The Worst Hard Time

The Worst Hard Time

by

Timothy Egan

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Worst Hard Time makes teaching easy.

John McCarty Character Analysis

The publisher of the local newspaper, the Dalhart Texan. McCarty criticized Plains settlers who fretted over the Dust Bowl, believing that the storms were tests of character. He was also opposed to government assistance for suffering farmers. He liked referring to people on the Southern Plains as “Spartans,” due to his perception of their toughness. He created the Last Man Club—a written commitment among the most important men in the community that they would spend their entire lives in Dalhart. McCarty, however, left Dalhart in the 1930s for a better work opportunity in Amarillo, Texas. At the end of his life, he took up painting and frequently painted depictions of the storms, which he portrayed as “heroic” and “muscular.” McCarty was born in 1900, the same year in which Dalhart became a town, and died in 1974.

John McCarty Quotes in The Worst Hard Time

The The Worst Hard Time quotes below are all either spoken by John McCarty or refer to John McCarty . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Westward Expansion and the Settlement of the Southern Plains Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The sign at the edge of Dalhart— “Black Man Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on You Here”—was strictly enforced […] “Two Negroes Arrested”: the Dalhart Texan reported how the men, aged nineteen and twenty-three, had sniffed around the train station looking for food. They were cuffed, locked up in the county jail, and after a week brought out for arraignment before a justice of the peace, Hugh Edwards. The judge ordered the men to dance. The men hesitated; this was supposed to be a bond hearing. The railroad agent said these men were good for nothing but Negro toe-tapping […] The men started to dance, forced silly grins on their faces, reluctant. After the tap dance, the judge banged his gavel and ordered the men back to jail for another two months.

Related Characters: John McCarty
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Worst Hard Time LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Worst Hard Time PDF

John McCarty Quotes in The Worst Hard Time

The The Worst Hard Time quotes below are all either spoken by John McCarty or refer to John McCarty . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Westward Expansion and the Settlement of the Southern Plains Theme Icon
).
Chapter 14 Quotes

The sign at the edge of Dalhart— “Black Man Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on You Here”—was strictly enforced […] “Two Negroes Arrested”: the Dalhart Texan reported how the men, aged nineteen and twenty-three, had sniffed around the train station looking for food. They were cuffed, locked up in the county jail, and after a week brought out for arraignment before a justice of the peace, Hugh Edwards. The judge ordered the men to dance. The men hesitated; this was supposed to be a bond hearing. The railroad agent said these men were good for nothing but Negro toe-tapping […] The men started to dance, forced silly grins on their faces, reluctant. After the tap dance, the judge banged his gavel and ordered the men back to jail for another two months.

Related Characters: John McCarty
Page Number: 176-177
Explanation and Analysis: