfortunately, the new international exchange system-Europe’s financial dependency upon USA- showed fatal when American credits decreased. Second, the long depression attacking agriculture brought American farmers to great loss during the decade. Its effects were tangible even influencing other sectors e.g. thousands of country banks. Next, there was clear that at that time they used Laisses Faire system so government did not involve in economic activities. There were not tied by government’s hands in controlling money supply. In conclusion, those factors of maladjustment caused the Great Depression.

Afterward, the stages of depression attacked US; the impacts were all aspects of life. The most astonishing was social impact. At first, the breakable one was the homes. Here, male workers were unemployed. It was stated that three of four employers were unemployed. Besides, women working as servants had to live at home by gardening, canning, making soaps and so on.

Somehow, Americans acted ironically under the hopeless hope. Though, they stopped buying new automobiles, they still could not leave their old ones and gasoline consumption slightly increased from 1929 through 1933. They lessened the purchase of jewelry but they could not give up buying silk, hosiery or radio-it was so-called the Golden Age of Radio. They also loved going to soap operas. They also fell into cigarette addiction that cigarette demands raised steadily during the depression years as if it could release their misery. Indeed, what had happened was ironically with what then happened.

Besides, other social effect emerged by the Great Depression was its on family relationship, marriage and birth rates ten thousands of families were forced to double up in homes and apartment. The tensions between father and sons increased since they also could not find work. There was also decreasing numbers of marriage from 1,233,000 in 1929 to 982,000 in 1932. Afterward, the birth rates also decreased from 21.3 per thousand in 1930 in 18.4 in 1933. Furthermore, as the tensions grew up and heated in the first two years of the depression, the number of divorces per 1,000 increased from 163 in 1929 to 173 in 1931. But after 1932, however, there was a sharp decline in the number of divorces to 163 per 1,000 marriages in 1932.

Furthermore, education was part of victims. In some states, the enrolments in higher institution declined from 8.5 per cent between 1931 and 1934. School and colleges budgets decreased from 18 per cent to 84 per cent. From 1930 to 1934, state and college universities declined 31 per cent in income from state appropriations and 19 per cent in income from endowments owned by private institutions.

Problematic cases we find in discussing the Great Depression of USA in other ways bring great creativity developments in art-literature and music. In this journal, I am discussing about the background of American literature in the twentieth century, the Great Depression and great creativity, the Great Depression and children’s books, and expressionism and critics toward the Great Depression years.

BACKGROUND OF LITERARY WORKS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The twentieth century was the time of increasing instability of society. Intellectual and material influences bewildered and there was an absence of generally accepted view of life. It was also a sign, in the last few decades of nineteenth century, of negation toward Victorianism set in. There was also the overlapping of old and new ideas. The cause was simple that during the international war period, people became aware of war effort having upset the balance of world’s community. Economics crisis broke down general prosperity e.g. social life and financial crisis of 1929 or the Great Depression.

The failure to realize a better world resulted in a spirit of disillusionment, especially among the young generation. They broke away the accepted traditions and beliefs. Other effect was the devaluation of the individual personality. Their faith had gone and was replaced by fear and pessimism. It was shown that there was spiritual climate- one of individual uncertainty, fear, and anxiety - and on the other, one of social commitment.

As we all know that literature world has several kinds of works for instance novel, short story, poetry, drama, etc. In this journal, I am using some of the works to be discussed concerning on the Great Depression. Basically, all those works have also been influenced by the era. Because of limited sources and data I have got, I am going to focus on poetry and novel.

Talking about poetry, at the very first I want to explain about its history. Around 1915, it was brought about a complete change in the ways of poetical technique. I can say that this change was sign of freedom and rejection. They showed the great freedom of form by rejecting all traditional limitation of meter, rhyme, stanza, etc. Sometimes as a result, poetry resembles rhythmical prose. New poetry also conveyed original image not vague diction and clichés of Victorians. It changed from an appeal to emotion to an appeal to the intellect by allusions or satire. It reflected greater social consciousness and played with images and symbols and was cosmopolitanism.

