Hubert W. Johnson was born on August 28, 1905. After dropping out of school at an early age, he bounced from one job to the next for many years. In 1939 in Gastonia, North Carolina, the Federal Writers Project (FWP) interviewed him about his life. The interview was conducted by John H. Abner and led to the article entitled “The Photographer” which is what provided the information for this biography.
Biography
Early life
Johnson was born to a father who was a horse trader and café owner and a mother who died when he was only seven years old after having been ill. Shortly after his mother’s death, Johnson was brought to live with his grandmother because of all of the traveling his father’s job required. At a young age, Johnson knew he wanted to be able to provide for himself, so he took a job as a paperboy until he dropped out of school two years later. He quit school in order to start working full time at a newspaper stand where he could really start to provide for himself. Unfortunately, he was fired after two years following a two-week long vacation and forgot to return the newsstand’s post office drawer keys. After he lost his job, he bounced from one job to another for the next couple of years.
Adulthood
In 1922, Johnson got into a car accident with a train and ended up in the hospital for nine months. After being awarded several thousand dollars from the train company, a guardian was appointed to him to handle the money. The accident left him unable to work for quite a while, but he tried his hand as a salesman anyways. Four years later, he decided to take a vacation with friends to Miami. Even with his guardian wiring him money, Johnson realized how little money he had and was forced to return home. There, he took jobs at various printing shops until he was promoted to a salesman. Johnson next decided to take a trip with friends to Charlotte, North Carolina for a day. They got into a car accident where the vehicle flipped three times, forcing Johnson to stay in the hospital for several weeks. He tried but was unable to sue the insurance company and soon went back to work at the print shop. The manager there eventually left to open up a photography studio, and Johnson followed him. Five years after becoming a partner, Johnson took over the studio completely and fell in love with his work.
Social Issues
Lack of Education
When Johnson moved to his grandmother’s house, he continued to have an adult figure in his life but not one strong enough to convince him to stay in school. This resulted in him only being able to obtain jobs that required minimal education. However, this lack of education was not uncommon during this time period. Children from disadvantaged homes like Johnson were shown to do worse in school, but little concern was given for the children who did not “pass.” Only eleven percent of children between the ages of fourteen and seventeen were enrolled in high school; this number included the children who were enrolled but may not have attended frequently. Most parents were content with this lack of education as long as their children had some sort of basic reading and number skills.
Johnson never kept a job for more than two years (until later in life). He bounced from one to the next, and none of them were extremely well paying or well respected. It is known that “education gives you access to a higher income and different types of jobs… For example, only high school graduates in the first half of the century had access to white collar jobs.” Because the jobs available to the less educated were not as steady, people were often forced to move from city to city. This made it hard for people, like Johnson, to be involved in committed relationships. People realized around the turn of the century that an education was necessary for all aspects of life including personal goals, economic security, and social well being.
Federal Writers Project
The FWP was created in 1935 as a component of the Works Progress Administration. It was created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. The authors from the FWP wrote various types of pieces including biographies, folklore, and encyclopedias. The article on Johnson was a biography. Because the information known about Johnson was taken from this single source, it is hard to figure out how reliable the information is. Although the entire document is made of a direct quotation, no one knows how much of the article is exactly what Johnson said. The FWP only had one interviewer for each article, so that individual had the power to change his or her article without anyone ever knowing. Johnson was not a highly educated individual, yet the article written about him does not make this apparent at all. The article’s interviewer could have possibly changed Johnson’s wording in order to make it more understandable or to make him appear more educated. Or, Abner may not have changed anything at all and Johnson could have actually spoken in what appears to be an educated manner. There is no way to actually know. Issues like this can be found in numerous articles that come from the FWP.
