Preview

Harvest Gypsies Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
856 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Harvest Gypsies Analysis
In the early 1930’s, there were many difficulties in the Midwest. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl caused many problems. Midwest people lost their homes and had no source of income because of these difficulties. In Harvest Gypsies, government camps and speculative farms have different and similar ways on fulfilling the physical and emotional needs of migrants. Government camps fulfill the needs of migrants better than speculative farms. Government camps provide sections of land for tents and permanent structures which fulfill the migrants’ need for shelter. The permanent structures Steinbeck recognizes are: “washrooms, toilets and showers, an administration building and a place where the people can entertain themselves” (Article IV). These permanent structures help migrants become more comfortable with their surroundings. This shelter allows migrants some leeway on where they want to …show more content…
As a result, migrants are not able to purchase healthy food. Steinbeck states, “It will be seen that remaining healthy is very slight. The complete absence of milk for the children is responsible for many of the diseases of malnutrition” (Article V). Many families know that food is scarce and that causes them to buy cheap and unhealthy food. Speculative farms force the migrants to work without eating nutritional food and that puts them in a weakened state.
Government camps are able to provide medical supplies to migrants. These camps care about migrants’ health. Steinbeck states, “In case any of the family are sick the camp manager or the part-time nurse is called and treatment is carried out” (Article IV). Government camps make sure that the migrants do not get terribly sick and weak. Speculative farms did not provide any medical care because the farm owners did not care about the laborers’ well-being. These farms do not care about the migrants’ health because all the speculative farms care about is the profit they

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Not only this, but “the farmers profit margin dropped from 35% in the 1950 's to about 9% today.” (Mckibben, 54) This means that “to generate the same income as it did in 1950, a farm today would need to be roughly four times as large.” (Mckibben, 55) As a result of this perpetual growth and centralization, problems like “huge sewage lagoons, miserable animals, vulnerability to sabotage and food-born illness”(mckibben, 61) have become commonplace. Not only this, but “we are running out of the two basic ingredients we need to grow food on an industrial scale: oil and water.” (Mckibben, 62) The situation has become so dire that “we are now facing a near simultaneous depletion of the underground aquifers which have been responsible for the unsustainable, artificial inflation of food production.” At this point of realization, Mckibben begins indulging the reader in a large number of facts that promote a more localized form of farming as the solution to a seemingly endless number of issues. Initially the point is raised that “sustainable agriculture leads to a 93% increase in per-hectare food production.” (Mckibben, 68) The next idea raised is that, “since World War 1, it has been cheaper to use…

    • 3032 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1900-1930 families started buying land and moving to the plains. They would farm cash crops on the land but it was very hard work. The country was already in a depression and also the stock market crash. Their plants failed 5 years in a row. With no income they couldn’t pay mortgages.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Harvest Gypsies” by John Steinbeck and “The Migrant Mother” by Dorothea Lange, the feeling of desperation is felt by many migrant farmers’ causing them to feel hopeless and helpless. Many small farmers’ from the United States lost everything of their lives because of the large drought. The farmers’ packed everything they had left and traveled with their families’ to California to find work. “The drought in the middle west has driven the agricultural populations of Oklahoma, Nebraska and parts of Kansas and Texas westward. Their lands destroyed and they can never go back to them. Thousands of them are crossing the borders in ancient rattling automobiles, destitute and hungry and homeless, ready to accept any pay so that they…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In this nonfiction book, the authors’ main ideas are to: 1) advance knowledge of injustices within the food system by presenting historical facts, agricultural processes, social, cultural, and economic research and statistics, health and environmental studies, and political decisions; and 2) provide suggestions to reform the system in creating equal access to unadulterated, healthy, affordable food for everyone.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As farmers of Mexico's countryside decides to migrate into an urban city to find more opportunities, life can be become a little better, but overall it is still complicated. Migrating can be an agonizing process because an individual is sacrificing their rural lifestyle for a new, better, and less sophisticated urban lifestyle. Indeed, they are starting their life all over in a new place, but the living conditions are harsh for Mexico City's recent migrants because they are new to the area and they live in slums or cardboards. Even though it was harsh, they are given the opportunity to work in these urban cities. The working poor get paid low wages and they live closer to the center. Shelter was better in the urban areas than the rural. Iztacalco is an example of a working poor neighborhood of Mexico City. It consists of 22 square feet of green space per person, only 78% of homes built with good materials, and 75% of homes with water. In conclusion, farmers move to the urban city, where they become the working poor of the area…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Schlosser also addresses the high number of migrant workers working today, as well as being the poorest workers in the United States. Yet, Schlosser does not touch on the health risks that represent working in the fields. I plan to emphasize more on the health risks that are present in the everyday life of a migrant farm working. I will discuss how pesticides have a negative effect on the life of workers, but also to their families. Children of farm workers are at a greater risk of having health risks because of their high exposure to pesticides. Sociological implications that come along with doing this research are or might be the constant demand that [we] consumers make to the agricultural companies, to supply us with fresh fruits and vegetables. This not only has a negative impact in the industry but also to the farm workers. The pressure that consumers places upon the industries makes them produce more and use more harmful chemicals that affect the lives of farm workers but also to those living…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Industrial production was stopped as industries were shutting down. The dust bowl of 1930’s also brought dark time for farmers. Many families were left without basic life necessities and without adequate food.…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Industrial Revolution Dbq

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout different places in the world the people that worked as laborers had to go through many harsh conditions that affected their health conditions. The working conditions were not fair at all because if the owners of the…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck portrays the Migrant farmers as a bath of misunderstood wanderers, while describing the local citizens as hostile assailants. The police always seem to…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Depression not only brought financial hardship and economic disaster to the United States, it also psychologically changed the soul of our nation and rocked our spirit to the core. Despite the recent economic recession experienced by much of our nation, our country’s current situation is nowhere near the magnitude of the Great Depression. The desperation and misery felt by the country during the 1920s and 1930s is nearly impossible to grasp by today’s society, yet when looking at photographs such as “Migrant Mother” we are given a glimpse of the hardships that plagued the nation. The hopeless, weathered gaze of the woman in “Migrant Mother” served as a representation of the hopelessness felt by so many suffering mothers and families during the Great Depression.…

    • 1601 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Railroads

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages

    For most American’s, lifestyles changed dramatically for those who were used to living on the farm. Farmland started changing to the urbanization of the cities from the late 1860’s to the 1920’s. Due to the mass increase of immigration, both the “Old Immigration” and the “New Immigration” gained new opportunities due to the Second Industrial Revolution. This included the introduction new technology and innovations, and the creation of factories and the assembly line and mass production, and a new urbanized lifestyle. The city became a new and worthy opportunity for those who formerly worked on a farm. By 1925 the city, and not the farm, had become the basic reality for most Americans because of the Second Industrial Revolution, the mass immigration, and the opportunity for greater wages.…

    • 627 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Great Depression there were a series of challenges that faced Americans. So much is told about the fall of the stock market during this period. A significant number of sources also exist pertaining to the way the people of America lost their hope in the banking and financial system. However, there exists tales and happenings during this period that related to drought and migration of Americans from their native states into California. This paper will look at this period in the history of America. In doing this, the paper will expound on the problems and accounts of migrant workers during this era and what they did to survive. Their significance in the history of America and the American economy will also be elaborated.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    This essay will provide an overview of immigrant farm workers as an example of a vulnerable population in society. A sample population demographic and background information about the community provides characteristics and context about why this group constitutes a vulnerable population. A discussion about the challenges and disparities farm workers incur when accessing health care with an assessment of the impact on federal, state, and local health care delivery systems. Key stakeholders in public and private domains are noted outlining the imprint immigrant farm workers have on American businesses as employers and providers of health care. Last, a review on how health care systems can best serve this particular group of people.…

    • 2067 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    1930's Farm Life

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Cited: Loftis, Anne. Farm Labor in the 1930s. October 2003. http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=788_0_6_0 (accessed March 3, 2013).…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The suffering of the migrants in many ways can be contributed to man themselves. During the time of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowel great social and economic circumstances dived people in “the rich” and “the poor.” Investors in the farmland of the countries’ bread basket did not care about what they did to the tenants as long as the land was being farmed. As soon as tenants were kicked off their land, the land was being torn down and the people were replaced anew. Rather than having compassion for the thousands of people without work, food, or a home, the migrants were ridiculed and abused. These migrants were treated as lesser beings, even below the small farmers in California in which they would have once been considered equal to. Migrants were starved and left along the sides of the roads with little to no shelter. Those with wove past those without as if they weren’t even there; the line drawn between classes was forever…

    • 1525 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays