Question

Read the excerpt from the interview with E.Y. (Yip) Harburg. I was walking along the street at that time, and you’d see the bread lines. The biggest one in New York City was owned by William Randolph Hearst. He had a big truck with several people on it, and big cauldrons of hot soup, bread. Fellows with burlap on their shoes were lined up all around Columbus Circle, and went for blocks and blocks around the park, waiting. Which statement explains the irony of Harburg’s description of the bread line?

Answer 1

E.Y (Yip) Harburg, was an American lyricists and script writer best known for his songs and Broadway productions. The biggest and best known of all was The Wizard of Oz. During the Great Depression, Harburg had to face, like other Americans, the difficulties of losing all his income and any possibility of a job and he was forced to look for alternative ways to generate money. This is when he began to be most productive in his compositions. During the Great Depression, there was a big millionare, called William Randolph Hearst, who became one of the biggest newspaper and magazine owners in the United States. One of the biggest selling points of Hearst´s empire was the use of yellow journalism, making emphasis on the sob stories and difficult moments of people. When the Great Depression hit, both Harburg and Hearst lost almost everything, but while Harburg was literally left on the streets, Hearst was able to keep his magazines and newspapers and maintained his empire through the use of the sad stories built up by the suffering of Americans, especially seen in New York City. In this excerpt from the interview to Harburg, he is being ironic when he says: "The biggest one in New York City was owned by William Randolph Hearst. He had a big truck with several people on it, and big cauldrons of soup, bread." This is because Hearst was never a man given to charity and good deeds, but rather economical and financial intersts and selling his business. He used a lot of the sufferings during the Great Depression to bolster sales and maintain his papers and magazines.

Answer 2

It was very big and could be seen just by walking down the streets, You said which statment explains the irony of it, but you didn't give me multiple choice, so this is all I could answer to