Your answer should be personification
If you're talking about the Great Depression for the United States, their duty; was to get jobs and bring in money to help support their families.
The answer is:
It shows an instance in which someone with little mastery of a language nonetheless wisely and correctly recognizes that she is being taken advantage of.
In the excerpt from "Mother Tongue," the author Amy Tan describes the difficulties in the English language her Chinese mother has had to face in America. The passage mentions a specific anecdote in which her mother realizes her stockbroker has cheated on her because he had not sent her a check after two weeks. As a result, she makes Amy, who speaks perfect English, tell him on the phone that she would talk to his boss in New York, which they finally do.
