[Highlighted Excerpts taken for reference from The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah]
The Great Depression
The environment seemed hostile to the farmers during the 1930s. The winters of 1934 and 1936 were especially long and cold. The summer of 1936 saw one of the worst droughts ever recorded and crops dried up in the fields. Livestock died for lack of food and water. The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah describes the drought and the harsh times of the Great Depression so beautifully.
The Penny of Hope
I liked this passage for the sentiment it carried and how we place our faith in things sometimes and believe they are a link to our past or future. Rose and Tony had found this penny with wheat shafts, when they came to America and they were forever connected to their farm and their land and the penny stayed with them forever being passed down to generations. I often place importance to certain things that feel as if they have their own secrets and connections lying underneath them.
Heartache
This passage describes Elsa’s heartache so beautifully where her flaws always seemed to define who she was until she had met her husband Rafe and now, he was gone. She felt as though her children would be shaped by the same heartache. Rafe had changed Elsa’s life she had learnt she could do so much where she was always considered weak and sickly by her own family. Rafe leaving them in the middle of hard times and a depression broke Elsa’s heart and her faith in herself.
Dust Storms
The descriptions in this book make you feel the scorching sun, their pain and poverty of the Great Depression and the dust storms. The dust storms here are so vividly described you feel you are in one of them and how hard it must have been for them during that time.
Betty Anne’s Salon
Elsa and Loreda bonding over a day at the salon was a great moment in the book. It meant so much to both to spruce up their appearances to feel good in the middle of a Great Depression. It was great therapy for them. Also, how Loreda went straight after it to the library to find a book. A girl who believed in education and dreamed of being a reporter. The library was like magic to her. The pampering at the salon made her feel worthy to go borrow a book.
Elsa
This passage highlights most brilliantly how Elsa from the meek girl she was could stand in front of people and render a speech of hope. It reminds you how brave Elsa had been throughout her life and cared for her children in the middle of a depression. She had found a voice and lent her heart out to her people of the lives they were leading and that they deserved no more of this and it was a time to protest. It was a momentous day in her life.
In the heart of the passage, I found Elsa who had tasted sweat, battled hunger and poverty, cared for her family, toiled hard, lost love and been a brave mother to her children despite all the odds.
Visit my article Where the Crawdads Sing- Delia Owens https://somethinglikepariz.com/2022/12/16/in-the-heart-of-the-passage-where-the-crawdads-sing-delia-owens/