Biography
Early life
Johnson was born to a father who was a horse trader and café owner and a mother who died when he was only seven years old after having been ill. Shortly after his mother’s death, Johnson was brought to live with his grandmother because of all of the traveling his father’s job required. At a young age, Johnson knew he wanted to be able to provide for himself, so he took a job as a paperboy until he dropped out of school two years later. He quit school in order to start working full time at a newspaper stand where he could really start to provide for himself. Unfortunately, he was fired after two years following a two-week long vacation and forgot to return the newsstand’s post office drawer keys. After he lost his job, he bounced from one job to another for the next couple of years.
Adulthood
In 1922, Johnson got into a car accident with a train and ended up in the hospital for nine months. After being awarded several thousand dollars from the train company, a guardian was appointed to him to handle the money. The accident left him unable to work for quite a while, but he tried his hand as a salesman anyways. Four years later, he decided to take a vacation with friends to Miami. Even with his guardian wiring him money, Johnson realized how little money he had and was forced to return home. There, he took jobs at various printing shops until he was promoted to a salesman. Johnson next decided to take a trip with friends to Charlotte, North Carolina for a day. They got into a car accident where the vehicle flipped three times, forcing Johnson to stay in the hospital for several weeks. He tried but was unable to sue the insurance company and soon went back to work at the print shop. The manager there eventually left to open up a photography studio, and Johnson followed him. Five years after becoming a partner, Johnson took over the studio completely and fell in love with his work.
Social Issues
Lack of Education
When Johnson moved to his grandmother’s house, he continued to have an adult figure in his life but not one strong enough to convince him to stay in school. This resulted in him only being able to obtain jobs that required minimal education. However, this lack of education was not uncommon during this time period. Children from disadvantaged homes like Johnson were shown to do worse in school, but little concern was given for the children who did not “pass.” Only eleven percent of children between the ages of fourteen and seventeen were enrolled in high school; this number included the children who were enrolled but may not have attended frequently. Most parents were content with this lack of education as long as their children had some sort of basic reading and number skills.
Johnson never kept a job for more than two years (until later in life). He bounced from one to the next, and none of them were extremely well paying or well respected. It is known that “education gives you access to a higher income and different types of jobs… For example, only high school graduates in the first half of the century had access to white collar jobs.” Because the jobs available to the less educated were not as steady, people were often forced to move from city to city. This made it hard for people, like Johnson, to be involved in committed relationships. People realized around the turn of the century that an education was necessary for all aspects of life including personal goals, economic security, and social well being.
Federal Writers Project
The FWP was created in 1935 as a component of the Works Progress Administration. It was created to provide jobs for out-of-work writers during the Great Depression. The authors from the FWP wrote various types of pieces including biographies, folklore, and encyclopedias. The article on Johnson was a biography. Because the information known about Johnson was taken from this single source, it is hard to figure out how reliable the information is. Although the entire document is made of a direct quotation, no one knows how much of the article is exactly what Johnson said. The FWP only had one interviewer for each article, so that individual had the power to change his or her article without anyone ever knowing. Johnson was not a highly educated individual, yet the article written about him does not make this apparent at all. The article’s interviewer could have possibly changed Johnson’s wording in order to make it more understandable or to make him appear more educated. Or, Abner may not have changed anything at all and Johnson could have actually spoken in what appears to be an educated manner. There is no way to actually know. Issues like this can be found in numerous articles that come from the FWP.
Don Chase (born July 4, 1953), is an American photographer and writer, who was born in Warsaw, Poland, but naturalized as a US citizen in 1973.
His work has been characterized as Documentary photography and Street photography in its nature. His work shows everyday people doing everyday simple things in the street who were 'caught' on film (or a digital camera, now) in sequences that in life lasted only a few seconds or a short period of time while he was observing. These 'encounters' reveal how sociological patterns and ways underground people and ordinary people carry on in various situations. He tells his "brief stories" of the event through a device used in film called Storyboarding. He is also known for his abstract studies of wall textures and water. Published as early as the age of seventeen in numerous weekly newspapers in the New York area as well as the book "Sane Living in a Mad World" by Robert Rodale. His work had been overlooked by institutions primarily due to a sabbatical he had taken between 1984 and 1990 to pursue business activities. His work has been exhibited in such places as Community Art Center, Fort Worth Texas, and in the Fulton County, NY Gallery.
