It's crazy how much power the mine owners have in Moon Over Manifest, don't you think? We can't imagine someone "owning" a town like that today. (Though we hear it's possible.) In Manifest, the class of society you were in determines pretty much everything about your life: what you do all day, how much food your family gets to eat, how other people treat you, whether you have any hope for the future… the list goes on. And how did these people find themselves in a certain class? Mostly the luck of the draw: either you were born into a rich family with roots in Manifest or not. And during the Great Depression, upward mobility was not all the rage.
Questions About Society and Class
- Why would you go to work for someone who only pays you in vouchers for their store? What was going on during this time period in history that allowed for that to happen?
- Do you think the society shown in Manifest is historically authentic?
- What would happen in a town like Manifest today? How would things be different?
Chew on This
If Devlin were alive today, he'd be the CEO of a financial company on Wall Street.
People today are still shunned just as badly as Miss Sadie.