ChristineP's blog

            California.  A place of sunshine and easy living, except when it comes to tourists.  Being from Los Angeles, I find it hilarious when people plan on traveling west and wondering whether or not they “need a car” for their vacation.  If they plan on going to more than once location, the answer is yes.  I, being from Los Angeles, was drawn to the Hollywood/LA based guides.  Because California is “among the regions most richly endowed by nature” (28), the accessibility to all kinds of outdoor recreations was easily accessible.  What was not, however, was the transportation to and from each of these places.
            When migration in America was first coming about and immigrants were starting to head west, transportation was expected to be long and tedious.  As towns and cities began to develop, so did technology. With the increased knowledge of technology came easier means of transportation.  It seems odd that it could take so long (with traffic) to get from point A to point B in California, but before the automobile, this was considered the norm.  It all leads back to “the restlessness of the men who made the westward trek [persisting] in the unquenchable wanderlust with which their descendants, thronging the highways with never-ending streams of traffic bound for seashore, deserts, forests, and mountains” (7).   
            I couldn’t help but notice the suggestions the tour guide gives of locations range from Hollywood, to Santa Monica, to Pasadena and Long Beach.  Without some means of transportation, tourists would not be able to see all of these places.  One of the main reasons travelers tend to think they will be able to walk everywhere in Los Angeles is because it is known as one of America’s big cities, and most other large cities are suited for pedestrians.  Los Angeles is a city but also a county.  Even among NYU students, many will say they are from LA, but in reality, they are from at least 30 minutes out of the city.  It is a common misconception and I feel these WPA guides only cause more confusion.  Of course there are many options of where to travel in Los Angeles, almost as many possibly as New York City.  When it comes down to it the vast area of land they cover in California versus Manhattan is significantly different.      
            California has both the exceptional resources and climate for many outdoor activities, but traveling from one to another is where the going gets tough.  That is modern day LA, but when looking into California history, the roads journey to California was heard to be well worth it…until people got there only to realize it was lacking everything they believed it to have.

            The Grapes of Wrath may not be “one of the greatest novels in the last ten years” (Cowley) but as Malcolm Cowley expresses in ‘American Tragedy’, it is “among the best of the ‘great angry books’.”  He talks about how the Joads’ journey to California starts with a goal and plan in mind, only to become uprooted by the unfortunate series of events they encounter.  Cowley strongly feels that the second half of Steinbeck’s story is lacking something necessary; once the Joad family arrives in California, after being verbally degraded by many along the way for being from Oklahoma, they all join up with plans of protest.  Cowley feels that at this point “the author now has a thesis—that the migrants will unite and overthrow their oppressors—and he wants to argue, as if he weren’t quite sure of it himself.”
            While Cowley has some issues with the way Steinbeck presents the second half of the novel, he still recognizes the great amount of sympathy reflected in his tone.  Steinbeck makes the problems of people on the road during this time quite apparent.  That is not what Cowley has a problem with.  The problem is in the drastic change between the first and second half of the novel.  Starting off with the story heading one direction, the arrival in California creates an immediate turn around.  Is this the reason Cowley can not consider it one of the best?  Possibly, but that may not have necessarily been Steinbeck's intention.  What we are able to observe through reading this novel is the unfortunate conditions many people found themselves in.  Steinbeck brought up an issue that was common during this time and by dramatizing the story of one particular family, he allowed the reader to reflect on, and think about, the wide range of incidents that were common on this westward bound journey. Death. Starvation. Verbal abuse.
            The “lack of direction” (Cowley) Steinbeck’s writing begins to reveal reflects the lack of direction the characters possessed.  This could have been intentional as a way of showing how sporadic and constantly changing their day-to-day lives had become, and reflecting this instability through his writing.  While this novel may not strike many people as one of “the greatest”, it was certainly able to achieve its primary goal of revealing the unfortunate circumstances and results of the U.S. lifestyle during the Great Depression.  This novel raises feelings within the reader and, hopefully, will impact them enough to make them want change.  And so, it is what it is.    

