Studs Terkel #8

Mike Lefevre

Lefevre worked hard to earn a living his entire life, but he hated his jobs because did not like being bossed around. He wishes that the hard working laborers received respect and recognition. The passage teaches us that mass production led to dehumanization in America. During this time period education also affected social class and LeFevre felt mistreated by younger college educated invidiuals. He felt that unless a person is educated or holds a high position in a workplace, they are not accepted. Lastly, there is a fear that technology will one day replace the low-income working class, leaving them unemployed.

Phil Stallings

Terkel included Stallings’ story to show the dark side of the industrial movement which highlights a bureaucracy based on creating the maximum amount of production by any means necessary. Stallings describes the horrendous working conditions and the animal-like treatment of the employees at the plant through excruciating detail. Terkel isn’t only focused on showing the hardship of the common worker, rather he wants the reader to understand that the massive factories and increases in production came with a cost to the average hard-working citizen. America has made huge strides in protecting laborers with legislation over the past century. One of the big reasons for this is that laborers organized into unions due to mistreatment which gave them power to help enforce these laws and create basic standards in factories. The shift that occurred during industrialization to factory production had many benefits to society, but came at a cost.

Studs Terkel #7

Florence Scala

Scala’s story describes her attempt to stop the government from building over her childhood home, Hull House. She realizes the importance of the settlement to protecting children from violence in the neighborhood and bringing hope to poor families with minimal prospects. Terkel includes her story because he wants to examine the relationship between the people and the government. During this time period the government continually tried to modernize American cities. The United States was built by citizens from all kinds of countries, but there is a constant struggle between maintain their old cultures and forming a new unified “American” culture. While the government attempted to create this unification process, Scala tried to maintain her roots and the old culture of the city. Florence Scala’s story helps explain the difficult and tenuous relationship between the people and their government. In the end, the government won and the Hull House was built over by a new college. Scala argues that the outcome shows something about the power of our government.

Kid Pharaoh

Pharaoh spent his life as a con-man after he suffered a difficult childhood during the Great Depression where his family lived in poverty. In his story he examines his feelings on race, how American society promotes individual success over communal success, and lastly how the Great Depression caused lasting impressions on Americans. Pharaoh explains his racist feelings against African Americans. Terkel includes this to examine how race relations during this time affected where people lived, how they acted, and their true feelings towards each other. While slavery and Reconstruction were many years in the past, still lingering thoughts of racism affected the society during this time period. The main argument that Pharaoh discusses is that American society is too focused on building up the individual for success and not on promoting a group mentality. This is not necessarily a negative thing in my point of view, but it is important to understanding the way our culture has been formed and the way our society is built. Lastly, Pharaoh’s story helps us comprehend how the Great Depression led to lasting insecurities about money. Just like any other tragedy, children during the Great Depression often lived in horrendous poverty. It affected the way they viewed money and financial security, and thus had a large and lasting impact on the economy. 

Studs Terkel #6

Peter Ota

Ota’s family was terribly mistreated during the war. His father’s assets and hard work was taken away from him and the family had to be “shipped” from camp to camp. The majority of the non-Oriental American citizens had an immense hatred for all Japanese because of the war. There was a sense of fear in the American public and unfortunately, being Japanese, Ota was one of many Japanese that was feared. Even though America was supportive of the fight against Japan, they feared the Japanese people in general because their culture was different and they did not know where their loyalties lie. The fact that all the events in the passage were during World War II showed how Japanese Americans were treated and under certain conditions. “After all those years, having worked his whole life to build…an American dream…having it all taken away, and not one vindictive word….He died a very broken man”. The U.S. had mistreated American citizens because of their descent, taking away everything that they had rightfully earned through hard work. Since then, we have given reparations to the Japanese and now do a lot of trade with Japan. The war with Japan set a precedence for removing military strength in Asia, and led Japan to focus on becoming an economic power. 

Betsy Basye Hutchinson

Hutchinson was a nurse at a hospital that took care of injured soldiers during and after WWII. During her time she witnessed the horrible injuries that soldiers suffered during the war and it was her job to not only heal them as a nurse, but to keep their spirits up. Hutchinson’s story brings up two important points that Terkel wants the reader to understand. First, there is a difference between the popularized media version of the war that inspired nationalism during this difficult time period and the war that the soldiers experienced on the front lines. Understanding that war causes horrible pain and suffering for the soldiers was easy to understand for the Europeans who witnessed the war first-hand, however for Americans who only heard about the war through the news it never really hit home. The expectation that war removes dictators with wars that happen far away set a precedent for the United States entering Korea and eventually Vietnam. The second interesting point from Hutchinson’s story was when she discussed that soldiers and witnesses to the horrors during WWII often kept quiet and did not share their stories. These veterans wanted to shield their children from the pain that the war caused, and this lead to someone of a distorted truth about war for the Baby Boomer generation.

Studs Terkel #5

Peggy Terry
Peggy Terry had an interesting perspective of the time during World War II, because she was almost unaware the war had been going on. Terry worked for a shell factory producing ammo for guns and planes to use in the war. She didn’t think the shells were for some current war and since she didn’t have a radio she had no way of finding out about the war going on. Peggy Terry recognized the immense propaganda and hatred that America produced against the Japanese. Even though the Nazis were enemies, “ “. She considered the brutalities that war can bring upon a nation and recounted her own story to provide an example. This passage analyzes how the war mentality affects all people, whether it is those who go off to fight or those who are at home. Her husband was a direct example of this, as he suffered PTSD and his personality was heavily changed after the war.

