American Literature & History: From Depression to Cold War (19305-19605) Read ‘The Depression 1. The stock market crashed in 1929, taking with it the optimism and prosperity of the 1920s. The crash started a chain reaction that cost millions of people their jobs and homes. Banks falled when loans could not be repaid, People frantically removed their savings from banks, causing more banks to fal, which in turn caused fectories and businesses to close. The popular song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" captured the bleak spirit of the people of the United States, many of whom were now forced to sell their possessions, relinquish their homes, and stand in bread lines for food. When President Herbert Hoover ran for reelection in 1932, Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeated him soundly, carrying 42 of the 48 states. Soon programs and policies aimed at economic recovery and social feform, which Roosevelt called the New Deal, offered some relief to the beleaguered nation, The New Deal 2. New Deal agencies employed people in public works programs, such as reforestation; improved the nation’s roads and schools; and build sidewalks, dams, and bridges. It played a role in the arts as well, bringing out-of-work artists, writers, ectors, and musicians to decorate public buildings and produce plays and musicals. Even with the new agencies, some people—depencent mothers, children, and the elderly—were unemployable. In 1935, Congress passed the Social Security Act, which offered unemployment insurance and retirement benefits that were financed through payroll taxes paid by employers and workers. Persistent Racism 3. Prejudice against Attican Americans and other minority groups continued. The New Deal failed to enact programs that challenged racism. Some agencies refused to hire African Americans, and others segregated them and paid them less. Violence, including lynching, remained widespread, The Dust Bowl “Dust storms are bringing distress and death to 300,000 square miles.” ~ Margaret Bourke-White 4 Accombination of drought and poor ferming methods during the 1920s tuned a large area ofthe Great Plains into what became know es the Dust Bowl. Topsoil blew as far as the Allanic coast. Many familes left ther farms and headed west in search of work. Not everyone found work, however, and the Farm Security Administration (FSA) built homes to house migrants. Those who stayed on thelr ferms got help from the Soil Conservation Service (SCS}, which advocated contour 2plowing to help keep the soll from blowing away. World War Il and the Cold War In the 1930s, Italy's Fascists, Germany's Nazis, and Japan’s miltary rulers formed an alliance known as the Axis Powers. Aggression by these countries led to World Wer Il in 1939, Early n the war, the Axis forces overwhelmed thelr enemies, Lunt only Britain stil resisted. The U.S, entered the war after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Nearly four years of global warfare followed, ending with the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945, The end of the war lefta world dominated by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. An intense political and economic rivalry developed between them, ‘and the ensuing "Cold War" led to a massive bulldup of armaments—inciuding nuclear weapons. « CENTRAL IDEAS OF THE ERA OF THE DEPRESSION AND THE COLD WAR 10 CENTRAL IDEA 1: Retum to Regionalism—The crisis of the Great Depression encouraged a revival of Regionalism in \iterature. Some writers saw the value of ordinary people in the United States as a source of strength In hard times. Other warlters examined how characters’ ives were shaped—and sometimes distorted—by the history and culture of thelr ‘egions. ‘CENTRAL IDEA 2: Life in the City—During the frst half of the twentieth century, the big cles of the United States were ‘magnets for foreign-born immiigrants and rural U.S. citizens who came seeking better lives for themselves and thelr families. Responding to modem urban iife, American writers portrayed both it richness and its problems. CENTRAL IDEA 3: The United States and the Worle—In 1941 aggression by the Axis Powers forced the United States to ‘enter World War Il, The end of the war saw the development of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. American writers examined both wartime struggles and postwar anvietles. CENTRAL IDEA 1: RETURN TO REGIONALISM. The word “America meens something different to each persori in the United States, Amiong the many factors that shape its meaning are the communities that people come fron—thelr histo‘es, traditions, customs, and values. During the Great Depression, some American writers rediscovered Regionalism, the literary movement that places emphasts on the themes, characters, and settings of @ particular geographical region. Unlike the local colorists of the late 1800s, the Regionalists tthe micutwentieth century were less concemed withthe peculeries of local dialect or dress than withthe deeper impact of setting on character. Steinbeck’s Migrant Workers During the Depression, the morale of people In the U.S. weakened and many lost faith In rational institutions. Some writers tured to regional traditions and the values of ordinary people as sources of continulty and strength. California, ‘writer John Steinbeck found enduring humanity in the struggles of Dust Bow! migrants, H's most famous novel, The Grapes of Wrath, describes the effects of the Depression and Dust Bowl on farmers from the southern Great Plains who traveled westward to seek work as migrant laborers. Thelr toughness and optimism in the face of hardship and lscrimination reflects the spirit of the New Deal era and Steinbeck’s belief in the abillty of ordinary people to defeat 25despair and rebutld their ives through community Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County M1 The richness of modem Southem writing has caused some literary historians to speak of the Southern Literary Reneissance in the twentieth century. Many of these writers focused on the South's relationship to its complex, often bitter history and on the interaction between Southern whites and blacks. One of the most famous of these Southern writers, Wiliam Faulkner, used carefully detailed regional settings and situations to present universal themes, such as the burden of the past, the complexity of human relationships, the nature of time and history, and the loneliness and allenation of modern life. In order to analyze the effects that Southem history had on its people, Faulkner created a fictional Mississippi region he called Yoknapatawpha County. He populated it with former slaves, poor white families, wealthy businessmen, and plantation owners. As the county begins to change and slowly absorb Northern influences, its citizens struggle to either resist or keep up with the outside world. In his brilliant experimental novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner used a series of interior monologues to portray the psychological deterioration and moral decay of a once proud aristocratic femily, the Compsons, whose members cannot face the changing realities of race, class, culture, and economics In the modern South, O'Connor's Southern Gothic 12 One category of moder writing is sometimes referred to as Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic literature has some of the same elements as the Gothic literature of the Romantic period. The characters are similar to those in Edgar Allan Poe's stories: sometimes weird, alienated, and prone to strange actions and bizarre thoughts. Yet the reader is meant to feel sympathy for these characters and to understand what has blighted their lives, Another Southern writer, Flannery Her characters often encounter a force that (©'Connor, sought to shock her readers through “distortions of modern life. threatens to change their lives and beliefs forever. When critics claimed that her stories were grotesque, O'Connor responded, “I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case It is going to be called realistic” CENTRAL IDEA 2: LIFE IN THE CITY 13 As the historian Richard Hofstadter famously observed in 1955, "The United States was born in the country and has moved to the city" Over the last hundred years, U.S. life hes been shaped by cities, which have given direction to the economy, politics, and culture of the United States. The rapid urbanization of US, society had already begun in the late: nineteenth century, as immigrants to the United States swelled urban populations and rural citizens also began migrating to the cities, By 1920, the urban population of the United States exceeded the rural population, 14 US. cities became busy, and exciting, but were also crowded, dirty, and dangerous. Large urban populations encouraged the growth of a varied, dynamic cultural fe that ranged from museums and opera houses to movie theaters and nightclubs. However, the some rapid growth produced slums and crime. In the twentieth century, many writers explored both the vitality and malaise of U.S. cities. 15 “The city is lke poetry: it compresses all ife, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines.” —E.B, White, “Here Is New York” 2bEB, White and New York City 16 New York City was the center of modem US. culture, and the New Yorker magazine helped to set urban trends and styles for the rest of the country. While writing for the New Yorker, E. B, White captivated the public with sophisticated essays and sketches, White's essays covered a range of topics, including personal experiences, the problems of urban living, and current events. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man 17 Decades after the Civil War, African Americans stil suffered from prejudice and segregation. To Ralph Ellison, the Aftican American man remained an “invisible man,” marginalized by white society and uncertain of his own role and identity. The nameless narrator and protagonist of Elison’s award-winning novel /avisible Man struggles vainly to overcome racial and social stereotypes and to be perceived as an individual. Finally, he comes to realize the absurdity of his situation and {goes underground, living in an abandoned basement that he symbolically fils with lightbulbs. “In my naval,” Ellison wrote, “the narrator's development is one through blackness to light; that is; from ignorance to enlightenment: invisibility 40 visti” Bernard Malamud and Brooklyn 48 The parents of Berard Malamud were Russian Jews who had emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Brooklyn, Malamuc’s fiction has typically focused on the experience of urban Jews. His work often combines sharply contrasting elements—humor and pain, fantasy and realism—as he explores a characters abilty to overcome isolation and suffering. His family's lficult experiences in Brooklyn are clearly evident in his stories, “People say I write so much about misery, but ..no matter how much happiness or success you collect, you cannot obliterate your own experience” Gwendolyn Brooks and Bronzeville 19 Between World War | and the 1960s, more than 6 million African Americans migrated from the rural South to the northern cities. Many of them settled on the south side of Chicago, forming the large African American community later known as Bronzeville. Aftican American writer Gwendolyn Brooks grew up in Bronzeville, which later became the setting for much of