           It is ironic to think that while so many people were lacking jobs, tourism became a popular concept.  Many people today cannot travel unless they have the money to do so. Mobility and leisure were on the rise during this time, and “the 1930s were as much the era of the automobile, the streamlines train, the Greyhound bus, and the motor courts as they were the decade of the hobo, the breadline, and the migrant labor camp” (Berkowitz 186).  Paid vacations were a new concept, but to receive a paid vacation, the person needed to be employed.  With unemployment numbers on the rise, only few select people were at an advantage with this new emergence.    
            Wage earners during this time were not fond of time off because they would not be receiving any pay.  This is true of many people working on hourly wages today.  Days off=no money.  With much debate and many changing company policies, paid vacations ended up not always necessarily referring to travel and luxury.  This time was often spent looking for other jobs, cleaning up around the house, or spending time with family.  Many people today automatically assume that vacation means relaxation, travel, and fun, but for many people with the current recession, paid vacations are not used in this way at all.   
            Vacations during the depression were also advertised as a way to “ensure one’s productivity upon the return to work” (Berkowitz 199).  These mini break periods were thought to be just what somebody needed to solve any issues they may be undergoing such as depression, lack of efficiency, physical fatigue, etc.  For a short period of time, congressman and officials thought “recreational travel could make Americans into better citizens” (Berkowitz 204).  Just before WWII, tourism had become one of America’s biggest industries. It took time to get to the point where it was affordable to all to take a break from work, but the opportunity was available. 
            I found it interesting when thinking about modern day paid vacations.  The article mentioned that some people needed to have a consistent amount of time in which they worked to receive pay, and this is still common today.  I worked at Warner Brothers Studios over the summer and many of my fellow employees, who had been there for more than a year, were still unable to receive paid sick days because, within the year, they missed ONLY 3 consecutive days.  This restarted the date from which their year was counted.  Many businesses today seem to still have strict policies regarding vacation and sick days, but the development of vacation days has clearly progressed overtime; they are now thought by many to be “essential to their personal pursuit of happiness as well as to the proper functioning of the American economy and workplace” (Berkowitz 207).  

Think of everything bad that could happen to a person and that is the story of Pitkin in A Cool Million.  Pitkin’s refusal to conform gets him into trouble, and West writes a detailed account of this in a highly satirical tone.  Lemuel Pitkin, in his mind, is going to make money on his own so that his mother will not have to sacrifice her shelter.  Unfortunately, he is constantly encountering major roadblocks along the way.  Pitkin has set out to acquire his “cool million” and ends up finding himself in circumstances that could easily be considered worse than poverty, death.  By refusing to accept the ideals of the “American Way”, Pitkin ends up in many troubling situations with the government, but he never gives up hope.  He is determined to succeed, and even when he comes across negative circumstances, losing his limbs and pride, his enthusiasm and ignorance cause him to avoid the reality of his hopeless situation.
 
The satire in West’s writing allows the reader to laugh periodically at the style in which he describes each situation. However, this also digresses the reader’s attention from the main, important issue, the widespread poverty throughout America.   West mocks the Horatio Alger myth that states that if somebody wants to make it in America, they can and will.  West’s satire definitely sparks a laugh or two within his readers.  Yes, the more people who laugh, the more fans he will have, but at the same time, this satirical approach diminishes the significant and seriousness of the situation that Pitkin is in.
 
Many modern day issues are mocked in similar ways via internet, television, and print.  When serious issues are relayed in a manner that delivers them as comedic, the seriousness of these national dilemmas is given an entirely new viewpoint.  It can be good to laugh about it every once in a while in order to not let it drag someone down entirely, but West’s satire and Pitkin’s hope do not end, creating a mixed ongoing spiral that eventually ends in the death of an ambitious character.  In A Cool Million Pitkin has a goal in mind, but instead of achieving it, he ends up losing his house, teeth, thumb, eye, leg, and life.  Every bend in the road he encounters he justifies in some other way.  He is going after “the American Dream” but can’t seem to get there.  This is part of the comedic aspect of the piece.  Should this be something that is seen only in a satirical way? Many television shows today portray our current economic crisis through jokes and comedic skits, but what we are actually experiencing is no laughing matter.

