* poem "drifters" about a family who continuously pack belongings and move, to mothers disapproval * mother dreams of settling down, building a house she can call home. but each time that they move, part of this dream dies. "she won't even ask....wish". * tone used in quote regret. mother regrets leaving house because she wants to settle down but she is also getting sick moving around and has given up hope starting new life.
However, poor economic conditions and increasing competition from younger lawyers brought about a decline in Chew’s law practice by the latter part of the decade. In order to prevent public embarrassment to his family he was forced to sell six members of the Allen family; father, mother, and four children including young Richard. The Allen family was sold as a unit which was untypical in those days, as families were usually broken apart and sold off as individuals. The new owner of the Allen family was a man named Stokeley Sturgis who farmed in Kent County near Dover, Delaware. Eventually Stokeley also ran into economic difficulties and sold Allen's parents and three of his younger siblings.
This is because as a young girl she watched her mother suffer through a sickness known as the Cold. She had to sit as a bystander knowing there is nothing she could do but listen to her mother scream and plead for help. “In the afternoons after school, between bouts of screaming, Tana’s mother would call for her, pleading, begging to be let out. […] And little Pearl would toddle up, crying too […] Make her stop, Pearl said” (Black 14). In turn this event began to eat at her father’s ability to stay present for his daughters, leaving only Tana to be there for Pearl.
He sees his mother is unhappy and hears the house whisper, “There must be more money!” (Lawrence 19). This frightens Paul and as a result, he tries to find a solution to end the whispers once and for all. Similarly, Mrs. Fullerton, a character from the short story, “The Shining Houses”, is also troubled as she attempts to make a living in her old age. Mrs. Fullerton sells things one would typically buy on a farm such as eggs, chickens, cherries, etc.. Although Mrs. Fullerton is the only one who lives in a rural type home and sells such goods, she is forced to compete with supermarket prices.
Jeremiah often helped on the farm as well. When Jeremiah took control he spent most of sea-son’s money in bars of Lilongwe and Kasungu. In November when it was time to hire people and buy some things he had little money left for that. Jeremiah disappeared owing eight head of cattle. The business collapsed their family was left to survive on their own.
Her whole life she was kept to the family and isolated from society because of the family’s idea of being better than everyone. When Emily’s father dies she tells everyone that he wasn’t dead, “she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will” (Faulkner p# 240). Emily couldn’t change and tried to hold on. The character Miss Brill is isolated in a different manner. Every Sunday Miss Brill would go to the park and “Only two people shared her special seat”(Mansfield p# 276).
It’s a wonder anyone could have survived such a way during this time period in America. The first to happen to this family was little income. They were barely making it through when he lost his job. Several men during this time period became a part of the category, “unemployment.” The unemployment rate increased a lot during the great depression. People who lost their jobs could not feed themselves, pay their rent, and support their family.
For example when Kareem, her husband, and the family's servant Attiyat, immediately left the house to perform the tasks for the day ahead, the main character finds her in tears. This could be a symbol of the feeling of her internal loneliness. All her children have grown to reach the age where independence, self-centered personalities, upbringing of a young family, and preoccupation in one's studies, were the root to each of their lives. In addition to her realizations, "the relationship between their father and I no longer contained that essential ingredient of marriage." (p.18).
However, as evident in both novels, this traditional middle-class family structure does not conform to the conditions that the characters are faced with during the industrialization period. In “Mary Barton”, for instance, Mary lives only with her father after her mother and brother died. Mary’s brother died of hunger due to their very poor living conditions caused by the economic depression (Corey, 1). Mary’s father, John, then becomes involve in the workers’ union to expose the poverty stricken people, and leaves Mary "more of her own way than is common in any rank with girls of her age" (Gaskell, 23). She is without a mother to guide her in life, and to arrange marriage of any sort.
A government policy of enclosure was implemented, which greatly upset traditional, rural societies. Tenant farmers would now only employ labourers to do short term work on the farms, for jobs such as hedging or ditching. There was now a surplus of labourer due to deflation after the French wars, a population increase alongside a non-agricultural employment decrease, and the development of agricultural machinery. It is easy to see why people protested against this, many men were jobless and unable to feed their families, and the little work there was was sparse and low paid. It was also due to political reasons that people protested during the Swing Riots.