In October 1929, social as well as economic apparently were crashed but the blow did not immediately register on the literature-poetry- at that time. A few years later, it became evident of the effect. The poets turned to a consideration for economic and social problems. Not more than three or for new poets of any interests emerged between 1930 and 1940.

Poetry was influenced by the general paralysis, unable to express the crisis save by negation. Yet, however the condition, they could not remain inarticulate for long. There were also signs that the younger poets deeply affected by the crashed. Then they attended to express doubtfully, bewilderedly, and even desperately.

The style shifted to be compatible with the change tempo, increasing speed and violence. The manner alternated from brusque to bitter. The tone was pungent rather than poignant. The attack was spasmodic, nervously staccato. The “personal attitude” was suspicious. They were separated by the contradictory claims of a plan less do-nothingism. The result was a contradiction of inner confusion and outer form. Many of the poetry of the early thirties are not only record of nightmare but also an attempt to analyze it as well.

There was also the growing of idiomatic poets e.g. William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane and Horace Gregory. Besides, there were Kenneth Fearing, Kenneth Patchen and Delmore Schwartz.

GREAT DEPRESSION, GREAT CREATIVITY

Fischer wrote that the Great Depression was one of the great creative periods of Americans. It mist be very questionable since the Great Depression apparently brought adversity, misery and hardship; it was all about the rage (Fischer, 2008). Common themes found in such works, for instance novel and poetry, are despair, pessimism, poverty, corruption, strife between labor and management, etc. the most impressive was the delivering of new genres-melodrama e.g. soap operas, heroic detective story, and others. Indeed, the literature of the Great Depression reflects a critical period in US history, which had a lasting impact by bringing them social security, roads, post offices and bank regulations.

Other creativity was not only about New Deal programs. Most people should also notice on the striking images taken by photographers working for Farm Security Administration. If people paid more attention to other aspects, they would find several programs, such the Federal Writers and Theatre Projects that were equally critical to the culture of that era. Under such programs, writers and movie directors as well were inspired to create creative works. Thus, literature works toward the Great Depression stimulate and signify the existence of the Great Depression as mimetic of the real world for instance The Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture-co-winner in 1990 of the American Studies Association’s John Hope Franklin Publication Prize- and After the Machine: Visual Arts and the Erasing of Cultural Boundaries.

THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND CHILDREN’S BOOK

When I browsed in the internet, I find an interesting fact that in the Great Depression was also written in children’s books-children version. Even though books are fiction, the actual events, settings, are not fiction. These events are to help understanding of the horrors of the Great Depression. It is believed that reading historical fiction is a perfect way to help students in understanding important periods of American history. These are several good historical books about the Great Depression. One of them is Out of the Dust by Karren Hesse. It tells about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl-one of the worst disasters in the US and the devastation of the Great Depression. Next, it is Ivy Larkin by Mary Stolz. It tells about a student’s struggle in taking a scholarship in a prestigious school, coping with her hopelessness, and worrying about his father’s lost job because of the Great Depression. Other book explaining aspects of the Great Depression is Nowhere to Call Home by Cynthia Defelice. The story is set when Hoovervilles is omnipresent because poverty is rampant. It tells about France’s life-his father loses his factory and gets bankrupt; Frances becomes Frankie Blue and sees horrible poverty of the Great Depression. In addition, Jeanette Ingold with Hitch tells about Moss Trawnley who joins the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression after he loses his job.

The most astonishing were these books given from two to nine grades of schools and they made it by adapting to children version. They use this way to show the talk of hard times of the Great Depression history through in literature. There are some of the Great Depression stories and history in the children’s pictured books for example The Gardener written by Sarah Stewart, What You Know First written by Patricia MacLachlan, Dust for Dinner by Ann Turner, The Dust Bowl written by David Booth, David A. Adler’s The Babe and I. These books were made and atmosphered by the situation and problems and took setting in the Great Depression years.

