Life — November 1933 — page 10: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Thanksgiving Day in Hooverville" This satirical image depicts two caricatured figures in profile exchanging what appears to be canned goods or food items at a window. The caption references "Hooverville"—a derogatory term for Depression-era shanytowns, named mockingly after President Herbert Hoover, who was blamed for economic hardship. The cartoon satirizes poverty during the Great Depression, suggesting that Thanksgiving meals for the unemployed poor consisted only of minimal canned rations rather than traditional holiday fare. The figures' exaggerated facial features and the cramped, makeshift setting reinforce the bleakness of their circumstances. The humor is dark, critiquing both the inadequate relief available to struggling Americans and, implicitly, Hoover's administration's perceived indifference to widespread suffering.