Preview

Is John Downe's Letter To His Dear Wife?

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
381 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Is John Downe's Letter To His Dear Wife?
Imagine going to a new country all by yourself without your loved ones, that’s exactly what John Downe did in order to find a better life for his family. In John Downe’s letter to his “dear wife” he enlightens her about a country in which “… poverty is unknown.” In hopes he convince her to emigrate to America with their children. Downe begins his essay illustrating some of his first pleasant encounters upon entering the United States. He tells about the kindness of the farmer whom brought Downe to see a factory and then took Downe to his home to dine with him. Presumably Downe had offered some coin to the man of which the farmer had responded with “... he would not have a farthing” and that Downe “ … was welcome to come to [the farmers]

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In Deborah Samson’s child and teenage years were rough because she lived in poverty. It didn’t make anything any better when her father left on a expedition at sea and never came back. She was taken from her mother and was in the care of her grandparents. When her grandparents passed away she moved in with a farmer living in Middleborough. She was only ten years old and was expected to work as an indentured…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Around the 1920s America was approaching the Great Depression era, coinciding with “social equality”. The Great Depression caused close to 50% of the population to become unemployed. The steady decline to this was devastating for Uless Carter’s family as Nicholas describes a simple action such as paying the land owner, “Industrious renters they might be, but the planter still kept the books, and if at the end of the year the family owed him money, there was nothing they could do about it.” A situation such as this should not arise if one were to approach it with a mind of “social equality”. The Carter family was treated poorly and not equal, after 3 years of trying to farm at the correct pace, they move to another plantation.…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Working Poor Summary

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In “The Working Poor” Shipler gives an example of a poor grandmother named Leetha Butler who lived in Washington, D.C. and how even though she has very little in terms of finances her spirit and wits are exceedingly high considering her situation of poverty and how she takes care of her daughters orphaned children ages three, eight and sixteen (Shipler 29). After her daughter Diane was murdered in a drive-by-shooting, she did not collapse under the weight of grief because she understood somebody needed to be there and be strong for her grandchildren and support them after her daughter’s death. Furthermore, she used her expertise in saving expenses and spending when local deals were present to accommodate having the new responsibility of her grandchildren.…

    • 628 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He uses a serious and stern tone to show how serious the matter of overseas poverty is and how easy it would be to solve this problem. His tone is offensive at times, directly accusing the reader of the death of children outside of our borders, in places such as Brazil. (Singer) Singer shifts the target of the essay to not just the individual reader, but to the American people as a whole. He accuses the American people, who most citizens feel are relatively generous and willing to help people in need, of extreme selfishness, which helps discredit his argument.…

    • 551 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Great Depression in the 1930’s, most of America was struggling with poverty. This struggle was made worse for families living in the midwest farming areas as the Dust Bowl struck, destroying crops and causing many homes to be foreclosed. With nowhere to go, many migrant families moved west to California, for advertisements promised plentiful jobs. The Joad family was one of these families, and on their journey they encountered both discrimination and hard times, but even through that they remained kind and generous people. During the journey, many families encountered pain, loss, and a general feeling of hopelessness. The Joad family was no exception. The Joads, like many migrant families during the 1930’s, relied on their automobile,…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    "Of Mice and Men" Dbq

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Steinbeck presents a picture of an optimistic dream that was sought after by many during the Great Depression. This dream was to enjoy a life that was “better and richer and fuller for everyone...” (Document C). Lennie and George’s dream of “owning a farm, which would enable them to sustain themselves and offer them protection,’ (Document D), represents their desire to be self sufficient and secure lacking the struggles and hardships that the typical person who lived during the Great Depression experienced. For example, Lennie, who is mentally challenged, repeatedly begs George to describe their dream to him. This dream encompasses their ability to own their very own home. It would be their choice to leave or stay, dependent of how they felt at the time. This seemed to be a luxury that Lennie and George viewed as for the privileged. This is supported by the quote “What bothers us travelin’ people most is we can’t get no place to stay still,” (Document A) by showing that it was difficult to find a decent place to settle with a secure job.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout history, there has been a trend where populations affected by hardship at home have no choice but to leave in search for a better place. In Their Blood is Strong, an essay about the migrant people in the Great Depression, John Steinbeck describes the struggle of starvation in the plentiful garden of California. In another work by Steinbeck, his novel The Grapes of Wrath, he tells the story of the Joads, a family who must leave their farm in Oklahoma in search of work in California during the Great Depression. The Joads start out optimistic about the life they can have in California, but find a grim situation upon arriving. Similarly, Gregory Nava’s movie El Norte follows two Guatemalan siblings, Rosa and Enrique, who flee their home to go to America, but the life they find in the United States isn’t as easy or…