In Crossing America, we are introduced to a family from Europe who finds their mental images of crossing America in a caravan quickly becoming reality.  The writer of this story is traveling to finish his book within three months.  He talks over a rough idea of this trip with Bill one night and, realizing “they were quite insuperable, [they] retired to bed unworried” (9).  As they looked into the details, they found that things seemed to be working out somewhat in their favor, which was highly unexpected.  This being the case, the family ends up renting a trailer in New York and beginning their journey to San Francisco.  His plan was to be “unhurried travelers, looking at America from the ground up” (12).
 
The rough economic times of the people on the road are comparable to those today.  Many authors traveling during the depression were looking to create a story out of their experiences.  I came across this article that relates the current state of the American  economy to that during the depression.  It is interesting that this article describes our current situation to be worse than the depression.  Leonhardt writes that the depression was “’A Great Leap Forward.’  Partly because the depression was eliminating inefficiencies but mostly because of the emergence of new technologies, the economy was adding muscle and shedding fat.”             
 
This article touches on the idea that the crisis we are currently in is a combination of “obvious short-term problems-from the financial crisis-with less obvious long term problems” (Leonhardt).  One of the main issues of our economy today is that high unemployment rates have become the norm.  When looking back at the Great Depression, the high numbers of unemployed people seems catastrophic but the end result, unfortunately war, created a boom in the economy and provided jobs for many people.  Today, however, our country continues to struggle with ways to keep the unemployment rate down.  This is an interesting comparison and really generates a person’s thinking when comparing our financial situation today to that of those on the road in the 30’s.
 
In Crossing America, we are able to get a close up look at the small cramped living style this European family has thrown themselves into so that Wild could write his book.  Authors, essentially, employed themselves.  Although there was a high demand for many physical labor jobs, the creative jobs (writing for example) were always something that could potentially be a hit or miss.  If a newspaper of magazine liked the way a certain author’s story read, they would possibly be hired to continually write for the paper.
 
When reading these two pieces I was really wanted to look deeper into how the economy today is being viewed in comparison to the 1930’s.  Eighty years later we are able to look back and realize that the Great Depression ultimately helped our country, but how and when will we know if this recession is going to help or hurt us in the long run? 

When reading Algren’s Somebody In Boots, the work these people did for food and shelter, a common theme in the depression, relates strongly to the homeless efforts today.   People waited in line at the mission, and when they received food and finished their meal, they were put to work to pay for it.  After completing their physical labor duties, they were hungry once again.  While the mission worked to provide people with basic necessities, such as food and shelter, they were limiting the amount they provided to the people.  Today, missions and homeless shelters provide these same benefits, but the government is doing what they can to limit these expenses.
 
When looking at what materials the government provides to the homeless people of today. Many people feel that if the money put into improving the social system were cut back, the cost of government would be as well.  However Professor Fisher reveals his reasoning.  We know the story of the stock markets during the depression and how so many families ended up on the streets, but in today’s society, there must be some explanation as to why so many people are homeless, right?  Fisher declared that “the widespread incident of homelessness in the U.S.  has many causes, including the recent wave of foreclosures that have sent many many former homeowners into shelters or precarious housing situations” (Fisher). 
 
One of the main reasons the government is helping these people in need is because many people feel that providing them with the basic necessities of survival will “give the homeless and incentive to get a job and pull themselves up by their bootstraps” (Fisher).  Will this really encourage the people on the streets to get back on their feet?  Many poor people are determined to pick their lives back up, but many people may not have enough self-motivation to do so and find life on the streets their easiest means of survival.  As we read in many of the stories, the freight train hoppers found lie on the road enjoyable and carefree.  What is the motivation these people need to step up?   Today, the government finds the need to spend more money on educating the youth in hopes that spending more on homeless prevention will result in less living on the streets.  It is interesting to relate the people on the streets today to those during the depression.  With America in another recession, many people have been thrown into rough economic times landing them on the road to look for a cheaper lifestyle.  While many of us may not have been too badly affected by the recession we are in. the lower class got hit hard.  Our government is now trying to find ways to decrease the amount of government funding for the vast amount of people on the streets through a system of prevention. 

