During the Great Depression, millions of Americans found themselves unable to find work and struggling to survive. Many rural families abandoned their destitute farms and migrated to California, drawn by the promise of work picking agricultural products. Meanwhile, the Franklin Roosevelt Administration launched a series of policy programs known as the New Deal to combat the economic crisis and provide relief to the impoverished. ** Think about the debates Americans had over how best to help the poor. Think also about the difference between the “deserving” and “undeserving poor,” as well as the different ways Americans made those distinctions. Competing ideas about poverty and personal responsibility helped shape reactions to the New Deal’s efforts to relieve their plight even among the poor. Write an essay that explains the competing visions over providing relief to the impoverished during the Great Depression, using the example of Dorothea Lange’s famous photograph “Migrant Mother.” Explain who Lange was and what she hoped to accomplish with her picture, and compare Lange’s perspective with the attitude of Florence Thompson, the main subject of the photograph.
