Question

5. The author uses the phrase "the Promised Land" to describe how California appeared to the Dust Bowl migrants. Explain what this phrase reveals about the problems and hopes of the migrants. Use at least ONE detail from the text to support your response. *

Answer 1

The phrase "the Promised Land" symbolizes the Dust Bowl migrants' deep-seated hope of finding prosperity and stability in California, contrasting their dire circumstances of bank foreclosures and environmental disasters in their homeland.

Step-by-step explanation:

The phrase "the Promised Land" used to describe California by the author reflects the hopes and aspirations of the Dust Bowl migrants, who perceived California as a land of opportunity where they could rebuild their lives and escape the harsh conditions of the Dust Bowl. This biblical allusion connotes a divine guarantee of safety and prosperity, analogous to the exodus of the Israelites to a bountiful land predetermined by faith. The migrants, facing severe problems such as bank foreclosures, loss of crops, and the destruction of their land, looked towards California as a new beginning, despite the challenges they would face there with scarce jobs and potential hostility. This is highlighted by Caroline Henderson's account of the extreme hardships, such as perished crop lands and lost homes, contrasting the migrants' diligent labor against the devastation they endured, intensifying their need to seek out the 'Promised Land' of California.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Do not have any of the text referenced in the question but guess something like this.

After surviving dust bowl crop failures, dirt infiltrating everything their despair turned to hope offered by better conditions in California.

Dust bowl states of Kansas, Oklahoma and other plains states were going through a prolonged drought. Stories of ample moisture good crop production in California brought optimism of Biblical proportions. Like Israelites stranded in desert after escaping Egypt, waiting for return to Caanan the Promised Land of milk and honey.