In Waiting for Nothing, Kromer does a great job of making the reader feel like a player in the game, so to speak.  His writings allow the reader to get an idea about day-to-day happenings of many unfortunate people, especially hobos and train hoppers.  His novel reveals the disparity people face every day through its tone, reflecting on how this sense of despondency affects one’s motivation.  Its realistic quality creates an effect different from those we have previously analyzed in this course. 
 
As Kromer rides trains and hitch hikes, like many of characters we have read about, he records his own story of struggling for shelter, food, and water.  The choppy, short sentences that Kromer uses make the story seem reliable.  It reads as though he is just stating facts, and ironically, it is believable.  He puts so much effort into getting his food, hopping trains, and merely surviving, yet he does not seem to have much hope for his own future, hence the title of the novel.  And with this sense of hopelessness seems to be a lack of faith.  A church has no significant meaning to him aside from a place to sleep and get food; he even states, “There is no God.  If there is a God, why is such as this?”  The lack of hopelessness and lack of faith seem to go hand in hand.  Kromer attempts to force his sense of faith to receive results in his own favor; he quickly learns this will not do him justice. During a trip through Denver, he writes “I kneeled at the mourner’s bench until I had blisters on my knees.  I prayed for a job.  I thought for sure I’d get me a job” (34).  This shows that the faith people once had was now diminished by their unfortunate circumstances, and if no faith previously existed, a false forced one may be present in hopes that it will bring good fortune through belief.  Many of the bums are left starving and sleeping on the streets simply because they did not get to the church in time for the sermon, and this forbade them from food and shelter.  Is that really how God, if he exists for that matter, would want his house of worship to be treating others?
 
When reflecting on this idea of hope and faith, I began to wonder if those people that everyone passes on the streets everyday still have any sense of hope, faith, or motivation.  Has their condition caused them to give up on what their future may hold or do they have a strong sense of faith that helps them get by each day?
 

In Anderson’s Hungry Men, “the bum was the American nightmare, symbolizing the failure of all that the dominant culture held dear” (ix).  Acel himself was a bum who traveled illegally by hopping onto freight trains and hiding.  He meets multiple people on his travels, and this comradeship is an important component in the lifestyle of a bum on the road.  Travel is something that we tend to do with family and friends, or if we are alone, usually seek to meet other people.  This sense of companionship seems to develop quickly for homeless men during the 1930s.  Not only do they have a consistent buddy, they tend to open up and tell each other things they may have wanted to express.  When Dad was interacting with Acel, he constantly brought up his family problems, especially concerning his wife, but as he intermittently told his personal story he kept repeating, “But I don’t like to talk about family troubles” (171).   The characters in this story seem to connect with one another whether they want to believe it or not.  This is the result of not only the desire for friendship but also the fact that they can all relate to each other’s situations.
 
As their travels continued, they all had different destinations in mind, and reasons for these destinations.  Many of them had woman they had not seen in a long time.  Acel finds himself talking to a policeman, who tells him the trouble with the country is the “bums running around and living off people” (176).  It is after this comment that Acel’s thoughts come out: “This is fun runnin’ around looking for a place to flop.  I don’t want to work. Me, want to work?  It’s too much fun running around from town to town and seeing the country from nice freight trains” (176).  This style of travel had begun to be preferred by those lacking shelter.  It was rebellious and daring, and mostly single males.  Because these men did not have families with them it was much easier for them to tag along with their buddies as a team.  They did not have to worry about anyone except themselves.
 
Near the end of the excerpt, when the men seem to be engaged in conversation, Acel realizes the importance of having company on the road:  “A bum never lacks companionship, he thought.  On every train there is a new buddy to pal up with and in every jungle there is a bum going your way” (188).  The significance of company can be for various reasons, but most people would agree that, under most circumstances, travel is better in good company.

