The great depression consumed many people affecting the lives of everyone in the country. It caused the loss of many jobs, as well as an extreme drop in wages, changed ones living style, and it created tension between different cultures. In the novel Cabbagetown by Hugh Garner, one can observe the way in which the depression affected the lives of the people of Canada.

Many people during the great depression lost their jobs due to the stock market crash. Business were unable to afford to keep employees and were forced to lay off many of their workers, and those who were lucky and not laid off found their pays rapidly be reduced each payday.

With the loss of jobs and declining wages, life styles in Canada were forced to change and adapt to the current economy trend. People once able to afford finer things and live comfortably found themselves selling many articles in order to purchase essential items such as food. People that were that were just scraping by, as Ken and Mabel Tilling were, wound up standing in line at relief centers in their communities. For some even their homes were often no longer affordable and many families were forced to move to smaller houses, or even share living space with another family.
With employment being a rare commodity and money being scarce, a lost of tension began to grow between the people who had money and the people that did not. Some people that did not have much money tried to pass themselves off as affluent, as Theodore East did through out the novel. During the depression, much of the Jewish community were still living comfortably, and many other members of different cultures grew jealous of this, and began striking out against cultures and people that had any kind of wealth. Different cultures and beliefs began to separate from each other.

Many members of communities became “drifters”, as a mean to escape the depression, or in search for employment else where in the country. Ken Tilling the main character of Cabbagetown left his home to travel Canada