The Great Depression In Daniel James Brown's The Boys In The Boat
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The Great Depression was both a time of poverty and sorrow, in Daniel James Brown’s outstanding novel The Boys In The Boat he tells the story of nine young men coming for nothing whom end up winning gold at the 1938 Berlin Olympics which was a necessary win for America. Joe Rantz supported himself from the young age of ten due to prior event where his step-mother kicks him out. Rantz and all other nine men not only survive in this time of despondency they thrive. In the time of the Great Depression it was common for teenage boys to leave their homes in search of a better life, yet the astounding thing is that Rantz was able to support himself while attending school, he even managed to attend the University of Washington where his rowing career took off. The Washington rowers not only struggled in their youth, after qualifying for the Olympics they lacked the funding to participate in the games and were forced to raise $5000 in a short amount of time. In todays day and age the majority of Americas adolescence do well for themselves, however if we were born in the time Joe Rantz…show more content… Thula, Joe’s step-mother spited him as she had such a hard time feeding Harry, her sons and Joe she could no longer cope with it and told Joe’s father to choose between her and his son. “He went back upstairs and told his son he would have to move out of the house. Joe was ten” (pg. 36) Harry abandoned his son at the local school house the next day with ease. In many cases at this time it was the eldest of children to leave first as they had a better chance of surviving on their own. In no way could I ever imagine my parents doing anything of the sort to me last such an age although I have no real idea of how bad the circumstances of living were at the time. It shows how tough it was to care for a child that parents were willing to abandon their children in hopes of a better life for