E.B. Sledge, Marine
Reading his story and watching it in the Pacific is both horrifying and fascinating. Sledge describes the dehumanization the takes place among soldiers who come in as regular people with normal jobs and become monsters do to the horrible events that surround them. His story has particular importance to understanding the difference between the European and Pacific campaigns. While we hated both the German and the Japanese soldiers, the Germans were willing to surrender while the Japanese were more vicious according to Sledge. Regardless of whether this is true, the feeling of hatred that both sides felt for each other is scary. While Bob Rasmus changed his idea that all Germans were evil to German soldiers are really just boys, Sledge saw the ugly side of war to the point where he wanted to remove a desecrate a dead Japanese body. When he looks back at the events in horror, like when the American soldier killed the innocent old woman, Sledge can only comprehend his ability to keep fighting by arguing that it was his duty to his comrades that kept him going. The horrors that Sledge and other soldiers experienced in the Pacific campaign reached the United States and President Truman. These led Truman to make the decision to drop the bombs on Japan.

Studs Terkel #4

Bob Rasmus, rifleman

This story analyzes how WWII simultaneously caused a transformation in America as a country and each citizen. At home, while the Great Depression was coming to an end people began to focus on wartime production. Our young men, like Bob Rasmus, began to prepare for the invasion of Europe. Bob’s story helps explain the fast amount of growth that happened within each soldier during this difficult time period. One common theme throughout the piece is that he laughs after making several serious comments. This is not nervous laughter, rather an examination of just how far he came in such a short period of time. Also interesting to note is how society changes during wartime, especially within the military. Rasmus examines how soldiers acted heroically not for a specific reason, but rather because of the “Band of Brothers” spirit in which they did not want to let their friends down. Rasmus also analyzes the difference between the propaganda posters and films, and the real life war. While at home all Germans and Japanese were shown to be evil, Rasmus points out that most of them were just young men just like him. When these men came back home, America had been re-born from the Great Depression into a successful industrial country while the Europe and Asia were left in shambles. Lastly laments on the fact that WWII left a legacy on America which shifted our mentality towards a “world-policeman” such as in Korea and Vietnam.

Studs Terkel #3

Jane Yonder and Tom Yoder

Ms. Yonder describes her experiences with poverty as a young girl. The story focuses around when she got a new coat which she describes with great admiration. Her son also explains how his view on hunger and poverty is completely different than his mother’s despite being only one generation removed.  The simple coat that others thought was ugly represented someone very important to Jane. Warmth and food are taken for granted by most Americans today, just like Tom. Jane reminds us that only a short time period ago many Americans had almost nothing. This is significant because even today there are those with very little living all around us. While we might not talk to them or see them on a daily basis, she reminds us how lucky we truly are. “Oh, gee, you almost looked forward to the day you could throw up. I could remember dreaming about oranges and bananas, dreaming about them.” (128) When we go to a grocery store, there is so much food available to us. Jane’s story reminds us to value our lives and be grateful for everything we have. 

Peggy Terry and her mother, Mary Owsley

Peggy Terry and her mother share their feelings about the problems with the social system, as well as hunger, poverty, and economic inequality during the Depression. Mary’s husband, who is also Peggy’s father, suffered PTSD from World War I and the Depression made his life worse. Despite all the distress, the people of Oklahoma City banded together as a community and people shared food if they had enough for their own families. Terkel included this passage because he saw a story of community in a time of economic depression. Despite all the suffering, people looked out for each other, making sure neighbors and friends survived through this time period. Historically, such a story is often rare, as many had to learn how to survive on their own. The mother-daughter duo talked of their particular experience because they felt that people don’t appreciate what they are given. They offer the idea that life cannot be lived whilst thinking of money because every day can bring a new challenge.

Studs Terkel #2

Ed Paulsen 

In this story Ed Paulsen talks about his own experiences in the city of San Francisco, during the Great Depression. His hometown had not been affected by the Crash of 1929, since almost no one had invested in or even knew what stocks were. He came into the city of San Francisco looking for work, which turned out to be unsuccessful without a college degree. He recounts the experiences of watching African American and white men both protesting for the sake of food in front of City Hall. Paulsen himself was a scavenger, searching for food, money and work. Paulsen explains that people had a “coyote mentality….He’ll run but when he’s cornered, he’ll fight….He’s not as powerful as a wolf. He has a small body….A coyote is nature’s victim as well as man’s. We were coyotes in the thirties, the jobless” (98). Paulsen believes this because he saw that people fought for food and survival. The coyote is symbolic of the people’s struggles during the Depression. During the recent housing crisis, lots of people lost their homes. There are thousands of people who are homeless and starving even today in America. This story helps us reflect on the importance of our government and population in fighting this problem that is rampant in both America and around the world. Paulsen argues that the only way to deal with is for people to band together in their time of need.

Arthur A. Robertson
Mr. Robertson recounts his story as a stock broker being affected by the Depression. He watched his friends and allies fall economically, leading them to end their own lives because of the poverty. Terkel chose to include this story because he wanted to show that the Depression didn’t just affect the lower class. The rich and educated were greatly hurt by the Depression because the American economy relies on individual spending. During this time period, in a sense all classes were removed and everyone had to struggle to survive. This difficult time period led directly to lots of new legislation which got government more involved in business. Another outcome from the depression was the establishment of new public works programs that helped get everyone back to work. This has set a precedence for government involvement to help restore consumer confidence in difficult time periods and the people’s expectations that the government is responsible for job creation. For example, recently the Obama administration has made several bailouts to large organizations in order to protect jobs.