Most of the people who worked in the Triangle Waist Company were Italian, Norwegian, Poles, French, Irish, German, and Hungarian immigrants. Many of these people came to American to find a better life and instead found dangerous jobs. Most of the workers killed were young women—some as young as 14— who worked to support their families (Drehle 25). Along with dangerous working conditions, many of New York’s poor lived in bad conditions as well. In the summer the heat made the smell of garbage, horse manure, and sweaty people without plumbing unbearable.
54). Greed was a recurring topic in the factories during this time. Factory owners did not want to shovel money out of their own pocket for any extra expenses, such as safer equipment. Greed also constituted the reason why factory owners hadn’t wanted to unionize for fear of losing money and power. Mike’s death, from a blast furnace accident, left his wife and four children to carryon without him in the midst of the first world war; however, unlike Dubik only receiving 75 dollars for funeral expenses, Mike’s family received thirteen-hundred dollars for compensation along with a five-hundred dollar death benefit to pay for the funeral signaling a better compensation plan as time progressed (pg.
Tens of thousands of migrant farm workers travelled the nation looking for employment. Homelessness, poverty and general despair characterized much of the nation”. (Encyclopaedia Americana, Bernard S. Cayne, ed. Danbury: Grollier, 1990.) Family life with in the great depression The great depression had a rather large effect on society but had a more direct effect on family life.
Many times people face poverty because they lack the means to move up in life. This barrier often times comes from lack of education. In many areas instances, children never even make it out of high school because their presence is needed to work and help the family survive. Seniors are often faced with many challenges which lead them to fall into poverty. Companies are known to let seniors over 50 go from their jobs.
The people were desperate for jobs because of the world depression that had occurred. Plus the people were mainly farmers and were tied to the land. Money was poured into churches and monasteries rather than developing sustainable business or agriculture. Jobs were scarce, and it was very hard to make a living and support families. This caused the people to flock to America and seek new job opportunities.
As Victor was growing up, he was also steadily growing apart from his best friend Thomas due to social pressures. I think he didn’t want to be considered a weirdo because he affiliated with one. He was ashamed of being Thomas’s friend. So he beat up Thomas in front of everyone to just show that he wasn’t his friend. After that incident the two never spoke to each other up until the death of Victor’s father.
During the movie Braddock was broke like the rest of America during the Great Depression. He struggled to find work, food and eventually had to go on government assistance for a while. When he was given another shot at boxing he said “Now I know what I’m fighting for.” which meant he was fighting to take care of his family. He was seen as an inspiration for American because he was broke like everybody else in America. The movie does a good job portraying the life of Braddock and the hardships of the Great Depression.
Because of the recession many Americans are forced to leave their houses and move in with family. The rising cost of utilities, food, and housing is making it hard for them to make ends meet. Some reporters have done stories of multiple families living in one house because of losing jobs and other things. They spend their days in the unemployment lines and walking the towns to
Some parents avoid shelter life, by splitting up the family and sending their children to stay with relatives, while they fend for themselves. It happens all too often. As you can see families that are experiencing homelessness are under considerable stress. But Is this a real problem in America? According to the National Center on Family Homelessness in March 2010 about 250,000, that’s a quarter of a million people in families are homeless.
That makes it very difficult to afford many of the things they thought they would in this country. Many immigrants have a hard time finding health care. Many of them are working in low paying jobs that don’t offer health insurance. Families often do not have enough money to go to a doctor. Many of them don’t know where to get help because they don’t speak English.