Short Paper Assignment #2: History 463
Here are two options for your second short paper assignment. Please select one of them and follow the instructions for that option. Because of my delay in posting the instructions for this assignment, I'll extend the deadline to Wednesday, November 30. However, you are welcome to submit your paper earlier. I'll grade them in the order received.
Option One: Oral History
1. Choose someone who was alive and aware during the 1930s--a relative, friend, friend's grandparent or other other relative, etc. This would mean somebody who was an adolescent or adult in that decade, i.e. somebody who's now about eighty or older.
2. Talk with your interviewee about how the Depression affected his or her life during these times. Even if the person didn't directly suffer the effects of economic crisis, you may want to ask how it may have affected the person's education, early work experiences, home and family life, formation of political beliefs, ideas about gender, religion, authority, opportunity, etc.
3. Write a three to five page paper describing and analyzing the results of your
interview. Include a brief biographical sketch of your subject--e.g. "Mary
Smith was born in 1920 and grew up in a small town in Oregon. Her father was a
lumber worker. She graduated from high school in 1938, moved to Portland and worked
at the Kaiser shipyards during World War II. She later married and had three
children. She worked as a secretary and a real estate agent before her
retirement."
Your paper will judged on how well you do the
following:
a. Report significant and relevant
information about your interviewee's Depression experiences and perceptions.
b. Relate the individual's situation to some
of the themes and topics of the course.
c. Present a clear, well-structured and
thoughtful essay.
NOTE: During the Depression, a program known as the Federal Writers' Project commissioned authors to interview Americans about their life stories. These are now on the web at the Library of Congress' American Memory website. You can link to the home page of "Voices from the Thirties: Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project." The interviews in Studs Terkel, Hard Times, are also of course examples of the kinds of subjects you might want to explore. You may want to look at some of the material there as you work on this essay.
Option Two: Depression Movie
1. Watch one or more of the following classic films of the
1930s. Any of the following films will be acceptable:
Modern Times--Charlie Chaplin on work and alienation in the industrial age
The Grapes of Wrath--John Ford's adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic novel
of the Dust Bowl migration to California
Our Daily Bread--Directed by King Vidor, one of the most explicit protests
against the suffering of the Great Depression. Workers return to the land to farm
cooperatively
Sullivan's Travels--A movie director decides to hit the road to find out how
the "little people" are living. A cynical comedy by director Preston
Sturges
I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang--A wrongly-convicted veteran of the
Great War escapes from a Southern chain gang and encounters deceit and betrayal
in the North
Dead End--Juvenile delinquents and a gangster hero-villain (played by
Humphrey Bogart) in Depression era New York slums
2. Write a three to five page paper on the film you've selected that relates
it to one or more of the main topics of this course (economic collapse; personal
experiences of conflict and cooperation during the depression; mainstream and
radical solutions to the crisis; issues of race and gender; etc.). Your paper will be judged on how well you do the following:
a. Demonstrate understanding of and familiarity with the movie;
b. Use the movie to comment on one or more of the themes of the
course;
c. Present a clear, well-structured and thoughtful essay.
3. You're welcome, though not required, to write your paper comparing two or more of these films or making reference to other movies dealing with the1930s along with one of these. In any event, be sure to use the films to comment on course themes.
4. All of these films (except Our Daily Bread) are available in Knight Library in the Reserve/Video room. I have a copy of Our Daily Bread, which I can lend out. If enough people are interested, I'll arrange a group showing of it. Local video stores are likely to have most if not all of these films too.
5. For some further information about these films (or almost any others), the Internet Movie Data Base, www.imdb.com, is an excellent source.
History 463/Fall 2005