Two devastating crashes in the novel happen almost simultaneously: Jed and Rebecca’s car accident as they are pursued by the law and the stock market crash of October 1929. How does the aftermath of the wreck affect the Strong family? How does it mirror what happens to their community, Hot Springs and the country at large as the Great Depression takes hold?
The car crash changes the trajectory for the entire family, sending them all on paths they never intended on taking. Shine especially mimicked the greater community and the Great Depression. She thought she had a plan for her family’s economic survival and had saved enough money to live a life she had imagined. Just like with the stock mark crash, all that changed in an instant with the car crash. Her life was flipped upside down and she had to start over from almost nothing.
The Depression threw the whole country into a disastrous downward spiral economically, forcing nearly everyone to pick up the pieces and climb back up the economic ladder. That was mirrored in the Strong family, who lost their livelihood and had to fight their way back to a solid footing. Shine made the economic gfight; Rebecca had a physical fight to recover from the accident, and Elsie faced an emotional struggle with her marriage.
MCA did a fabulous job paralleling the two crashes. The aftermath of each crash changed the course of history for the nation and for the Strong family. The ‘mettle’ of each was tested to the breaking point.
The car crash completely changed the path for the Strong family, Shine and Rebecca had to stay in Hot Springs while Rebecca healed and Shine had to work to pay back her debt as well as paying medical bills for Rebecca. It devastated the families financial situation to lose all of the moonshine in the crash and also 2 of their workers on the farm. The stock market crash didn’t help the Strong family or any other family in America. I loved how the author parallelled these two tragedies in the book!
I liked how the two events were brought together in this book. I thought crash devastated the Strong family in many ways just as the stock market devastated many people.
And Shine’s determination and courage was evident. She sacrificed a lot for the future of her family.
Both examples, illustrate that disasters can occur on a personal level as well as national one. They are handled in different ways. The personal disaster is dealt with the family and close community members. These people somehow “pull things together” and move forward. They can have control. The Great Depression was a disaster that was not easily solved. It involved many facets of life and decisions were made by people who were in political control. No matter what devastating happenings are not easy to handle. They cause a lot of uncertainty.
For example, Hurricane Katrina had personal and political facets that had to be dealt with. It brought out the “best and worse” of humanity, speaking from experience.
I thought using the car accident as a touchpoint in relation to the stock market was clever. Both are crashes that did cause harm and drastic change to individuals. It showed that up ahead you never know what will happen in the future and how quickly things can change.
I can relate to this now. There’s a new normal emerging as aging life is happening to us now.