Senior Thesis
The following are a
few selections from my Senior Thesis, Merry-Go-Rounds and Cold Bean Sandwiches:
Tales of Transients in the Great Depression. The project was inspired by a series
of letters from my Great Uncle Bernie to my grandmother while he traveled with
the Rubin & Cheny Exposition (a carnival). Chapter one tells of the national causes and consequences of the
depression, paving the road for the transient outbreak, while the second chapter looks at an often-overlooked cause of transiency—existing
hobo culture. Drawing on these influences, the third chapter finally tells the story I set out to find. However, in
examining the transient experience, I realized there was no single transient
story. Through my selection of oral memoirs, I attempted to recreate a
patchwork effect that gives the reader both a sense of uniqueness to the
individual and understanding of the interconnectedness of the experiences. My
thesis, including a soundtrack and the letters in their entirety, is being
published for the
The first selection
is more of an introduction to the entire thesis. By relating the Great
Depression to The Wizard of Oz, it sets a tone that invites more than history
fanatics to discover transients. Next, while many think they know what a hobo
is, there were so many variants that I had the worst time settling on a solid
definition. The passage from chapter two illustrates my frustration. Making a
selection from chapter three was the most difficult; no section truly
represents the overall quilt. However, this passage conveys the general style
of the chapter, as well as contains my favorite quote from my research.
Chapter I Somewhere over the Rainbow
In 1900 Lyman Frank Baum wrote The
Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the first in a series of American fairy tales about the
mythical land of Oz. For some, however, Oz is more than a child’s bedtime
story. Within its pages, researchers like Henry Littlefield have found
allusions to William Jennings Bryan, the Populist movement, and the debate for
the silver standard. Richard Jensen takes the parable a step further,
suggesting that the name Oz is symbolic as the abbreviation of ounce (as in
gold or silver). When one considers Baum’s life, this interpretation is not too
far-fetched.[1]
In 1939, during the Great
Depression, MGM released the film version of The Wizard of Oz. One might easily
argue that the film was created strictly for entertainment purposes. Yet, one
cannot help but apply the interpretation of the book to the film in hopes of
better understanding the era that produced it. Initially, this second argument
finds very little scholarly backing, other than the fact that both were
products of severe economic depressions. However, the coincidence that the
film’s lyricist, E. Y. Harburg, also wrote the Great Depression anthem,
"Brother Can You Spare a Dime?" seems a little too convenient.[2]
Perhaps the film’s intention was just to entertain. One could conceivably also
claim that entertainment was the sole intention of Baum. Maybe it is possible
to see whatever one wants to in just about anything. After all, the movie has
an eerie way of synchronizing with Pink Floyd’s "Dark Side of the
Moon," though this probably is not the intention of either.[3] Still, one
cannot ignore the parallels of the film and the Great Depression experience. At
any rate, The Wizard of Oz provided a nice analogy for discussing the
depression.
"I’ve always felt the best
place to start is at the beginning," or so is the advice of Glenda, the
good witch of the North. Letting the mind wander to the start of the film, one
undoubtedly recalls a black-and-white world of a small
Continuing the analogy, the
Another interesting aspect is the
thought of travel. For various reasons, many Americans migrated to new areas
during the depression in hopes of finding work. Recall that Dorothy is from
How the witches play into all of
this is rather debatable. Possibly the Witch of the West can reprise her role
from the depression of the 1890s. She may represent natural forces in the West
that continuously try to sabotage the efforts of average people. In the case of
the Dust Bowl, the natural force of drought combined with strong winds to
produce ruin. As interpreted for the book, Dorothy is able to defeat the Witch
of the West with water. So the film may say that if it had rained more, nature
and the Dust Bowl could have been tamed.[9]
And so the final destination
becomes the inevitable, "Big So What?" that provides closure for
every lesson. Analogies provide a fascinating "I-
never-thought-of-it-that-way" moment. The Wizard of Oz is a film with
which most people can readily recall and identify. It is a film that spoke to
the people of the depression and continues to speak to us today despite a
multi-decade time gap. In writing this thesis, I want to tell a story like that
of Dorothy and her compatriots. I want to tell the story of people who traveled
during the Great Depression, and I want that story to reach out and say
something worthy of the effort required in reading it.
Chapter II Catching Out:
While all of these quotes are
fabulous and do well to illustrate a definition, they do everything but pin
down exactly what a hobo is, and more importantly, what separates the hobo from
the tramp, transient or homeless. Since those who lived such a life are
stretched to set standard guidelines, one must turn to the professionals.
