in the North. The letters were written in 1917 and the writers are trying to paint a picture of themselves and their lives which will both impress the prospective reader and elicit his or her sympathy for the plight of the writers' lives. The writers make open pleas for help, but they also try to maintain their dignity, for they are seeking jobs, not charity. The letter-writers are reporting on current conditions in their life, but we cannot be certain that the letter-writers are telling the truth about themselves, their work histories and their lives, because it is in their best interests to change their reporting of those items if it will help them impress the reader or draw the reader's sympathy.
To some degree, then, the writer is telling the reader what the writer thinks the reader wants to hear with respect to the writer's job history, skills, life situation, etc. At the same time, we must
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