In this activity, you will:

• imagine what life might have been like for someone in the 1930s or 1940s through the window of photograph taken during that time
• write a journal entry from the perspective of a person in one of Dorothea Lange’s photographs, using research to support your writing

In this perspective-writing activity, you will step into the shoes of someone living in 1930s or 1940s America and write from their point of view.

Select Your Point of View

Use the four photographs below as a starting point for your narrative. Choose one of the following roles—each point of view is represented by one of the photographs:

• An unemployed city worker: You lost your factory job after the stock market crashed. You’re in line at a soup kitchen, trying to figure out your next move.
• A Japanese American teenager: You were born in California. After Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japan, your family was forced to leave your home and move to an incarceration camp.
• An African American migrant worker: You left the rural South hoping for better opportunities in a northern city, but you’re facing racism and fierce competition for jobs.
• A farmworker in a San Joaquin, California cotton field: You spend each work day picking almost two hundred pounds of cotton. You’re trying to organize a labor union for higher wages.

Research Your Point of View

Learn more about the subject represented in your chosen photograph by reading the corresponding article:

• Explore White Angel Bread Line
• Explore Pledge of Allegiance, Raphael Weill Elementary School, San Francisco
• Explore Richmond, California/“It Was Never Like This Back Home,”
• Explore Stoop Labor in Cotton Field, San Joaquin Valley, California

Write a Journal Entry

After closely examining the picture that matches your chosen role, write a 1–2 paragraph journal entry (about 150–200 words) from the first-person perspective of the person in the image. Be sure to include the following elements:

• Describe a specific moment or day in their life.
• Use “I” and write in present tense to make it feel immediate and real.
• Mention at least two specific details from your reading or research in order to ground your writing in history.
• Reference at least one visual detail from the photograph. For example, “Today I put on my finest clothes.” or “I spent all day in the blazing sun.”
• Imagine what your subject’s daily life is like. What do they see around them? What are they afraid of? What do they hope for? What do they resent? What do they wish others understood about their situation?