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the depression: story prompt
There's something about this photograph which really strikes me as melancholy, and it doesn't have to do with the sharecropper's torn clothes. It's got more to do with the fact that he's standing by the side of the roada, which moves off without him while he's looking over the fields.
This photo was taken in 1936 in rural Mississippi. It's hard to imagine what life was like for people who were poor to start with. How much worse could it get? Did sharecroppers in the rural south starve to death in the Depression? I don't know the answer to that question.
I do know that relentless povery grinds people down. It robs people of hope, of the ability to feel anything but despair and anger. The poorest places are the biggest eyesores not so much because soap and paint cost money, but because they require hope and optimism and energy.
This particular sharecropper might have been one of the lucky ones. Maybe he and his sons were able to earn enough to keep the family fed. Maybe the younger kids could get a couple years of school. Maybe his extended family was made of strong, stern stuff and they found ways to manage. If his boys came home now and then with a chicken they said they found dead in the road or pockets full of butterbeans, he looked the other way and hoped his wife would do the same.
Maybe he considered himself well off, and fortunate in his family and faith. Maybe he was too tired to go to services on Sunday, and dragged there by his mother, sat stewing in his anger at the preacher and his god.
Maybe he died of bleeding ulcers or tuberculosis or a cut he got in the field that turned septic, in an age when there was no such thing as an emergency room or antibiotics. Maybe he lived to be 98 and died surrounded by his great grandchildren.
I hope somebody remembers his story.
November 12, 2005 09:18 PM
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Comments
Hey...besides enjoying this post and what it made me think about, I also wanted to tell you I saw the new Pride and Prejudice, and I loved it, and I really think you will enjoy it also...The combination of so many elements that I don't think would have worked if they were put together with a different director, or cinematographer, or composer. All the elements were just perfectly synchronized, and some beautiful performances...
Posted by: Christy at November 13, 2005 10:40 AM
Christy -- I've heard some bad things, but I'll go see it anyway, with a more open mind now. Thanks.
Posted by: Sara Donati at November 13, 2005 11:02 AM
wow, and rottentomatoes.com likes it very well, indeed: 89% positive with over 90 reviews so far. I dare to hope...
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pride_and_prejudice/
Posted by: robyn at November 13, 2005 12:55 PM
Gosh - what was it like to be a photographer during the Depression? I have no knowledge of the history of photography, but photos like these make me want to find out, since I can't imagine anyone less than a truly impassioned photog taking money from the rent/food/shoe jar to pay for developers' chemicals. Or did they hold onto rolls of films until they could afford to develop them? But old film rolls might not turn out so well, soooo you just figure out how badly you love taking photos and decide what gives today in your budget I guess. Just makes me wonder.
Posted by: Pam at November 13, 2005 08:46 PM