During the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s, hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans moved west in a desperate attempt to find work. These “people fleeing the terror at their backs,” as John Steinbeck touchingly describes in The Grapes of Wrath, were largely ignored by the callous American public. Under the Resettlement Administration, Dorothea Lange sought to draw attention to the plight of these fleeing people through her expressive photography. Lange's picture “Migrant Woman With Five Children” shocked its viewers through its stark depiction of a migrant family's destitute and troubling existence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The focus of the piece is the decentralized mother, which conveys the oppressed nature of the country. One can immediately notice the subject's limp arms on both sides, slight hump, and dirt-stained clothing, bringing to mind the arduous journey he endured. Furthermore, when examining the mother's face, the viewer finds the familiar troubling melancholy of Lange's other works, as seen in “Migrant Mother” or “Migrant Family on Road”. Because these are all candid shots, when viewed collectively the viewer understands what a universally terrible situation the Great Depression created for America. As the sun sets in the west behind her mother, she squints directly into the camera, a confrontational technique Lange uses to capture the viewer's attention. Perhaps on purpose, Lange leaves out the father in this photo to make the mother the only adult. Already tired and dejected, the situation becomes more worrying when the viewer begins to examine the children. Each of the five children in the shot exponentially exposes the sympathy the viewer feels for the family simply through their presence. When Lange photographed “Migrant Mother,” she purposely excluded most of Florence Thompson's seven children so as not to infer the empathy viewers felt for the stressed mother. In this photo, on the contrary, Lange shows how heartbreaking the situation is for a single mother who has to take care of all the children. Lange uses depth to disperse the children across the frame and also to guide the eye from the subject to the background. Although the first girl the viewer notices looks directly into the camera, much like her mother, her face suggests playfulness rather than concern. Despite her dusty dress and dirty face, the girl's small smile conveys the resilience of childhood innocence, imploring viewers to empathize with the family. The same concept is found in the boy kneeling on the ground, playing with a piece of wood. Depression-era America can certainly sympathize with children just trying to make the best of things. The gaze then shifts from the boy to the remaining two girls, whose faces are hidden. This creates a form of anonymity for the children, as if they were saying: “these could be your children too”. The boy in the background clutching a broom further suggests how little the family has, as no belongings are seen except for the clothes on his back and the car pointed west. Lange shows how important the journey is to the lives of migrants through the car lying in the background. Through the use of contrast and depth, the car becomes one of the last things the viewer notices. The location of the car in the background and its dark appearance initially hide it, but the.