The 1930s were a difficult time in the United States, especially for those living in the Great Plains regions of the Midwest. The once-fertile land was stricken by drought, no longer able to yield crops. Vicious dust storms began moving through the region as the dry, unsettled topsoil was picked up and blown around by the wind. Many once-prosperous farmers were forced to abandon their farms and move west in search of low-paying labor jobs. However, the Great Depression of the 1920s had weakened the economy of the United States, and residents of the western states were mistrustful of the new arrivals, viewing them as undesirable outsiders rather than fellow Americans who happened to be down on their luck. The Four Winds is a historical novel set against the backdrop of these difficult days, and Elsa Martinelli and her family must contend with many of the real hardships that those migrating to the West were forced to deal with.

In addition to the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, the 1930s were also a period of social and political unrest. In the aftermath of World War I, patriotism was high, and many Americans were mistrustful of anything that seemed related to communist ideologies. The Workers Alliance of America was a real organization that sought to unionize workers, hoping to help them obtain better pay and more humane working conditions. However, just as Jack is often accosted by the authorities, so, too, were real labor organizers. Big businesses and farms saw unions as a threat to their profit margins, as they relied on their ability to underpay their workers. Since local politicians and law enforcement were oftentimes funded by these big businesses, they could get away with accosting labor organizers, despite unions being perfectly legal.

A predominant symbol throughout the novel is the Martinellis’ lucky penny. Tony found the American penny while he was still in Italy, and he and Rose viewed the engraved wheat on it as a symbol of their longed-for new life in the United States. They went on to become successful wheat farmers, and they passed the penny around as both a good luck charm and a symbol of hope during special occasions. However, the penny represents an outdated ideal of the American dream. Tony and Rose are implied to have been homesteaders, or people who received a plot of land in the Midwest from the government in exchange for their willingness to work on it. Homesteading was a pre-Depression institution that gave rise to many of the elements commonly associated with the American dream, including land ownership and the notion that hard work would bring financial prosperity. In the post-Depression world, such opportunities were much more limited, and even President Roosevelt’s extensive public relief legislation was unable to fully meet the needs of the average American citizen.

The prejudice faced by many of those who journeyed west made life even harder than it needed to be, artificially limiting the already scant opportunities available. Widespread propaganda initiatives were instituted by local governments and big businesses, casting the migrants as lazy, entitled delinquents who were content to live off of state money. Elsa consistently faces assumptions from others, including hospital workers and PTA mothers, that she is a thief who refuses to pay taxes and is thus undeserving of public aid. However, these claims were actually designed to serve the interests of major agricultural businesses, who knew that the migrants could help replace the undocumented Mexican immigrants who were deported during the Depression.

This is reflected in the predatory practices of Mr. Welty, the owner of the Welty...