He took up photography after he was given a plastic Kodak Brownie camera. It was cracked during a fall, while unloading the film in the dark so that it could be processed in his dark room. As a quick fix he used bubble gum and sealed the light leak. The streets of New York provided his first arena to practice Street photography. He is self-taught, who knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life at the age of 18, when he wrote in his highschool's yearbook as his life's direction to be: "Photography as an art form," May of 1971. Photography at the time was not yet accepted as an art form, but shortly thereafter it did gain widespread acceptance as it enjoys today.
Publications
* The Jewish Week
* Newsday
* Book illustrations: "Sane Living in a Mad World," by Robert Rodale, Published by the Rodale Press, 1971.
* Monograph: My New York - STRIPS 1 [] "50 Photographic observations by a teenager," Bayglow Books, June 2010
Select Exhibitions
* Fort Worth Community Art Center, Fort Worth, Texas, 2010
* Fulton County Gallery, Gloversville, New York, 2009
Online sources
* My New York Portfolio [].
* Motion-eMotion - A voyeur's approach to Street photography - []
* Poetic Introspection - A collection of images to remove stress in life - []
References and Outside Sources
* - The photographer's external link
His work has been characterized as Documentary photography and Street photography in its nature. His work shows everyday people doing everyday simple things in the street who were 'caught' on film (or a digital camera, now) in sequences that in life lasted only a few seconds or a short period of time while he was observing. These 'encounters' reveal how sociological patterns and ways underground people and ordinary people carry on in various situations. He tells his "brief stories" of the event through a device used in film called Storyboarding. He is also known for his abstract studies of wall textures and water. Published as early as the age of seventeen in numerous weekly newspapers in the New York area as well as the book "Sane Living in a Mad World" by Robert Rodale. His work had been overlooked by institutions primarily due to a sabbatical he had taken between 1984 and 1990 to pursue business activities. His work has been exhibited in such places as Community Art Center, Fort Worth Texas, and in the Fulton County, NY Gallery.
He took up photography after he was given a plastic Kodak Brownie camera. It was cracked during a fall, while unloading the film in the dark so that it could be processed in his dark room. As a quick fix he used bubble gum and sealed the light leak. The streets of New York provided his first arena to practice Street photography. He is self-taught, who knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life at the age of 18, when he wrote in his highschool's yearbook as his life's direction to be: "Photography as an art form," May of 1971. Photography at the time was not yet accepted as an art form, but shortly thereafter it did gain widespread acceptance as it enjoys today.
Publications
* The Jewish Week
* Newsday
* Book illustrations: "Sane Living in a Mad World," by Robert Rodale, Published by the Rodale Press, 1971.
* Monograph: My New York - STRIPS 1 [] "50 Photographic observations by a teenager," Bayglow Books, June 2010
Select Exhibitions
* Fort Worth Community Art Center, Fort Worth, Texas, 2010
* Fulton County Gallery, Gloversville, New York, 2009
Online sources
* My New York Portfolio [].
* Motion-eMotion - A voyeur's approach to Street photography - []
* Poetic Introspection - A collection of images to remove stress in life - []
References and Outside Sources
* - The photographer's external link
Martha Turner was a half Native American, half Caucasian woman born circa 1843. Her life was recorded by Francis L. Harriss as an added compilation to the Federal Writers' Project. She worked in a cotton mill for over 50 years until retiring to live with her widowed granddaughter during the Great Depression.
Biography
Early life
Born in Bladen County, North Carolina to a “red indian” father and Scotch-Irish mother, Turner lived a very troubled and destitute life. Her mother married her father when she was 12 (he was 18) but died six years later. Turner described her father as a cruel and lazy man, recalling several events where he brutally beat her and her siblings. Her two older sisters died shortly after their mother, and she and her two brothers all ran away from home. She only received three months of schooling before dropping out to work full time.
