"Hard Times"

English > Analysis
History > U.S. The 1930's - Great Depression
Literature > American

"Hard Times"

This paper discusses three interviews from Louis 'Studs' Terkel's "Hard Times", each of whom relate a very different experience and social status during the Great Depression.

2,095 words () | 0 sources | 2005 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper presents the interviews of Emma Tiller, Cesar Chavez and Blackie Gold from Louis 'Studs' Terkel's "Hard Times" to provide a more intimate portrayal of the truth, which made the Great Depression so stark. The author points out that this book is not a monochromatic perspective, which happens when the Great Depression is analyzed in the aggregate. The paper, stressing the emotional experience of the reader, discusses in detail these selected interviews, which are representative of varied backgrounds, ideologies and experiences during this period.

From the Paper:

"Cesar Chavez tells a different tale. His family is forced to become migrant workers during his childhood, after a loan is foreclosed by the president of the bank. The same president who, coincidentally, owned the land surrounding the Chavez's and therefore maintained all the power. Chavez's story is a representation of the life of other agricultural workers. He talks about racism, and speaks of a waitress who gives him a gesture, a "gesture of total rejection'. Curiously, the tone that he uses is not one of anger, resentment nor indignation but of complacence. He tells no stories of attempted revolts against the system which allowed discrimination. A system that perhaps even supported it. Instead, he treasures his experiences, refusing to forget either good or bad. He says, "I don't want to forget it...I don't want it to take the best of me...This is the truth, you know. History.""