The Impact of the Great Famine on the Lower Classes versus Upper Classes

The Great Famine brought devastation to most of Ireland, leaving over one million people dead by its close. Those who were most affected were those with less money and less power. Ireland in the nineteenth century was primarily rural, and most people made their living off the land. These were the people who were also hit the hardest by the potato blight, and the ensuing food shortages. The difference between "the have-it-alls" and the majority of the population is obvious as Grace travels the country (188). She sees the destruction that it wreaks upon the people she passes and the towns she passes through, and the sight of "the winnowing of these people comes as a shock" (81). It is as if nature were trying to kill off the "workingmen," who now were forced to "walk...