The year is 1932, Amelia Earhart has just become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, the Radio City Music Hall has opened in New York City and an atom was split for the first time. But one event that shows the true climate in America at that time was the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt: elected in the hope of bringing America out of its terrible phase of poverty. The Great Depression began in 1929 and continued to shake the nation until 1939. All hell was breaking loose in the 1920s and 1930s. Prohibition was in effect, the economy was the worst it had ever been, and the government was ineffective. During this time, people often felt as if they had lost hope and were deprived of the life they deserved. It was then that criminals began to be seen as heroes. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow began their crime spree during the height of the Depression, in 1932. “The media depicted Americans everywhere delighted by the exploits of the soap opera gang” (Williams et al. 338). Bonnie and Clyde became instant celebrities and not only for their exploits, but also for their seemingly elusive ways and their extraordinary appearance. Due to the devastation of the Great Depression and events in their personal lives, Bonnie and Clyde were forced into a crime wave lasting two years during which they participated in shootouts with police, robbed banks and small convenience stores, killed civilians, and later died in a Depression-era police incident, every day middle-class people became the most poor among the poor, experiencing poverty for the first time in their lives. In many cases “the anger generated among the general population in the 1930s – combined with a newfound tolerance for lawlessness,… produced the environment. necessary to foster the rise of the 'Dustbowl Desperadoes'.” The “Dustbowl Desperadoes” were ordinary people who became criminals during or because of the Great Depression. These people were starting to be seen as heroes. During the Great Depression, people needed something to believe in, and the criminals of the era they believed were stealing what was rightfully theirs. For example, Prohibition was in effect and “thirsty Americans especially needed someone to outsmart the government's ban on alcoholic beverages.” So when ghetto gangs started supplying liquor, they were seen as heroes and became rich. The devastation of the Great Depression created the perfect storm for Bonnie and Clyde's reckless and illegal ways to thrive. Bonnie Parker was greatly affected by the Depression; however, he was not the type to engage in criminal behavior. Bonnie was a cute girl with red hair and freckles. She loved fashion, earned good grades, and showed promise as a young writer, winning the county literary contest as a teenager (Williams 335). Bonnie's father died when she was only four years old. The loss of the breadwinner in the home left Bonnie's remaining family unable to continue living where they did. So, Bonnie and her family moved to the slums of West Dallas to live with her grandparents. Bonnie had big dreams: to become an actress and overcome poverty; however, in the slums, there was very little opportunity to actually implement them. As a result, at the age of sixteen, Bonnie dropped out of high school and married classmate Roy Thornton. Thornton became physically violent and was jailed for several years.