The 1930s in America was a time marked by personal and financial hardships for many Americans. Entering into both the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, the country was at a clear economic and overall low point in history. The novel, “The Harvest Gypsies” and the document “A Strenuous Life” both share many distinct ideas and themes about the time period. Written by John Steinbeck in 1936, “The Harvest Gypsies” consists of seven articles that share a central theme of hard work and overcoming adversities. “The Strenuous Life” is a speech given in 1899 by Theodore Roosevelt in Chicago, Illinois. The speech is based on Roosevelt’s own life experiences which he uses to argue that hard work and determination were the main ideas that Americans should embrace during the time of hardships. This idea relates to how society felt during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, that hard work would bring the country out of the depression and families out of poverty and famine. This essay will argue how masculinity, hard work, and overcoming adversities are all themes during this time period and how this is imbedded into the two documents.
John Steinbeck is a well-known American author whose writing shocked as well as informed many Americans on what was occurring in their own country. “The Harvest Gypsies” shed light on the effects of the dust bowl in California, which occurred in the 1930’s, the same time as the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s articles help put into context the effects that such a drought and famine had on the families and individuals involved. Thousands of families traveled from their homes to California looking for any kind of work that they could find. Steinbeck’s writing analyzes the different ways that these immigrants lived and how their lives drastically changed as they traveled to California. Steinbeck explains that these immigrants did not ever feel at home in the communities that needed their service. They were outsiders who were needed for their work, but they were hated by the people who had lived on the land previously. The relevance of this is that these men looking for work on farms had once owned and plowed their own land. These men were farmers of their own and now were forced to relocate in an effort to save their families. This is critical when analyzing these people’s lives because these men felt a sense of pride that comes along with owning land and being the sole provider for the family. At the time, most women did not have jobs so they stayed home and tended to the family. These men were different than the previous workers of the land who were immigrants who had not known what it was like to own their own land. This theme of losing one’s masculinity is prevalent throughout both the documents.
Roosevelt’s speech, “The Strenuous Life” is about the ways in which Americans could improve the country with hard work and perseverance. Roosevelt claims throughout the speech that in order to improve the countries state, everyone must work. He draws on the idea that men should work in jobs to provide for their families, and in doing so they will be raising sons who will also learn the value of hard work. Theodore Roosevelt speaks of how America is built on the value and idea that the working man is the basic backbone of the country. Roosevelt also goes on to further emphasize this idea of masculinity by stating, “The man must be glad to do a man's work, to dare and endure and to labor; to keep himself, and to keep those dependent upon him. The woman must be the housewife, the helpmeet of the homemaker, the wise and fearless mother of many healthy children” (Roosevelt 1899). This is significant because both Roosevelt and Steinbeck’s works contain this theme that is prevalent in America at the time. Men work and women cook, clean, and care for the family. The idea of not being able to support one’s family also goes hand in hand with the idea of battling adversities. Steinbeck makes a point of describing the horrible living conditions in the squatter camps. He vividly describes how one father whose family had just reached the camp a week earlier was desperately trying to maintain his family’s pride by making a makeshift toilet and shelter, as well as by sweeping the floor and tidying the place up as much as possible. The man was battling such a hardship yet he was still trying to keep his pride since he had nothing else to his or his family’s name.
Although Roosevelt and Steinbeck’s works both were created with different ideas in mind, both are a call to action. Under the 1937 Farm Security Agency many writers and photographers like John Steinbeck were hired to highlight the effects that the Depression had on rural America. This was done so that every American would realize just how dire the situation was, as well as to allow such an event to never go forgotten in the midst of history. Steinbeck’s writing is so graphic that readers at the time had to be appalled and shocked when reading about the conditions of the camps. Steinbeck wrote about how babies were not expected to live long due to malnutrition and disease, flies carrying diseases hovering inside tents, and feces lying just outside of the families living quarters. Theodore Roosevelts speech is also a call to action, asking all men to work and help the country get out of the Depression that it was facing. He speaks of the country and its people as a unified nation, that if the nation rose up together then the state of the nation could turn around.
John Steinbeck and Theodore Roosevelt were both very influential individuals during the early to mid 1900s. Both men inspired and sparked change in the nation that was facing both a natural disaster and an economic disaster. “The Harvest Gypsies” and “The Strenuous Life” both embody the themes that masculinity, hard work, and overcoming adversities all applied not only to some individuals, but to all American citizens at the time.