Pearl Diving in La Paz
La Paz (meaning “peace” in Spanish) is in the Mexican state of Southern Baja California on the Sea of Cortez. For several centuries, the area was famous for its pearl diving and was known as “The City of Pearls.” The oyster beds, however, became diseased and died out in the middle of the twentieth century. In the mid 1900s, approximately 800 divers would submerge themselves in the waters off La Paz at depths of up to 12 fathoms. Divers had to tear the oysters by hand from their beds, a process that often left their hands with deep cuts and gashes. The number of divers decreased to about 200 by the end of the century as the oyster population declined and divers lost their lives due to accidents and shark attacks.
Naturalism
Naturalism is a literary movement that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in France, England, and the United States. Writers included in this group, such as Emile Zola, Thomas Hardy, and the Americans Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser, write about biological and/or environmental determinism that prevents their characters from achieving the goals they seek. These characters’ plans for the future and their choices (the exercise of their free will) are all swamped by forces beyond their control. For example, in The Red Badge of Courage Crane depicts how one Civil War soldier is overwhelmed by the U.S. political and military conflict. Zola’s and Dreiser’s work include this type of environmental determinism coupled with an exploration of the influences of heredity in their portraits of ordinary men and women engaged in a relentless and brutal struggle for survival.
World War II
The world witnessed a decade of aggression in the 1930s that culminated in the 1939 onset of World War II. This war resulted from the rise of totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, and Japan. These militaristic regimes gained control, in part, as a result of a global economic depression and from the conditions created by the peace settlements following World War I, called the Treaty of Versailles. The dictatorships established in these three countries were committed to territorial expansion. In Germany Hitler strengthened the army during the late 1930s. In 1936 Benito Mussolini’s Italian troops took Ethiopia. From 1936 to 1939 Spain was engaged in civil war involving Francisco Franco’s fascist army, aided by Germany and Italy. In March 1938 Germany annexed Austria and in March 1939 occupied Czechoslovakia. Italy took Albania in April 1939. One week after Nazi Germany and the U.S.S.R. signed the Treaty of Nonaggression, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. On September 3, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany after a U–boat sank the British ship Athenia off the coast of Ireland. Another British ship, Courageous , was sunk on September 19. All the members of the British Commonwealth, except Ireland, soon joined Britain and France in their declaration of war against Germany. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the U.S. military base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. As a result of the four-hour attack, approximately 2,400 Americans died and 1300 were wounded. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The total number of European casualties by the end of the war was approximately 40,000,000. More than 400,000 Americans died.
Source:
Ira Mark Milne – Short Stories for Students – Presenting Analysis, Context & Criticism on Commonly Studied Short Stories, vol. 22, John Steinbeck, Published by Gale Group, 2010