Photography has changed consistently since the first daguerreotype was produced.  In Agee and Evans, Louise’s family wanders around their front yard as the kids play.  They go about their daily chores oblivious to the fact that Walker is capturing their image.  Agee “[noticed] how much slower white people [were] to catch on than negroes, who understand the meaning of a camera, a weapon, a stealer of images and souls, a gun, and evil eye” (362).  These families were not worried about who was taking their picture; they merely wanted to survive.  Photojournalists used these opportunities to report the stories of family life during the depression.
 
In ‘American Exodus’, Lange exaggerates how her camera is her “tool of research”.  The museum in Oakland was established to reveal her social concerns to the public eye.  Cameras were devices that documented the truth.  Ilf and Petrov used film as their “visual diary” (xi).  They used their travel experience to show that, in their opinion, American towns all looked alike.  Cameras were a form of documentation.  In Ilf and Petrov’s book, Tretiakov admitted, “I don’t know that would be more difficult for [him] during a writer’s trip: to lose [his] pen and notebook or [his] camera” (xi).  It is ironic to see the main priorities of cameras in the past.  Today, photography is an art that can be manipulated in many ways to produce desired effects.
 
This is ironic when looking at the New York Times article.  Three similar pictures of a cow skull were featured in various articles, one of which was discovered to be fake.  The photographer had taken pictures “in different locations, as if [he] was looking for the perfect landscape to make his case” (NY Times), stripping the picture of its veracity.  In 2010, National Geographic Magazine revealed an incident of photo fraud. The winner of the February Your Shot Competition claimed he snapped “a lucky shot” in which he was able to capture six airplanes in perfect alignment (above), but he was caught by the magazine for this attempt. What does this say about the reliability of photographs? Today photographs are not used to reveal the truth in any way.  Modern day photography is far from a visual notebook.  With the technology we now have, photos can be skewed and altered in many ways.  This can become an issue when accrediting altered and enhanced photographs to skill.  While photography was once a mere means of recording physical fact, it has now taken on a whole new form, one in which nothing is impossible.

            After reading these articles and thinking about the Grapes of Wrath, I strongly believe that there is no accurate definition of the word travel.  Although we tend to think of travel as vacation, this is not always true.  We ‘travel’ to get to class everyday, or anywhere for that matter.  We travel to meet our friends, get lunch, or even get in bed.  Hickok’s writing delves into the diversity among human beings and the various circumstances they have found themselves in, whatever the cause may be.  Hopkins advised Hickok to “go talk with businessmen, preachers, workers, farmers” and to record her “own reaction, as an ordinary citizen” (ix). 
 
           Hickok meets people of all different ages with entirely different ways of making a living.  Some women support themselves and their families as taxi dancers, as Cynthia does in Asch’s piece.  Men put up with the working conditions in coalmines and factories because they do not have another choice if they prefer to live.  In comparing the way in which people in the past would travel versus people today, I couldn’t help but realize that there are numerous careers today that require travel.  The employee may not always want to go to that national conference or go to Oregon to interview that famous quarterback, but it is how they make a living.  To some extent, they do not have much of a choice either.  The migrant workers were being forced out of their hometown because they needed to find some means of an income.  I feel it is important to acknowledge that many families and jobs today require moving significant distances.  One of my best friends from high school is German, but her father’s family company led them to move all the way to California.  Men at war and pilots are constantly away from their home, and many young people today know that if the join the air force/ army/ etc. they will have a place to live and an education provided for them
           
            As we read Pyle’s article it is apparent that career does include travel.  He believes travel to be educational and he dedicates his life to constantly changing his atmosphere.  In this case, he is an example of a person more willing to take on the challenges of not having a home, but many families today must move to low cost housing and make quite the commute to work.  All of these things are sacrifices people make to live.  I do not mean to say that the Joad’s experience was not a harsh one, but perhaps a more extreme example of something that is common today.  When we take the most basic definition of travel, we all travel, some willingly and others not, but it is something that is impossible to avoid.  

