Final answer:
During the Great Depression, the wealthy continued enjoying leisure activities and were relatively insulated from the hardship, while those in poverty faced immense challenges such as hunger, unemployment, and homelessness, often relying on communal support and shared resources to survive.
Step-by-step explanation:
The social lives of wealthy individuals and those in poverty during the Great Depression were starkly different. The wealthy, though fewer in number, maintained their quality of life significantly better than those who were impoverished. Their ability to indulge in leisure activities such as motion pictures provided an escape from the grim realities of the time. On the other hand, people living in poverty faced extreme circumstances, including hunger, homelessness, and unemployment. Generosity and communal support became survival mechanisms, with families and communities coming together to share resources, food, and shelter. The photographs from the era, such as those depicted in Figure 6.1, underscore the clear economic divisions by showing long lines of people waiting for relief checks while others remained isolated from such hardships.