Island Mentality
The anger, distress, and fear in Blendon Reed Campbell’s New Hampshire Auction gives its viewer a glimpse into the everyday life of rural people. When hard times hit, it’s easy to feel the burden to be fully upon you alone. This sense of having to push on, that otherwise you won’t be able to survive, eventually translates to the community around you: a common feeling in America’s rural community during the 1930s. Many rural people, especially farmers who remember the Populist Party and are fresh off the Farm Revolt (1930-32) feel themselves at a standstill. Their anger about the rising cost of living, not being paid for their work, has quieted a little. It’s still bubbling under the surface, just waiting to get out, so even a small thing like a neighbor's bankruptcy auction can lead to that suppressed anger boiling over.
Farmers get some of what they want, with the New Deal Program adding the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), which helps maintain price support for crops--but in the end they’re still alone. President Roosevelt promised change, but all he did was raise crop prices for consumers and left farmers to drown in the consequences. For the rural community, their workday doesn’t end at five; they work from when the sun rises to when it sets, despite the fact that they are hurt, tired, and angry at the situation they find themselves in. For one reason or another, they always keep looking forward. Everyone may not understand the daily struggles they go through, so they do what anyone on an isolated island does. They stick together and they push through: who else do they have to ride out this storm with than one another?