The Great Depression
2007 Update
Here is the assignment:
You will be interviewing a grandparent, great-grandparent, or some other
elderly person who has memories of the Great Depression. If you do not know anyone at all, either go
to a retirement home or seek a classmate who will let you sit in with his or
her relatives.
To prepare:
1. If you feel you
have not done enough already, go online and do some research about the Depression. Search especially for information about the
part of the country/world or the kind of living situation/occupation.etc.
your subject
had at the time. Also find photos
of the depression.
2. Prepare an
interview. Get a tape recorder to better
record what your subject tells you.
3. Interview using
your prepared questions, but mostly just listen! This is a great opportunity for you to hear
from their mouths about your grandparents’ lives. Don’t waste it.
4. For the paper:
Introduce the paper any way you’d like.
Some treat it as a short story.
(“I arrived at the doorway, oddly anxious about the conversation even
though I knew my grandfather as well as anyone in my life.” Some describe the person in summary. (“John Philip Anderson was born in 1926 in
what was then the relatively small town of
5. Use your
subject’s own words, as he or she spoke them.
Quote extensively. Edit as
necessary, and interpolate you own narrative if it is appropriate.
6. Bring us back to your voice to conclude the piece.
7. Add photographs,
preferably ones which seem to coincide with elements of the interview. Provide captions for the photos.
8. Provide a
bibliography at the end citing your online (or other) sources.
The essay is due Monday. Due to the nature of this piece, it is best
if you do not e-mail it.