Adult life
After fleeing to Wilmington, NC, she began to work in a cotton mill. She fell in love with a young white man named Joe Watson who abandoned her after she became pregnant, leaving her to raise her son, John Williams, alone. When John was of age, he too began to work in the mill. John lived a fairly short life however, and after he and his wife passed, they left behind a daughter named Lottie Mae for Turner to bring up. Turner moved in with Lottie and her husband during the start of the Great Depression but Lottie’s husband died soon afterwards. Turner and Lottie continued to live off of Turner’s pension check of $14 a month and tended a small garden to make ends meet.
Social context
Life of a cotton mill worker
Martha worked in a cotton mill in Wilmington, North Carolina for over fifty years. For the brief time she and her companion Joe Watson were together, he too found work in the mill. Subsequently, once Martha’s son John was 9 years old he worked with his mother in the mill for the next forty years until his death. Lottie Mae, Martha’s granddaughter was raised working the mill as well until she eventually married. When Martha first began working in the mill her pay was only 15 cents. It increased to 50 cents and eventually $1.20. However, her son’s highest wage was $3.00 despite her longer experience. When John was married he moved his mother and wife into a six bedroom tenement house. These homes usually cost 50 cents to a dollar per room each month.
Great Depression's impact on Native Americans
Martha was half Native American, and while she despised her father and was admittedly ashamed of being Native American, the struggles she faced throughout her life were those common to Native Americans at the time. “Poverty, poor education, and ill health characterized the existence of most Native Americans in the 1920s.” Martha and her siblings only received 3 months of education and eventually dropped out to chop logs as a source of income full time. She also recalls her great archery and hunting skills. She often killed deer, polecats and bears for her family to consume when she was a child. Because of such a high salty protein diet, she and her family suffered from high blood pressure. Martha fell into the economic status of over 98 percent of other Native Americans as well, making less than 500 dollars each year. However, due to loss of income, there was an extensive rise in women entering the work force. Turner, being in the targeted age group of 20-65 during the 1930s and 1940s, worked almost her entire life. Officials placed in executive positions or who served as editors were even further removed. Documents show that anyone from local politicians to contractors filled these titles. It became readily apparent that the ability to employ citizens rather than truly preserving the artistic intentions of the mission became more pertinent. A matter of validity and censorship also became an issue; editors were forced to edit and rewrite these narratives substantially, due to the present conservatism of the time that was often racist and uninterested in the stories of the ethnic and immigrant populations.<ref name="Rosenstone" /> Many times authors interviewing ethnic populations were pushed to write in a “combination of fact and vigorous language” by emphasizing their dialects. Several examples of attempts to illustrate Turner’s broken English are found in her biography written by Harriss; as well as her dismissal of Native Americans and embracement of whites.
Biography
Early life
Born in Bladen County, North Carolina to a “red indian” father and Scotch-Irish mother, Turner lived a very troubled and destitute life. Her mother married her father when she was 12 (he was 18) but died six years later. Turner described her father as a cruel and lazy man, recalling several events where he brutally beat her and her siblings. Her two older sisters died shortly after their mother, and she and her two brothers all ran away from home. She only received three months of schooling before dropping out to work full time.
Adult life
After fleeing to Wilmington, NC, she began to work in a cotton mill. She fell in love with a young white man named Joe Watson who abandoned her after she became pregnant, leaving her to raise her son, John Williams, alone. When John was of age, he too began to work in the mill. John lived a fairly short life however, and after he and his wife passed, they left behind a daughter named Lottie Mae for Turner to bring up. Turner moved in with Lottie and her husband during the start of the Great Depression but Lottie’s husband died soon afterwards. Turner and Lottie continued to live off of Turner’s pension check of $14 a month and tended a small garden to make ends meet.
Social context
Life of a cotton mill worker
Martha worked in a cotton mill in Wilmington, North Carolina for over fifty years. For the brief time she and her companion Joe Watson were together, he too found work in the mill. Subsequently, once Martha’s son John was 9 years old he worked with his mother in the mill for the next forty years until his death. Lottie Mae, Martha’s granddaughter was raised working the mill as well until she eventually married. When Martha first began working in the mill her pay was only 15 cents. It increased to 50 cents and eventually $1.20. However, her son’s highest wage was $3.00 despite her longer experience. When John was married he moved his mother and wife into a six bedroom tenement house. These homes usually cost 50 cents to a dollar per room each month.
Great Depression's impact on Native Americans
Martha was half Native American, and while she despised her father and was admittedly ashamed of being Native American, the struggles she faced throughout her life were those common to Native Americans at the time. “Poverty, poor education, and ill health characterized the existence of most Native Americans in the 1920s.” Martha and her siblings only received 3 months of education and eventually dropped out to chop logs as a source of income full time. She also recalls her great archery and hunting skills. She often killed deer, polecats and bears for her family to consume when she was a child. Because of such a high salty protein diet, she and her family suffered from high blood pressure. Martha fell into the economic status of over 98 percent of other Native Americans as well, making less than 500 dollars each year. However, due to loss of income, there was an extensive rise in women entering the work force. Turner, being in the targeted age group of 20-65 during the 1930s and 1940s, worked almost her entire life. Officials placed in executive positions or who served as editors were even further removed. Documents show that anyone from local politicians to contractors filled these titles. It became readily apparent that the ability to employ citizens rather than truly preserving the artistic intentions of the mission became more pertinent. A matter of validity and censorship also became an issue; editors were forced to edit and rewrite these narratives substantially, due to the present conservatism of the time that was often racist and uninterested in the stories of the ethnic and immigrant populations.<ref name="Rosenstone" /> Many times authors interviewing ethnic populations were pushed to write in a “combination of fact and vigorous language” by emphasizing their dialects. Several examples of attempts to illustrate Turner’s broken English are found in her biography written by Harriss; as well as her dismissal of Native Americans and embracement of whites.
Arthur Leavitt was considered to be an oddity in his town. He didn’t ever seem to see eye-to-eye with his contemporaries, and they questioned his character due to him being a wealthy man living his life like a “handy man”.
Biography
Arthur Leavitt was born in 1894 into a family with a comfortable income in Boylston Creek. He lived with his great-uncle Tom Sanders and mother and had one sister named Ellie. He recalled his childhood as being happy. He often played with the children of his family’s African-American workers, and remembered having to do a lot of work on the family’s farm, and getting rewarded for doing a good job by being allowed to take one of the family’s horses for a ride, which he said was always a fond memory.
Leavitt described his mother as going from being very careful about her appearance to just getting by on the bare necessities. Instead of buying new and elegant dresses, which the family could afford to do, she’d mend and fix her old one when it began to all apart. Leavitt said his mother learned a lot about who her true friends were as she remained a kind, helpful woman, albeit seeming untidy compared to the rest of the women around them. It seemed that it was that sudden change in his mother that influenced Leavitt’s future lifestyle.
At the time of his Uncle Tom’s death, Leavitt was to be awarded some of his estate, but the family’s lawyer, J. M. Carson, and Leavitt’s brother-in-law, Ballard, made sure he wasn’t able to get any of it. Leavitt stated that ever since Ballard took an interest in his sister and the rest of the family, he was only interested in the family’s money and that even his uncle was able to see it. For quite some time, Leavitt was given nothing from his inheritance, but after a while of fighting, Leavitt was awarded some land, a good bit of money, and a cottage from his family’s property, which he fixed up to make livable. Leavitt didn’t complain as he liked the simplicity of his life, but he still remained bitter towards Ballard and Ellie and learned that eventually Carson was able to steal the rest of Ellie’s inheritance from her and Ballard as well. By the time he reached adulthood, the only family member Leavitt favored was his youngest niece, Ellie May, whose disposition he saw as the least like Ballard’s compared to his eldest daughter. He said he enjoyed her visits, but after he realized that she would get severely punished for visiting Leavitt, he told her to stop going to his house.