In addition, they also use novels in their curriculums from four to nine grades. The novels are for instance Arly’s Run by Robert Newton Peck; Mildred Taylor’s Roll of Thunder: Hear My Cry; Nothing to fear by Jack French Koller; Christopher Paul Curtis’ Bud, Not Buddy; Year Down Yonder: the sequel to Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck.

In conclusion, these books are written in the expression of the Great Depression tragedy. These are formulated to be given to school year children in order to make them know the history of their US. Whatever the style they have used in writing these books, the important thing is they are able to make these works as the mimetic of the real life.

EXPRESSIONS AND CRITICS TOWARD THE GREAT DEPRESSION IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

By the 1930s though money was scarce because of the depression, in my previous statement, the need of radio and high interest in theatres showed that people did what they could to relieve their stress. Besides those ways, there was book to relieve it.

There were many writers writing about the Great Depression years whether in novel, poetry and lyrics, short story, drama and so forth. Most of them conveyed various the reactions toward the era because the impacts were not only about economic condition and political condition but also social life as well.

NOVEL

American fictional writing, during the years of the Great Depression, foreshadowed the violent crosscurrent of thought and challenges to democracy that confused the American mind (Link, 1963). It was F. Scott Fitzgerald who conveyed his poignant writing, for instance Tender is the Night, 1934. Besides that, Ernest Hemingway wrote by violating his own literary standards and renouncing human values in his series of books- Death in the Afternoon, 1932, and Winner Takes Nothing, 1933.

The mass of human suffering during the Great Depression years caused despair while the hope of salvation either through reform of capitalism or destruction bore a characteristic analysis of the American system and political climate. The critics-one of them was the bitterest critic of American capitalism among fictional writers- were from John Dos Passos. He used various literary techniques to reconstruct the overview of American life from 1900 to 1929 e.g. The Forty-Second Parrarel, Nineteen-Nineteen, and The Big Money. In other trilogy, he continued the story trough the depression and the New Deal e.g. Adventures of A Young Man, Number One, and the Grand Design.

Other bitterest critics of the depression decade were from proletarian writers-Marxist. Communist and fellow-travelers who made use of novels as tools of propaganda to provoke the conversion of the middle classes to revolutionary ideals. They exaggerated the sins of capitalism and glorified the “little people” and gave the coming triumph sign the disinherited. They-“deviants” e.g. Dos Passos, Farrell, Steinbeck, and the Negro naturalist writer, Richard Wright- used proletarian themes but nor give up their artistic integrity to the commissaries of Union Square. They all wrote in the name of economic and social criticism not for the sake of literary prowess.

Talking about novel, one of novel concerning to the Great Depression was John Steinbeck’s works. The 1930’s were a decade of a great change economically, socially and politically. From this condition, John Steinbeck rose and wrote The Grapes of Wrath which glorified a simple, rural life, and Of Mice and Men which reflect what went on the Great Depression years economically, socially and politically.

Besides those, there are others works. Jack Conroy’s The Disinherited, 1933, a chronicle of the average industrial workers’ life in the depression era, conveys the disillusionment and cynism. A light in August, 1932, and Absalom! Absalom!, 1936, by William Faulkner also emerged as important American literatures. There are Dashiell Hammet with Red Harvest, Josephine Johnson with Now n November, John Steinbeck’s In Dubious Battle, Dalton Trumbo with Johnny Got His Gun, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Huston, To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee, and The Hungry Years by T. H. Watkins.

POETRY

There are also poetries for instance from Edwin Arlington Robinson- the Dean of American poetry- who also wrote about his feeling toward the Great Depression tragedy. His The House on The Hill reflects people condition in facing loss because of the country situation.

They are all gone away,

The house is shut and still,

There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray

The winds blow bleak and shrill:

They are all gone away.

Nor is there one today

To speak them good or ill:

There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray

Around the sunken sill?

They are all gone away.

And our poor fancy-play

For them is wasted skill:

There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay

In the House on the Hill

They are all gone away,

There is nothing more to say.

There is a poetry coming from Donald Justice by the title Pantoum Of The Great Depression that tells about the misery experienced by people in the Great Depression.

It was the ordinary pities and fears consumed us.

We gathered on porches; the moon rose; we were poor.

What audience would ever know our story?

Beyond our windows shone the actual world.

We gathered on porches; the moon rose; we were poor.

And time went by, drawn by slow horses.

Somewhere beyond our windows shone the actual world.

The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.

And time went by, drawn by slow horses.

We did not ourselves know what the end was.

The Great Depression had entered our souls like fog.

We had our flaws, perhaps a few private virtues.

Others are Merrill Moore’s The Noise That Times Make and This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie, etc. Most of the poetries of the era talk about their expressions and critics toward the Great Depression.

Other form of poetry is lyrics. In 1930’s songs, it was found some lyrics that tell about the Great Depression story for example Jay Gorney and E. Y. Harburg’s Brother Can You Spare A dime?, B. Bragg’s I Dreamed I Saw Phill Ochs Last Night and Woody Guthrie’s Ain’t Gonna Be Treated This Way.

Brother Can You Spare A Dime

Jay Gorney/E.Y.Harburg

once I built a railroad, made it run
made it race against time
once I built a railroad, now it's done
brother can you spare a dime?
once I built a tower to the sun
brick and rivet and lime
once I built a tower, now it's done
brother can you spare a dime?

once in khaki suits
gee, we looked swell
full of that yankee Doodle De Dum
half a million boots went slogging through hell
I was the kid with the drum
say don't you remember, they called me Al
It was Al all the time
say don't you remember, I'm your pal!
Buddy can you spare a dime?

once I built a railroad, made it run
made it race against time
once I built a railroad, now it's done
brother can you spare a dime?
once I built a tower to the sun
brick and rivet and lime
once I built a tower, now it's done
brother can you spare a dime?

We Ain't Got No Money, Honey, But We Got Rain

by Charles Bukowski

call it the greenhouse effect or whatever
but it just doesn't rain like it used to.
I particularly remember the rains of the
depression era.
there wasn't any money but there was
plenty of rain.
it wouldn't rain for just a night or
a day,
it would RAIN for 7 days and 7
nights
and in Los Angeles the storm drains
weren't built to carry off taht much
water
and the rain came down THICK and
MEAN and
STEADY
and you HEARD it banging against
the roofs and into the ground
waterfalls of it came down
from roofs
and there was HAIL
big ROCKS OF ICE
bombing
exploding smashing into things
and the rain
just wouldn't
STOP
and all the roofs leaked-
dishpans,
cooking pots
were placed all about;
they dripped loudly
and had to be emptied
again and
again.
the rain came up over the street curbings,
across the lawns, climbed up the steps and
entered the houses.
there were mops and bathroom towels,
and the rain often came up through the
toilets:bubbling, brown, crazy,whirling,
and all the old cars stood in the streets,
cars that had problems starting on a
sunny day,
and the jobless men stood
looking out the windows
at the old machines dying
like living things out there.
the jobless men,
failures in a failing time
were imprisoned in their houses with their
wives and children
and their
pets.

These poetry lyrics can be said as the reaction toward Government’s state building. Before the Great Depression came, they built highways and railroad to support the structure of the state because at that time there was high demand of auto products. They only thought of their own interest while at the same time, economic in agriculture had been destroyed. And the poem from Bukowski tells about the condition when people are lack of money. At that time, people faced the great deficit.

CONCLUSION

From the explanation above, I can conclude that the bitterness of the Great Depression is not merely gone in a wink. Furthermore the bitterness also produces the great creativity in many aspects especially in literary works. Literary works themselves serve not only in heavy ways but also in children’s books and they become the source of studying the history. These things are unique because it can help the understanding and refreshing. In conclusion, whoever the writers either from the 1930s writers or not, their contributions in literary world are worth it to be appreciated because it is not only about writing per se.

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