her work, Her poetry and fiction are distinguished by a compassionate understanding of the lives of America’s black turban poor, who struggle to survive both poverty and racism, Suburbia 20 Despite the importance of cities in the development of the United States, a deep distrust of urban life has also been 8 part of the US. character. By 1900, USS. cities were already ringed with suburbs, The growth of suburbia continued to accelerate throughout the twentieth century. For millions of people in the United States, a home in the suburbs came to symbolize the American dream. Nevertheless, some writers have depicted suburbia asa cultural wasteland inhabited by conformists. John Cheever and John Updike are two writers who have explored the culture of suburbs in the United apCENTRAL IDEA 3: THE UNITED STATES AND THE WORLD 21 Can you remember where you were when you leaned of the 9/ff terrorist attacks? Psychologists describe how a deeply felt or traumatic event can produce an intense “flashbul memory” For millons in the U.S, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, produced such 6 memory. The Good War 22 World War Ii has become enshrined in the American public memory as “the good war"—a heroic crusade against an evil ‘enemy. However, most people in the US. were strongly opposed to military involvement following the outbreak of wer in Europe In September 1939, This attitude changed abruptly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the US. mobilized for war against the Axis powers. On the battlefront, U.S. forces tuned the tide in Europe and the Pacific and played @ crucial role in the victory of the Allies. At home, U.S. workers quickly transformed the U.S. economy into the most productive and efficient war machine in the worid 23 "We are now in this war. We are all in it—all the way. Every single man, woman, and child is @ partner in the most tremendous undertaking of our American history.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt, wartime radio broadcast December 9, 1941 Tension on the Home Front 24 Wartime production helped restore prosperity to the United States after the long Depression, Minorities shared in this wartime prosperity, but racism and ethnic animosities persisted. After Peari Harbor, the US. gathered 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry—77,000 of whom were US. citizens—snd forced them into internment camps in early 1942. The renewed migration of African Americans from the South to the big cities in the North and West sometimes resulted in racial violence, such as in Detroit, where 25 Aftican Americans and 9 whites were killed during riots in June, 1943. During that same month, riots In Los Angeles occurred after hundreds of U.S. soldiers and sailors attacked a group of young Mexican American men, ‘The Holocaust 25 Alter seizing power in the 1930s, the Nazis began a brutal campaign of violence against Jews and other groups that they considered subhuman, During the early years of the war, Nazis rounded up and shot large numbers of Jews, Communists, Unitarians, Gypsies, and Slavs. Later, they expanded this program of genocide into the “final solution a huge project of "ethnic cleansing’ that Involved a network of death camps in which millions of disabled persons, Jews, Poles, Russians, Gypsies, and other non-Aryans were systematically killed. In only a few years, Jewish communities in Europe that had existed for more than 1,000 years were obliterated in what has become known as the Holocaust. The Cold War 26 The years after World War ll brought changes to the U.S. Many began to challenge racial discrimination. Devastation in 28Europe allowed US. industries to dominate world markets, and the wartime economic boom continued through the 1950s. The US. and the Soviet Union, however—wartime allies against the Axis Powers—became tense rivals in a global power struggle between capitalism and communism, The two superpowers never went to war, but they developed and stockpiled nuclear weapons, An anxious world now lived under a new cloud—the mushroom cloud of the atomic age. In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human 27 freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression—everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for ts inhabitants everywhere in the world. The fourth Is freedom from fear—which, translated in world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical ‘aggression against eny neighbor—anywhere in the world. That is no vision ofa distant millennium. Itls @ definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyrariny which the dictators seek to create with the crash ofa bomb, - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from “The Four Freedoms” Legacy of the Period 28 Beginning in the 1930s, Regionalism asserted itself in the face of economic difficulties. Distrustful of big business and modem culture, some Regionalist writers found moral strength and universal significance in the lives and values of ‘ordinary people in the United States. Other writers, particularly in the South, explored how thelr region’s history and culture defined and distorted people's lives. Their focus on the macabre, which is often called Southern Gothic, had a significant influence on subsequent American literature. 29 The major global struggles of the periad from the 1930s to the 1960s—World War ll and the Cold War—shaped the contemporary world, The position of the United States as an economic and military superpower was established during this period and the nuclear arms race began. The Holocaust led to the founding of the State of Israel, which continues to be a source of tension and hostility in the Middle East. Annotations 24