Impact of the Great Depression on United States Culture - Essay Sample

Introduction

The great depression is stated as the worst economic slump in the United States history lasting from the year 1929 up to 1939. The depression began after the crash of the stock market in October 1929. There was a rapid increase in rates of crime since a lot of unemployed workers involved themselves in petty theft to earn a living. This paper discusses how the United States popular culture was then affected by the great depression.

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The Americans were required to change their habits for them to survive the great depression. By changing their culture, they were able to reevaluate their lives and also adopt new lifestyles. The change in popular culture that happened in the United States during this era is divided into two sections. The first section is the overt culture that was accepting severe poverty during this depression by finding pragmatic means of the survivor. The other was based on subtle mind conditioning in which people were able to run away from hunger and from daily resource scarcity. Even though there was a great depression, the United States popular culture, on the other hand, was flourishing in the 1930s. The popular culture in America was putting focus to emphasize what was being presented as unique to the United States contributions and experiences. During this era, there was mass popularization of American culture which was also linked to crucial technological advisements. Many people in America even the poor were able to access radios and photographs.

Further, there was a dramatic reduction of birth rates since many couples were preferring not to add the number of children since there was hunger as well as a decrease in rates of marriage as people were waiting for a better time to alive. The rate of divorce was falling dramatically during the time of great depression although some of the marriage partners were choosing to separate with their spouse since it was a cheaper alternative. The economic crisis during great depression led to an increase in antisocial activities such as robbery. Those who survived great depression were seen to be very frugal and suspicious in banks and also in the stock market.

For people to forget the great depression pressing troubles, many people were opting to find entertainment in the mass media. Irrespective of this crisis, the Broadway was playing all all-times attendance records. There was an introduction of a superman in 1938 that played into society desire for a hero to come and solve all of their problems. During this period, there were radio shows like The Green Hornet and The Ranger that became more popular. Movies such as Snow White and Gone by the Wind were able to have millions of viewers in the American's cinemas. During this era, blues music was also able to become very popular.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion, we have seen that during the era of great depression there was a dramatic increase in rates of crime since most of the unemployed people were involving themselves into petty theft to put food on the table. The American people were needed to change their habits to survive the great depression. The American culture was flourishing despite the crisis of a great recession. There was a dramatic reduction in the birth rate since couples were opting to feed a few mouths. And finally, we find many people preferred to find entertainment in the mass media to relief themselves.