“Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange, 1936
The Great Depression was a time of unimaginable hardship for the people of America. Work was almost impossible to find and of what work was found did not last for long. The lower class people had to face horrors that some of us today would not understand. Starvation, to the point of chewing on ones owns body parts, and the loss of common necessities such as: shelter and clothing was common place. A great deal of children died from starvation, infants were dying at an alarming rate to malnourishment. Children were forced to go without clothing and an education. Everyone in the family had to work in order to make enough money just to make it by one day at a time.
Seeing a need for everyone to have a chance to put food on the table, President Roosevelt started the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935, which later became to know as the Farm Security Administration. It was for the RA that Dorothrea Lange worked as a photographer. It was her job to travel around the country and document through photos the troubles that Americans were facing in the world of the Great Depression. Her pictures are sometimes depressing and somber. Depicting the hardships that fell upon the average man, women and child, who were forced to live in a world that was destroyed finically not of their own fault.
One of Lange’s most famous pictures was that of the “Migrant Mother”. Her name was Florence Owens, she and her husband along with there seven children were forced to stop at a pea picking farm after their car broke down. As the men went to have the car fixed, the women stayed behind to pitch camp. During these times many families without homes were forced to move from town to town just to find work. Lange was compelled to take pictures of the mother with her small children, all of which showed signs of starvation and a loss of hope. After the pictures were published in a San Francisco News Paper a public out cry lead to the government sending a large quantity of relief food to the work camp for the people. Unfortunately by the time the food got to the camp the Owen family had already moved on.
I choose this picture because it is a true portrait of American history. There are images that stick in our minds as Americans that symbolize who we are. They remind us of the hardships and pain and glory that the people before us had to endure for all of us to enjoy the freedom that we are all trying to hold on to. Some of these images include: Washington crossing the Delaware River, President Lincoln the night of his assassination, the American flag being hoisted up by Marines during World War II and the picture of the New York City Firefighters placing a flag up amidst the destruction of the World Trade Centers on September 11th 2001. Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother picture truly shows the plight of the people during this said time in American history, and just like the rest of our history it should not forgotten.
“Dorothea Lange” Wikipedia, 9 Apr. 2010. Web 12 Apr. 2010
“Farm Security Administration” Wikipedia, 9 Apr. 2010. Web 12 Apr. 2010
“Florence Owens Thompson” Wikipedia, 8 Apr. 2010. Web 12 Apr. 2010
