The economic constraints are major elements affecting Jeff and Jennie's lives. The story emphasizes the difficulties that people had during 1930s. Drought represents one of the biggest constraints of people, giving the story the idea of suffocating. The order of the elements is not randomly chosen. It is meant to concentrate on the fact that people's lives, their farms and houses were gradually affected by the stiff nature. When the author reveals that "the sun was hot on his head, his collar still pinched his throat, and the Sunday clothes were intolerably hot. Jeff transferred the hat to his right hand and began fanning with it," he tries to concentrate on the fact that even the weather opposes their right to live. People were poor and they were living with no hope

The mental constraint is another element affecting Jeff and Jennie's lives. The author concentrates on their struggle to overcome the situation. It seems that human nature is still fighting against the unknown. The author emphasizes that "a thought struck him that made his mouth fall open. The mention of the car brought to his mind, with new intensity, the trip he and Jennie were about to take. Fear came into his eyes; excitement took his breath. Lord Jesus!." It seems that things are getting out of control. Fear is sometimes accompanied by excitement. Within us there is this contrast between fear and excitement of challenging the unknown. Therefore, the body is constantly under stress and people are put in a situation they cannot escape. The extreme situation appears to bring new elements that bring Jeff to the edge of paroxysm. Things and reality start to distort and life starts to lose its meaning. The author aims his analysis toward the mental processes that Jeff has been experiencing: "Jeff brain darkened. Things suddenly seemed unreal, like figures in a dream. Thoughts swam in his mind foolishly, hysterically, like little blind fish in a pool within a dense cave. They rushed, crossed one another, jostled, collided, retreated, and rushed again. Jeff soon became dizzy." Hence, the alteration of reality seems to be a very difficult process of understanding for Jeff. He experiences the feeling of suffocating; his life and reality are suffocated by the unknown and strange. Jeff is reaching, step by step, the level of defending himself, mentally, from reality by withdrawing his mind from the outer world. The author emphasizes the fact that "[Jeff] frequently talked to himself. And, although he had kept it a secret he knew that his courage was reluctant to venture far from home in the daytime. And that habit trembling when he felt fearful was now far beyond his control. Sometimes he became afraid and trembled without knowing what had frightened him. The feeling would just come over him like a chill." Here, there can be found the fact that things were getting out of control. There is a feeling of uncertainty and fear that life is not the same Jeff knows it. The story calls also the attention to the correlation that has been made between the recollections they have from their past and the new and strange circumstances that collide with their lives. It seems that the fear of being involved in a new situation, makes people turn their lives to the past. When the author reveals the fact that "for an instant there was light in his cavernous brain. That chamber was, for less than a second, peopled by characters he knew and loved. They were simple, healthy creatures, and they behaved in a manner that he could not understand. They had quality. But since he had already taken leave of them long ago, the remembrance did not break his heart aga

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1922
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)