Photo Prompt -- #7
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Below is one of documentary photographer Dorothea Lange's most famous photos, Migrant Mother, taken in 1936 in Nipomo, CA., during the Great Depression. California was overrun by impoverished families fleeing the "Dust Bole" where drought had forced closure of thousands upon thousands of farms.
Dorothea's notes: "Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two. Destitute in pea pickers' camp ... because of failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires to buy food."
The mother was later identified as Florence Owens Thompson. She died in 1983 at the age of 80. The podcast is an excerpt of an interview later in her life. The photo of her in 1978 is by Tim Benson of the Modesto Bee.
Use the photo and interview information to create a new character and write about the moment of the photo, describing the setting, sounds, details, what was going through your character's head. Choose the genre photo prompt (also the link to read earlier prompts and responses) and use the keyword: #7
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...
...This seems so sad.
♦♦♦♦♦♦It is...
...sad. No question about it. A combination of drought and depression sent families in Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri into terrible chaos; many headed west to find work picking vegetables -- anything they could get to stay alive.
One of the best novels ever written on the subject was Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I recommend it.
gg
John Steinbeck
I've read The Pearl, by John Steinbeck.
...his writing style is interesting.
♦♦♦♦♦♦Seikatsu...
Yes his style is interesting. Steinbeck is very focused on detail, on physical setting -- in many of his pieces the setting (or situation) is a character.
I've read all his works. I think he's a terrific writer. Well worth reading Grapes of Wrath, Red Pony, Tortilla Flat
cheers
g
...
This is off topic from the photo, but Steinbeck's East of Eden is my all time favorite book.
~realize
____________________________________________________________________
Que Sera Sera.
only slightly off topic...
... I did like that, but for some reason parts just didn't seem to jell for me in the same way some of his other books did. And it's not really that off topic. Steinbeck and Dorothea Lange were entirely immersed in what was happening at the time in California, the droves of "Okie's" coming from busted out, Dust Bowl farms, running their claptrap cars until they dropped and couldn't fix them anymore. People chasing a dream; lost their farms, their belongings, their lives, their dignity, chasing a dream they could find work in California, only to find these horrid conditions, the precursors to the corporate farm operations that paid them virtually nothing, kept them moving so they wouldn't organize.
Lange photographed.
Steinbeck brought it to life in words.
gg
Grapes of Wrath, beginning of chapter 17
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how
how did you get the photo? i searched the download thing for like, ten min.
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○_(")(") "What if the trials of this life are mercies in disguise?"
§ ~The Kitten Warrior