Hardships In The Lamp At Noon

Hardships in the Lamp at Noon

In The Lamp at Noon short story, Ellen, Paul, and their baby are portrayed in the midst of hardship. This story is set in the 1930s on a prairie farm, during one of the roughest times for both North and South Americans, referred to as the Great Depression. Numerous farmlands were greatly disrupted by the Dust Bowl. Sinclair Ross, the author of this great Canadian short story, although never married himself, gives an excellent account of what life could have been like for a married couple living on a prairie farm at that time. In The Lamp at Noon Sinclair Ross showcases the hardships of life on a farm during the great depression, this is evident in Ellen unwillingness to stay on the farm, Paul’s struggles with the farm and through the descriptions of the

Now, married to a farmer for five years, she is struggling to come to terms with the hardships she must overcome with her stubborn husband and child. The Dust Bowl also referred to as the Dirty Thirties emphasized in the story, brought about severe dust storms. Ross describes these storms as “The dust was thickening to an impenetrable fog” (230). Ellen has difficulties dealing with the dust being blown around by strong winds. One of the first and major issues she faces is found in the title or the first sentence of the story. The story starts off with, “A little before noon she lit the lamp”, which shows just how thick that dust had to have been (Ross 230). It was so thick and in abundance that by noon time it was blocking out the sunlight creating darkness and the hence the need for Ellen to use a lamp at that time of the day. Meindl seems to think the Ellen’s fear of the dust “goes beyond fear of something specific and into the realm of existential anxiety” (111). Another problem Ellen found with the dust was in regards to her baby boy.