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The Forgotten Man: the Rhetorical Construction of Class and Classlessness in Depression Era Media

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The Forgotten Man: the Rhetorical Construction of Class and Classlessness in Depression Era Media The Forgotten Man: The Rhetorical Construction of Class and Classlessness in Depression Era Media A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts of and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Lee A. Gray November 2003 @ 2003 Lee A. Gray All Rights Reserved This dissertation entitled The Forgotten Man: The Rhetorical Construction of Class and Classlessness in Depression Era Media By Lee A. Gray has been approved for the Individual Interdisciplinary Program and The College of Arts and Sciences by Katherine Jellison Associate Professor, History Raymie E. McKerrow Professor, Communication Studies Leslie A. Flemming Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Gray, Lee A. Ph.D. November 2003. History/Individual Interdisciplinary Program The Forgotten Man: The Rhetorical Construction of Class and Classlessness in Depression Era Media (206 pp.) Co-Directors of Dissertation: Katherine Jellison and Raymie McKerrow The following study is an analysis of visual and narrative cultural discourses during the interwar years of 1920-1941. These years, specifically those of the 1930s, represent a significant transitional point in American history regarding cultural identity and social class formation. This study seeks to present one profile of how the use of media contributed to a mythic cultural identity of the United States as both classless and middle-class simultaneously. The analysis is interdisciplinary by design and purports to highlight interaction between visual and oral rhetorical strategies used to construct and support the complex myths of class as they formed during this period in American history. I begin my argument with Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal Administration's rhetorical use of two phrases which contributed extensively to the construction of a uniquely universalized image of the American citizen; the "forgotten man" and the "common man." Roosevelt's nebulous use of theses phrases, created a rhetorical characterization of the "good" American citizen, one that idealized the "average" person, but remained conspicuously WASP in representation. Due to extensive media use of Farm Security Administration photographs, the trope of the "forgotten man" became an “iconic” phrase used to represent far more than a group of disenfranchised individuals living in poverty. And, because FDR's rhetorical construction of the "common man" stayed loyal to WASP ideals, unemployed white-collar workers and even those from the wealthiest classes were able to claim ownership of both idealized characterizations. Both rhetorical characterizations were furthered in other government-sponsored media, such as murals done by Works Progress Administration artists, as well as into popular media such as films. As a whole, FDR's rhetoric and other media representations became important elements in the mythic construction of America as a classless/middle-class society. Approved: Katherine Jellison Raymie McKerrow Associate Professor, History Professor, Communication Studies For Superman Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude belongs to the people who supported me over the past five years by sharing food, spirits, spare change, intellect, and love: James Caplinger, Bonnie Proudfoot, Annette Steigerwald, Nanette Tummers, Susan Wood, Stacy Hall, and Issam Safa. Those who contributed much appreciated commentary, editorial, and technical expertise include: Wayne Waters, Kate Nally Anderson, Steve Zarate, Richard Sater, Susan Searles, David Savola, Melissa Jones, Tom Patin and Ray McKerrow. 7 Table of Contents Title Page Abstract 4 Dedication 5 Acknowledgements 6 List of Illustrations and Films 8-9 Introduction: The Trope that Colonized a Nation: Rhetorically Constructing the Forgotten Man 10 Chapter 1: FDR and the Rhetorical Construction of the Common (Forgotten) Man 34 Chapter 2: Constructing a Visual Rhetoric of the Forgotten Man in Photographs 64 Chapter 3: The Rhetorical Image of the "Classless" Society in WPA Murals 102 Chapter 4: The Forgotten Man in Motion Pictures 149 Conclusion 183 Select Bibliography 194 8 Illustrations Figure 1. Forgotten Man (1934) by Maynard Dixon, Brigham Young University. 10 Figure 2. