Question

Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (1936)
Primary Source:
"I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. She said they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds the children had killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food." – Dorothea Lange

What larger trend does Lange’s description reflect?

*
1 point
The prosperity of the 1920s
The struggles of migrant workers during the Great Depression
The rising popularity of modern art movements
The effects of Prohibition on rural communities

Answer 1

The struggles of migrant workers during the Great Depression

Lange’s description of hunger, selling car tires for food, and living off frozen vegetables and birds illustrates the severe poverty faced by migrant families during the Great Depression.