Sociologist Nels Anderson argues that there are five classes of homeless
people: "(a) seasonal workers, (b) the transient or occasional worker or
hobo, (c) the tramp who . . . works only when convenient, (d) The bum who
seldom wanders and seldom works, and (e) the home guard who . . . does not
leave town." [10]
Yet,
Chapter III Tramp, Tramp, Tramp: Tales of Transients
Though a case for self-centered
learning deemed imperative for daily survival could easily be made, it seems
unwise to ignore the discovered greater truths that perhaps could only be
learned on the road. For the first time in their lives, many transients became
conscious of the presence of a color barrier. Imagine riding a boxcar through
the pitch darkness of night. You develop a friendship with the transient next
to you, someone you have never met, but feel as though he is as close as your
dearest friends is. Now imagine waking the following morning, only to discover
the person is of the opposite race.[13]
For those who like to believe in
the inherent goodness of the world, stories like this create a warm-fuzzy
moment, reassuring our faith in humanity. Chester Smith, for one, describes a
new look on the world, brought about by his rail experience. "My three
years on the rails made me understand and view the injustices men and women of
our country have faced in a new light. We don’t all have the luxury of doing
what we dream of, but whatever we do should be with dignity and respect for
another."[14] As another
example, John West recalls receiving a wonderful, free meal at an all-black
diner in
For those who wish to cling to the
security of cynicism, in all honesty, transients did not solve race problems.
Some would argue that nothing yet has completely abolished the color barrier.
Not only did African Americans face a harder time trying to earn food, or get
jobs. They also tended to receive crueler treatment than white transients from
the yard bulls. Traveling through the south became an unforgettable eye-opener
for several northern African Americans who were not accustomed to segregated
water fountains. The world described by Louis Banks, an African American, for
example, maintains our logical understanding of a harsh and apathetic world.
However, in the face of an unfair world, Banks is able to take refuge in the
welcoming hobo jungles:[16]
1929 was
pretty hard. I hoboed, I bummed, I begged for a nickel to get somethin’ to eat.
Go get a job, oh, at the foundry there. They didn’t hire me because I didn’t
belong to the right kind of race. ‘Nother time I went into
Black and
white, it didn’t make any difference who you were, ‘cause everybody was poor.
All friendly, sleep in a jungle. We used to take a big pot and cook food,
cabbage, meat and beans all together. We all set together, we made a tent.
Twenty-five or thirty would be out on the side of the rail, white and colored.
They didn’t have no mothers or sisters, they didn’t have no home, they were
dirty, they had overalls on, they didn’t have no food, they didn’t have
anything.[17]
For better or for worse, the
transient experience brought to light the racial differences as society saw
them. Simultaneously, it illustrated to many transients how the races could
coexist in the hobo culture, despite societal norms about inequalities and
differences. Finally, the transient experience made many re-think their
assumptions about the other race.
Notes
[1] David P. Barker,
"The Rise and Fall of The Wizard of Oz as a ‘Parable on Populism,’" Journal
of the Georgia Association of History
[2] Kim Myers,
"MGM’s The Wizard of Oz: Political Satire of FDR and the New Deal,"
available from http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/ msf95/ms18/emerald.htm, Internet,
accessed
[3] Listen to Pink
Floyd in Appendix B: The Soundtrack.
[4] Victor Fleming, The
Wizard of Oz (Culver City, Calif.: MGM, 1939); Meyers, "MGM’s The
Wizard of Oz."
[5] Fleming, Wizard
of Oz. Lyrics to "The Merry Old Land of Oz" appear in Appendix A.
Also, listen to this song on the Soundtrack in Appendix B.
[6] Fleming, Wizard
of Oz.
[7] Ibid.; Myers,
"MGM’s The Wizard of Oz."
[8] Dear Reader, Yes I
know this is a really bold statement. I wish I had something to back it up
with, but I don’t. Most of the research to support the movie analogy was found
after I wrote it. Unfortunately, as far as I can find, this point doesn’t hold
water, except in my mind.
[9] Henry Littlefield,
"The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism," American Quarterly 16
(Spring, 1964): 47-58 [journal online—Subscription only]; available from:
http://www.jstor.org/; All History Journals; Internet; accessed
[10] Nels Anderson, The
Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1923), 89.
[11] Ibid., 90-91, 94, 96.
[12] For those who
are interested, this is entirely my own assessment. Efforts to find documentation
that comes right out and says this opinion are in vain. Based on what I know, I
believe every major hobo writer alludes to these points. Perhaps it is such
common knowledge among those who live as hoboes that it does not merit such a
blatant clarification. I feel that those who can best describe what attributes
make a true hobo understand without having to formally explain, and that those
who need an explanation will never fully understand.
[13] Errol Lincoln
Uys, Riding the Rails: Teenagers on the Move during the Great Depression
(New York: TV Books, 1999),114-15.
[14] Chester Smith,
quoted in ibid., 242.
[15] John West,
quoted in ibid., 116.
[16] Ibid., 113-14.
[17] Louis Banks,
quoted in Studs Turkel, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression
(New York: Pantheon Books, 1970), 41.