Eleanor Roosevelt

How did Eleanor Roosevelt both reflect and affect her times?

I feel the best way to describe how Eleanor Roosevelt reflected or affected her times would be to understand her first. Not found in the reading of "Eleanor and the Great Depression (1987)" by Lois Scharf, but found in my research I discovered that she was born into a family active in banking and politics. She was destined to reap the benefits of class and privilege. By the age of 10 she lost both her parents and a brother, leaving only herself and a brother. Eleanor Roosevelt was forced to live with her maternal grandmother, who was without warmth. At the age of 15 she was enrolled at Allenswood, a girls' school in London. A strong woman who was passionate about unpopular causes and went about the country defending them ran Allenswood. Eleanor Roosevelt found the emotional bond she needed in her, confiding in her as they toured the continent together. Eleanor Roosevelt later in life spoke of Allenswood as "the happiest years" of her life.

She returned to the United States at the age of 17 to come out. At the age of 18 she had already joined the National Consumers League. Before she married Franklin Roosevelt in 1905 she had joined the Junior League and her political activism and early involvement in social reform had begun.

You can see that she was born into the benefits of class and privilege, and educated in London, but exposed to someone who was passionate about unpopular causes and defended them. She had learned very early on that having all the riches in the world could not make everything alright, what did though was someone to help you when you needed it most. Like when someone took her in when her parents died, and like Marie Souvestre did at Allenswood.

She reflected the very essence of the times she lived in; you need to understand that she lived through World War I, and the Great Depression, and World War II. She came from a time when people looked out for their neighbor. People didn't make much money, most women didn't