1. Social Impact of the Depression
“Our people are good people; our people are kind people. Pray God some day kind people won't all be poor.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

2. U.S. Society during depression
Birth rate and divorces went down during the Depression.
couldn’t afford either.
More strict child labor laws
protect jobs for adults supporting families.
High School enrollment increased
kids couldn’t get jobs as easily.

3. Minorities during the depression
Jobs for women more common than factory work
Gender roles reverse in the home
Civil Rights struggled during the Depression.
Lynching became more popular in the South during the Depression.

4. Novels During the Great Depression
Many authors focused on realistic subjects.
John Steinbeck:
Grapes of Wrath: Oklahoma farmers in the Dust Bowl during the depression.
Of Mice and Men: two migrant farmhands trying to find work during the depression, lost American dream.
“and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.”
― John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

5. Margaret Mitchell: wrote Gone with the Wind.
rebuilding life in the South after the Civil War.
Scarlet O’Hara symbol of Americans during the depression.

6. Entertainment
Talkies: the first full length films with sound became popular during the depression.
Idolized celebrities to cope with real life
Mae West, Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, Ginger Rogers, and Fred Astaire
fairy tales & song and dance routines popular
people want escape from reality.
The first soap operas over the radio

7. Mae West

8. Clark Gable – Gone with the Wind (1939)

9. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers

10. Snow white and the seven dwarfs
The first full length animated movie by Disney.

11. Crime of the Depression
Bank robbers became famous
Most Americans blamed banks after Black Tuesday
18 month crime spree from Texas to Michigan
John Dillinger, “Baby Face Nelson”, Bonnie and Clyde
Increased importance of FBI (interstate jurisdiction)