Great Depression (Allegory)
The events, depicted in the story, date back to the period in American history called Great Depression. It was time of a deep financial crisis when a lot of people who lived in rural surroundings, especially those who were farmers, didn’t have enough money to evolve their business, so they went bankrupt. Lester family is one of these and their life is the best representation of the severe realities of the period of Great Depression. They were completely lost, they didn’t know what to do and there was no one to help them to get out of this deep hole of poverty and desperation.
Poverty (Motif)
The motif of poverty is the leading one in the novel. It is vividly represented through the life of the main character Jeeter Lester and his family. Jeeter is talking big about his ambitions to become a farmer but, in fact, he does anything for that. As a result, he steals turnip from his son in law and this scene is so embarrassing and humiliating that even poor negroes were making fun of him. But the poverty doesn’t know shame, it is violent and people who live in poverty, consider it the best excuse of all their inappropriate and sometimes even illegal actions.
Harelip (Symbol)
One of the younger daughters of Lester family, Ellie May was the unluckiest one. Although she was a good hostess and it was high time for her to get married, she and all her family knew that she doesn’t have any chances to find a husband. The main and the only reason of it was her harelip. It made her actually pretty face look ugly and everyone was laughing at her defect. This harelip is a symbol of imperfection as there is nothing ideal in this world and the real beauty goes from the soul, and it doesn’t depends on appearance.
Tobacco Road (Symbol)
Tobacco Road, on which family lived, was once a great commercial vein in the surroundings and there used to live rich people. But later everything had changed and now it is a got forgotten road where live “poor whites” who still remember from their parents and grandparents stories about the greatness of this place. Tobacco Road is a symbol of nostalgia, deprivation and speed of life where everything can change dramatically: “in many places it was beginning to show signs of washing away, its depressions and hollows made a permanent contour that would remain as long as the sand hills.”