Leavitt was seen as an oddity in the town because of the tasks he chose to do and the way he presented himself. He didn’t care to dress up if he was going into town and he raised his own pigs for meat because he preferred “home-made meat”. He drove an older model vehicle and wore unkempt clothing, although like his mother, he was entirely capable of looking “presentable”. Leavitt said that he has the means to tidy up his appearance, but he didn’t see a real, valuable purpose in it. The people in his town thought he was “nertz” for acting like a handy man although he had a very nice inheritance. The Federal Writers Project approached Fred Tatum who began talking about Leavitt, and they were eventually led to Leavitt himself where they interviewed him about his life and his ideals. Arthur Leavitt simply said that “It don’t matter to me what people say. I just run along and mind my own business and let the other fellow do as he pleases…I know one thing though, I ain’t asking anybody to do anything for me.”
Social issues caused by the Great Depression
Spiritual values after dealing with the Great Depression
According to an article in Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, after World War I and the Great Depression, people began feeling disillusionment; and spirituality and church attendance began to dwindle. Once the war was over, “…a wave of spiritual depression and religious skepticism widespread and devastating”. Arthur Leavitt also showed that sense of loose faith. After dealing with the financial and legality issues his family’s lawyer and brother-in-law put him through due to greed, it was understandable that Leavitt no longer wanted to deal with people and their conventions, and the hypocrisy that he felt occurred with frequent church goers. He found himself content when he stayed home and went hunting with his dogs, as opposed to dealing with the townspeople who continuously judged his way of life.
Effects of the Great Depression on the wealthy
During the Great Depression, class divisiveness was even more apparent. Although most Americans were affected in a large way by the Depression through loss of money and jobs, the wealthy were virtually unaffected, as seen through Leavitt and Ellie still having an inheritance after the Depression. Some of the wealthy even flaunted their perpetuated financial comfort even more while many Americans were looking for jobs and trying to make ends meet. This behavior by the wealthy during the Depression and even after seems to explain why Arthur Leavitt is seen as strange. He was left a good inheritance from his notoriously wealthy uncle, and he chose to live like someone who is forced to live off the land.
Federal Writers Project
The Federal Writers Project was a program that was a part of the New Deal and was implemented during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. It was officially a part of a plan called Federal One whose intent was to provide jobs for unemployed professionals. The Project included journalists and novelists, and along with pursuing the main goal of the New Deal to “strengthen the nation’s economy…through employment programs”, the FWP section was to have professional writer’s document “American culture and social life”.
The work done as a part of the Project is seen as an example of “American ingenuity and literary skill”. A part of what made the writings more layered was the manner in which the politics of the project was set up. The writers were hired to work within their own state, which led them to write in the form that would prove their state’s important role in the nation, thus adding more literary depth to the original purpose of recording America’s cultural and social views and way of life.
Biography
Arthur Leavitt was born in 1894 into a family with a comfortable income in Boylston Creek. He lived with his great-uncle Tom Sanders and mother and had one sister named Ellie. He recalled his childhood as being happy. He often played with the children of his family’s African-American workers, and remembered having to do a lot of work on the family’s farm, and getting rewarded for doing a good job by being allowed to take one of the family’s horses for a ride, which he said was always a fond memory.
Leavitt described his mother as going from being very careful about her appearance to just getting by on the bare necessities. Instead of buying new and elegant dresses, which the family could afford to do, she’d mend and fix her old one when it began to all apart. Leavitt said his mother learned a lot about who her true friends were as she remained a kind, helpful woman, albeit seeming untidy compared to the rest of the women around them. It seemed that it was that sudden change in his mother that influenced Leavitt’s future lifestyle.