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 00/00/1933, courtesy of the Franklin D. 34 Roosevelt Library Digital Archives Figure 3. FDR, Henry Wallace, and Robert Fechner in the Shenandoah 51 Valley, VA, 08/12/1933, and FDR aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis in Trinidad, 12/11/1936, courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital Archives Figure 3.5 FDR in Washington, Washington, DC, 12/31/1934, and FDR, Hugh 52 Love, and Walter Carpenter Jr. in Warm Springs, Georgia, 11/19/1931 courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital Archives Figure 4. Strawberry Picker, Hammond, Louisiana (c.1937) by Ben Shahn 64 Figure 5. Blacksmith sharpening cultivator point south of Marshall, Texas 69 (1939), by Russell Lee Figure 5.5 Room of Farmer in Yuba County, CA (1939), by Russell Lee 69 Figure 6. Plantation Overseer (1936) by Dorothea Lange 71 Figure 7. Farm mother with her two children, San Augustine County, Texas 73 (1939), by Russell Lee Figure 8. Madonna of the Meadows (c.1505-06) by Raphael 73 Figure 9. Jorena Pettway (1939) by Marion Post Wolcott 88 Figure 10. Rehabilitation client …, near Batesville, Arkansas (c. 1938), by Carl 88 Mydans Figure 11. Lower Piedmont Lower Piedmont (1937) by Dorothea Lange 90 Figure 12. Couple, Born in Slavery (1937) by Dorothea Lange 90 Figure 13. Gee's Bend, Alabama (1937) by Arthur Rothstein 91 Figure 14. The Pope Family (c. 1938) by John Vachon 92 Figure 15. Migrant Mother (1936) by Dorothea Lange 95 Figure 16. Prelude to Afternoon Meal: Carroll County, Georgia (1941) by Jack 98 Delano Figure 17. Sunday Morning, White Plains, Georgia (1941) by Jack Delano 98 Figure 18. Edward Laning and assistants at work on his mural, The Role of the 102 Immigrant in the Industrial Development of America (c. 1938) Unknown photographer, National Archives, Records 69-AG-413 Figure 19. Detail of Detroit Industry (1932) north wall automotive panel by 113 Diego Rivera. Photo: The Detroit Institute of Arts. Figure 20. Dia de las Flores (1925) by Diego Rivera 113 Figure 21. Rockefeller Center Mural (1933) by Diego Rivera, photographed 115 before it was destroyed. Photo: Lucienne Bloch Figure 22. Study for Underground Railroad (1940) by James Michael Newell 117 Figure 23. Men and Wheat (1939) by Joe Jones 118 Figure 24. Color sketch for Electrification (1940) by C. David Stone Martin, 118 Lenore City, TN Figure 25. FDR with Fala in Washington, Washington DC, 00/00/1943, FDR on 119 the U.S.S. Houston off Cocos Island, 10/09/1935, courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Digital Archives Figure 26. Mail Service in the Tropics (1937) by Rockwell Kent 121 Figure 27. The Chosen Site (c. 1936) by Martin Hennings, Van Buren, AL 126 9 Figure 28. Color Study for Industrial Life (c. 1937) by Seymour Fogel, Health 131 and Human Services Building, Washington, D.C. Figure 29. Construction of the Dam (c.1938) by William Gropper, Department of 136 the Interior, Washington, D.C Figure 30. Sand Lot Riots (completed 1947-48) by Anton Refregier, one panel 139 from the History of San Francisco, Coit Tower Figure 31. The Deposition (c.1530) by Santi di Tito Titi 139 Figure 32. Monumental Worker (WPA) unknown artist (possibly by Arthur G. 140 Murphy in the Bridge Worker series (1935). Coit Tower, San Francisco, CA Photo: Gary B. Kulik Figure 33. Color study for The Riveter (1938) by Ben Shahn 140 Figure 34. Color study for Security of the Family (c. 1939) by Seymour Fogel, Health and Human Services Building, Washington, D.C. 142 Figure 35. One Hundredth Anniversary (c.1938) Arnold Blanch, Columbus, WI 143 Figure 36. Pastoral (c.1937) Ted Gilien, Lee's Summit, MO 144 Figure 37. Madonna and Child (c.1508) by Raphael 145 Figure 38. The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c.1510) by Leonardo da Vinci 145 Figure 39 Settling the West (c.1937) by Ward Lockwood, Post Office Federal 145 Building, Washington D.C. Films Clip 1. Meet John Doe (1941) Directed by Frank Capra 149 Clip 2. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) Directed by Frank Capra 167 Clip 3. Meet John Doe (1941) Directed by Frank Capra 168 Clip 4. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Directed by Frank Capra 171 Clip 5. Gold Diggers of1933 (1933) Directed by Mervyn LeRoy 173 (choreographed by Busby Berkeley) Clip 6. My Man Godfrey (1936) Directed by Gregory La Cava 178 10 (Fig. 1) Forgotten Man (1934), Maynard Dixon Introduction: The Trope that Colonized a Nation: Rhetorically Constructing the Forgotten Man The thirties have become one of the most essential criteria by which we measure our well-being and security. But their significance transcends this. [that] Americans still sing about it, write and read about it, make and watch movies depicting it, pay fascinated attention to the iconographic gallery created by contemporary photographers, attend to the testimony of its survivors, revive its music, its drama, and its fashions, attests to the profound impact the Depression has had upon our culture and our imaginations.1 Despite this apparent interest in the Depression era, cultural historian Lawrence W. Levine found it ironic that the 1930s remain a conundrum to many scholars. Surely, 1 Lawrence W. Levine, The Unpredictable Past: Explorations in American Cultural History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 207. For a general understanding of the cultural context of the Depression see Robert McElvaine, The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (New York: Times Books, 1984). 11 it was a period of immense paradoxes in economic, technological, governmental and social transitions that continue to affect Americans and non-Americans long after their occurrence. As film historian and critic Robert Sklar wrote, the thirties also represented, “the first fully conscious era of cultural mythmaking.”2 New technological advances in media and forms of disseminating information to the masses brought productions of “cultural mythmaking” to prominence in the 1930s.
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