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Of Mice and Men Context :pen: (John Steinbeck john steinbeck (Life (He…
Of Mice and Men Context
:pen:
John Steinbeck
Influence for Of Mice and Men
child outside Bells Candy Store
Troubled man kill the straw boss
1.) In the mid 1920's, Steinbeck has seen a troubled man kill a straw boss and he told a New York reporter that this gave him the story.
2.) Lennie is one of several "unfinished people" in Steinbeck's canon, those with the sensibilities of a child. He knew a boy in salines who petted a rabbit to death
Literature
Kern county at the southern end of California's central gave Steinbeck material for his novel
Steinbeck's interest was focused on the losers, he was facinated on the commitment of the people
his book was published on the same year as the strike and was an instant sucsess
Life
He came from a fairly wealthy family, but when he was younger he spent most his time working with the famers labourers
Experienced working in ranches went to Stanford university
Awarded the nobel price for literature
The Great Depression
Factories closed and businesses went broke and millions of people found themselves broke
America went into shock
Life savings wiped out
The stock market crashed
People fled out into the countryside to look for work
Woody Guthrey a folk singer and writer rode the railway with these newley made migrants
The Dust Bowl
Effects
5.) Children wore dusk masks two and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dust. Farmers watched helplessly as their crops flew away
6.) It caused the depression of money and migrant workers
Causes
Large amounts of drought and over farming
Bad farming methods were to blame for the dust drought
People who once had houses were now left with nothing due to the bad winds
Dates
Dust Bowl of 1930s last about a decade
The American Dream
James Truslow Adams
Famous writer who build upon the idea of the American Dream. Regardless of colour or class his ideas were that people could achieve their best possible life.
Values
Independence and equality to each individual. Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Obstacles to achieving it
The Great Depression. Racism and economic hardship, segregation of black from whites. Drought and over farming made the land less fertile.
Justice for all?
Intellectually disabled in the 1930s
Harshly treated and discriminated by society. This is shown in Lennie and George's relationship where George tries to show that Lennie should be able to live the fullest life regardless of the fact that he might be disabled. Eugenics was still considered a relevant approach for these people.
Women in the 1930s
They are house wives, with a traditional role as homemaker and rearer of children. Curly's wife is the only female character and her flirtatiousness marks her out as unusual.
African-Americans in 1930s
Jim Crow Laws
The Scottsboro Nine
Racial segregation, racist violence. Lynching and KKK
Migrant Workers
Why California?
California was part of the dream, of the frontier where people travelled west to settle on free land
First-hand accounts
Increasing literacy
Salinas Lettuce Strike (1936)
MIgrants were found taking more of the meaningable jobs in the industry
Over 30,000 Mexican migrants were working in california
in the 1930's 25,000 people were killed every year at work
1936 there was a lettuce strike
Farmers decided to move to california due to the good weather, as it meant that they would have bountiful produce
Stock markets crashed in 1929 and thousands of people lost their money millions ended unemployed, there was called The Great Depression. Many workers were forced to leave their homes and go elsewhere to find work.
Migrants were called Okies (for Oklahoma, where many of them came from.
The Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age
Woodey Guthrey
Rise of black jazz music, and speak easy bars during prohibition period.
A folk singer