    • 495 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In his book, The Working Poor, David Shipler introduces readers to the culture of those he calls “invisible” Americans. He describes these people as the struggling poor who work to provide a comfortable lifestyle to the same people that are unaware of their plight. In the chapter entitled, “Sins of the Fathers,” readers meet Wendy Waxler. She is a single mother struggling to provide for her young daughter who has cerebral palsy. Commenting on her fighting against abuse and poverty, Wendy declares,…

    • 1402 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes it seems as though the most privileged people are the weakest because they are not prepared to fall. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is a short novel that focuses on the hardship of living in California during the Great Depression. Some may agree that the main conflict in this novel is the misfortune of a kind-hearted barley bucker, Lennie, but a greater theme lies under the pages. The real hardship goes to Lennie’s best friend, George, who’s worst fear is being lonely because his heart is weak and needs someone to lean on when times get tough.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Each and every one of us has a dream and we all encounter conflicts that stand in the way of our ability to achieve it. Some people can reach their dreams, but many find themselves unable to free themselves from the personal, social and economic chains that bind them. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George had a dream of owning a farm. These characters embarked on a journey to achieve their version of the American dream. “Well,” said George, “we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!” Along the way, their personal, social and economic limitations put insurmountable hardships in their path.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jobless, homeless, and unable to support themselves, many farmers during the 1930’s moved west in search of better life. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, readers observe how dreams keep people motivated; especially through tough times. Steinbeck’s characters George Milton and Lennie Small, search for work in the struggling agricultural market of California. Although there are many hardships that the men face, both George and Lennie have a dream that they are determined to accomplish. Despite Lennie’s lack of social boundaries and the hardships of the Great Depression, it is the dream that they have together that keeps them motivated.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Though John Scalzi never reveals his own experience with poverty like Jeanette, his biography tells us that he was spent his childhood in California in poverty and was able to work out of it similar to Jeannette Walls. John takes on a “no tolerance” attitude when it comes to stereotypes about the poor, especially victims of hurricane Katrina that hit in 2005. The reason he wrote “Being Poor” was because of the people asking why everyone did not just leave when they were told to and avoid the hurricane. He answered in his essay indirectly that these poor southern people do not have reliable transportation, live hand-to-mouth, and have nowhere else to go even if they had the means to get there. Hurricane Katrina was the costliest hurricane in the history of the United States, and the sixth strongest overall. The severe destruction left many losses of life and property damage, but for the poor it was the worst. John Scalzi wrote this essay for the ignorant people wondering why the poor in New Orleans did not just leave when the hurricane came. The details he gives describe on an everyday basis what these families are going through. “Being poor is clutching that box of Raisin Bran and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last” gives many details in one line. Raisin Bran is a simple type of cereal and one that can be off-brand. Trying to make the kids understand it has to last is showing that many times that box might be all a whole family has for a month. This was the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States, and people are asking the poor why they did not leave. Many think that it is easy to move out of poverty, but they have never experienced true poverty before. Many families are single-parent households who wake up and work all day,…

    • 1158 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Horizontal World Analysis

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Bringing in the story of her grandparents arriving to the area she ties in the reader by giving fully set real world examples. She began, “Such is the situation all of my great-grandparents and grandparents encountered when they arrived between the years of 1885 and 1911.” By utilizing this not only does she give a final point to the importance of small towns but she shows herself as credible to the position she is standing in by giving a first hand situation. Continuing to use anecdotes and quotes she explains Richard Manning’s observation of the grassland in which immigrants came to establish as a small community. Debra quoted Manning, “The place was a mess, and it became a young nation’s job to fix it with geometry, democracy, seeds, steam, steel, and water.” She is using this example in a way of saying “there is not much to us but together we create the most unique and purposeful. way of life. Stories and famous quotes give more of a higher view on the passage due to utilizing known factors to the situation, along with she used her families stories of small towns to show importance of the idea to herself.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "Serving in Florida" by Barbara Ehrenreich, is an effective essay derived from Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. This essay is a personal reflection of Ehrenreich's experiences working "under- cover" in low paying, blue collar jobs in Florida. This essay is a descriptive narrative that shows how hard it is for low paid, working class Americans, to make it in the world. Ehrenreich vividly describes her experiences and sends a message to the reader that many working class Americans live in harsh, sub-human conditions. People living in this situation do not have the opportunity to succeed, and are stuck in a downward spiral of increasing poverty and despair. The essay reveals the sad truth that many people take for granted what they have in life. It reminds the reader that there are Americans living in horrible conditions, who are unable to afford the simple necessities in life; like new pants for work, or a decent meal. Ehrenreich demonstrates through her personal experience, that it is almost impossible to survive on the wages a low paid American works for.…

    • 408 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dreiser's family was poor, and he soon saw a profound difference between the promise and the reality of American life. This realization was a major source of Dreiser's discontent and an important influence on his works.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays