"The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country." (1)
In this quote, there are phrases of the earth being crusted, a thin, hard crust. Crusting usually is involved when something is being exposed to heat, or an outside source that can cause something to harden. The earth's surface, as the author describes, is a thin which refers to being feeble, yet hard resembling as something being sturdy. This can relate to the Great Depression, when the Dust Bowl occurred, the land did crust over and seemed very weak at the moment yet still in a way stayed in tact. The farmers still had trust in the land, and believed in it's strength despite the crust that has formed over their land, their earth. The author also repeats the sky and earth as being pale, and then the author continues on the faded color imagery by using pink inside a red country, and white inside a grey; Pink is the faded color of red, and white is the faded color of grey. I believe that by using this contrast in land, the author is trying to portray the life that once lived in the farm lands before the Dust Bowl, or the Great Depression hit. The country was once, red, gray, and not faded. Now, the earth figuratively undergoes changes of it's previous lively appearance and environment and all that's left is a crusted, dusty, pale reminder of the severeness of the impact the Great Depression had on society, affecting not only their lack of food stock and money, but also affecting their mental state of mind.
