OF MICE
AND MEN
By John Steinbeck
JOHN STEINBECK
• Born in Salinas, California in 1902. His most
famous books were written in the 1930s &
1940s and are set in California.
• Steinbeck’s books deal with working class
people yearning for a better life.
• Steinbeck performed well at high school
but left university (after five years!)
without a degree.
• Much of the inspiration for his novels
comes from life experience – labouring
jobs, real incidents (pitchfork).
• Married three times – distrust of women.
His final marriage was a happy one.
(1902 – 1968)
“[The boys] were unconsciously glad [the wife] wasn’t there. The kind of
woman who put paper on shelves and had little towels like that
instinctively distrusted Mack and the boys. Such women knew that they
were the worst threats to a home, for they offered ease and thought
and companionship as opposed to neatness, order, and properness. They
were very glad she was away.”
’Cannery Row’, Steinbeck
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT
THE GREAT DEPRESSION?
HINT: WE’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
• 24 October, 1929, panic overtook the
New York Stock Exchange, causing a
collapse of share prices (war debts).
• This in turn caused the economic
collapse known as the Great
Depression – by 1932 over 100,000
businesses and thousands of banks
had failed. People’s jobs and money
were lost.
• Lasted roughly from 1930 until the
USA’s entry into the Second World
War in 1941.
WHAT DID THE GREAT DEPRESSION
MEAN FOR EVERYDAY PEOPLE?
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No welfare.
No social security.
Hardly any help from the state.
Families did not have enough food.
People were made homeless.
Banks foreclosed on loans.
DUST BOWL
• Farmers who could not afford their loan
repayments were driven off their farms
by banks.
• Situations were worsened by huge
droughts that swept the farmland;
carrying off the topsoil and turning the
land into desert.
THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
• Homeless workers, now migrants,
travelled to California in search of work.
Due to the abundance of men looking
for jobs, employers could take their pick
and pay them low wages.
• Life was hard.
WHAT IS THE GREAT
AMERICAN DREAM?
THE GREAT AMERICAN DREAM
“A chicken in every pot, and a car in every
garage.” – President Herbert Hoover (who
was president just before the Great
Depression occurred)
“It’s [the American Dream] the hope that
everyone can enjoy life and be successful at
it.” –Anonymous.
• Traditionally, Americans have sought to
realise the American dream of success,
fame and wealth through courage,
determination and hard work.
• California!
MIGRANTS’ LIFESTYLES
• Accommodation was primitive and
unsanitary.
• People who did not find work were
constantly at risk of disease and
starvation.
• People’s senses of being were changed
– they were not ‘farm men’ any more,
but ‘migrant men’. They were no
longer connected to the land.
• An obvious link from this is to
George’s yearning for his own land. He
feels no connection working for other
people.
CLASS TASK:
Go online and research the Great Depression.
Write a paragraph detailing the following (200 words):
• What was the Great Depression?
• What would life have been like for a migrant like
Lenny or George?
• How does this link to the American Dream?
Hint: Great Depression = Loss, American Dream = Hope.