The American Dream is something most people have a universal ‘understanding’ of, but when it comes down to specifics, many are unable to explain what it consists of.  Mobility and freedom are key components of living such a dream.  The Joad’s have the mobility but not the freedom.  Upon their arrival in California, they began to sense that they were unwanted; people began driving them out immediately.  They encounter a young military man who tells them, “you ain’t in your country now.  You’re in California, an’ we don’t want you goddamn Okies settlin’ down” (214).  The families traveling during this time seemed to have the exact opposite of freedom because the moment they tried to rebel and demand a contract and/or a specified wage, the police took them off.   
 
Ironically in Saving Jobs, Saving Homes, and Building a Better Future, the American Dream IS home ownership, and that seems to be it.  It explains the rough economic times our country has recently dealt with and elaborates on how these financial crises are preventing people from achieving this dream of home ownership.  It is interesting to read an article with such a primary base when our class discussion was so focused on the infrastructure of this so-called dream.  We concluded that it is made up of multiple different factors and that there is not a single word that can express such a widespread, opinionated concept.
 
As the characters begin to realize for themselves how hard it is to make a sufficient living, or any at all, in California, they decide that when they encounter a job opportunity, they would set down some of their own rules.  However, this is exactly what landed Knowles in the hands of the police.  This lack of freedom seems to be a large part of what is keeping them from feeling like they have any shot at the American Dream.  All these people want is to be able to provide food and shelter for their family.  They have gotten to a point where they do not need ownership of their own houses but just want to have the basic necessities of life.  The Joad’s seem to have a family structure in which each member plays their own part to contribute to the family dynamic.  Ma comforts Tom by telling him, “we’re the people that live.  They ain’t gonna wipe us out.  Why, we’re the people-we go on” (280).  This family structure seems to be so dynamic and brings not only one, but many, families together as a team.  Today, people seem to be in constant competition with everyone around them, and in order to achieve the American Dream, they must succeed above and beyond others. 

“To California or any place- every one a drum major leading a parade of hurts, marching with our bitterness.”
 
As Steinbeck describes the many people on route to California, such as Tom Joad, the reader can imagine a scene of desolation and disparity.  He uses many adjectives to describe the land in particular and, it is through his descriptions of the setting that allow us to sense the horrific experience these people were having.  The bitterness he writes about is exemplified through the interactions and reactions that go on between the characters.  For example, the wives in many families hovered cautiously beside their husbands waiting for a reaction that could either make, or break, the family.  The men, in this case, become the leaders of the parade. 
 
When the book begins to seem as though nothing good can come from the Dust Bowl, Steinbeck writes, “the people in flight from the terror behind- strange things happen to them, some bitterly cruel and some so beautiful that the faith is refired forever”.  This sentence follows the story of a large family left with nothing but a trailer of junk. A young man picked them up alongside Route 66, fed them, and got them to California faster than the average trip.  Again Steinbeck uses the word ‘bitter’.  Is this bitterness a shared feeling between everyone, or did the Dust Bowl give some people the push they needed to make more out of their lives?
 
While some men were willing to stay behind, others traveled right alongside their families.  It is interesting to look at the different roles men and women had in their families.  Some of the mannerisms are still seen today, for example, the women looking up to the men.  However, women have become much more independent and self-reliable.  The close-knit family structure is not as common today as it had been in the past.  By describing the journey of a particular family, the Joads, Steinbeck is able to provide a personal account of a common situation.  His scattered side stories provide insight into the lives of others while continuing to focus primarily on the Joads.  The idea of bitterness is a reoccurring theme that Steinbeck seems to bring up.  The farmers traveling to California were bitter, and rightfully so, but the stories of hope amongst families create the sense of faith seen even in the individuals who seemed to have lost it all.  The acts of what Steinbeck refers to as kindness between characters also establishes a sense of community, and the struggle toward the west becomes a common reality to all.