What are the effects of the Great Depression on Edgar's family in the novel, World’s Fair?

The larger political and economic problems of America in the 1930s are reflected in the novel as the little boy gradually understands the concerns of his mother and father. The hardships of the Depression are felt in the family when the father loses his music store and the mother finds a smaller apartment to match their fading resources. The marriage is tested by adversity, and the perceptive child begins to see its inherent flaws. The novel is about the attempts of the child to imagine a future for himself when his family may be falling apart and the world is certainly headed for a global war.