At the time of his Uncle Tom’s death, Leavitt was to be awarded some of his estate, but the family’s lawyer, J. M. Carson, and Leavitt’s brother-in-law, Ballard, made sure he wasn’t able to get any of it. Leavitt stated that ever since Ballard took an interest in his sister and the rest of the family, he was only interested in the family’s money and that even his uncle was able to see it. For quite some time, Leavitt was given nothing from his inheritance, but after a while of fighting, Leavitt was awarded some land, a good bit of money, and a cottage from his family’s property, which he fixed up to make livable. Leavitt didn’t complain as he liked the simplicity of his life, but he still remained bitter towards Ballard and Ellie and learned that eventually Carson was able to steal the rest of Ellie’s inheritance from her and Ballard as well. By the time he reached adulthood, the only family member Leavitt favored was his youngest niece, Ellie May, whose disposition he saw as the least like Ballard’s compared to his eldest daughter. He said he enjoyed her visits, but after he realized that she would get severely punished for visiting Leavitt, he told her to stop going to his house.
Leavitt was seen as an oddity in the town because of the tasks he chose to do and the way he presented himself. He didn’t care to dress up if he was going into town and he raised his own pigs for meat because he preferred “home-made meat”. He drove an older model vehicle and wore unkempt clothing, although like his mother, he was entirely capable of looking “presentable”. Leavitt said that he has the means to tidy up his appearance, but he didn’t see a real, valuable purpose in it. The people in his town thought he was “nertz” for acting like a handy man although he had a very nice inheritance. The Federal Writers Project approached Fred Tatum who began talking about Leavitt, and they were eventually led to Leavitt himself where they interviewed him about his life and his ideals. Arthur Leavitt simply said that “It don’t matter to me what people say. I just run along and mind my own business and let the other fellow do as he pleases…I know one thing though, I ain’t asking anybody to do anything for me.”
Social issues caused by the Great Depression
Spiritual values after dealing with the Great Depression
According to an article in Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture, after World War I and the Great Depression, people began feeling disillusionment; and spirituality and church attendance began to dwindle. Once the war was over, “…a wave of spiritual depression and religious skepticism widespread and devastating”. Arthur Leavitt also showed that sense of loose faith. After dealing with the financial and legality issues his family’s lawyer and brother-in-law put him through due to greed, it was understandable that Leavitt no longer wanted to deal with people and their conventions, and the hypocrisy that he felt occurred with frequent church goers. He found himself content when he stayed home and went hunting with his dogs, as opposed to dealing with the townspeople who continuously judged his way of life.
Effects of the Great Depression on the wealthy
During the Great Depression, class divisiveness was even more apparent. Although most Americans were affected in a large way by the Depression through loss of money and jobs, the wealthy were virtually unaffected, as seen through Leavitt and Ellie still having an inheritance after the Depression. Some of the wealthy even flaunted their perpetuated financial comfort even more while many Americans were looking for jobs and trying to make ends meet. This behavior by the wealthy during the Depression and even after seems to explain why Arthur Leavitt is seen as strange. He was left a good inheritance from his notoriously wealthy uncle, and he chose to live like someone who is forced to live off the land.
Federal Writers Project
The Federal Writers Project was a program that was a part of the New Deal and was implemented during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. It was officially a part of a plan called Federal One whose intent was to provide jobs for unemployed professionals. The Project included journalists and novelists, and along with pursuing the main goal of the New Deal to “strengthen the nation’s economy…through employment programs”, the FWP section was to have professional writer’s document “American culture and social life”.
The work done as a part of the Project is seen as an example of “American ingenuity and literary skill”. A part of what made the writings more layered was the manner in which the politics of the project was set up. The writers were hired to work within their own state, which led them to write in the form that would prove their state’s important role in the nation, thus adding more literary depth to the original purpose of recording America’s cultural and social views and way of life.