There's a reason they called it "The Great Depression"

It was depressing as hell.

I caught

The Grapes of Wrath

last night on TCM. Actually, it was a Steinbeck three-fer...East of Eden, The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men.

Anywho, The Grapes of Wrath is one of those movies that I have to watch every time it's on.

Unfortunately, it always leaves me depresseder than hell (Hi, Mary!) and feeling like I need a shower.



I'm not sure why I'm so attached to the movie. I suppose it's because I had parents that were young adults during the Great Depression and they had stories...horror stories really, though not nearly as...well...depressing...as those of the Joad family.

See? Even the family's name was depressing. Joad. It's hard and coarse and harsh-sounding. Just like the circumstances that they lived...if you could call it that...through. I guess that's why Steinbeck won both a Nobel and a Pulitzer for literature.

The movie, depressing as it is, can't hold a candle to the book. At the end of the movie, there's at least a glimmer of...hopefulness. In the book? Not so much.

Aaanyway, every time I watch the movie, I understand a little more. And can relate it a little more to what's happening in our world right now.

Take, f'rinstance...last night, for the first time, I really picked up on the whole underlying "Socialism is Good...Capitalism is Bad" theme that seems to be the movie's "message".

I suppose I didn't really understand it before. But, given the current situation we're in, for the first time, I got it. I finally understand why Socialism looks so attractive to people during tough times...why it flourishes.

Why it's flourishing right now.

And I'm even more depressed because I can't understand why we can't have some kind of...coming together, I guess...of the best points of Socialism and Capitalism. Because there are good things about both perspectives.

My brain hurts. Far, far too much thinking. heh