Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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Of Mice and Menby John Steinbeck

• The Great Depression
• and
• Migrant Workers

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October 24, 1929 - The Crash
Stock Market Crash - cause of the worst
economic depression in America The Great
Depression - until 1939 (World War II)
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Effects of the Depression
Bankruptcy Bank Closings Factory
Shutdowns Farm Foreclosures Massive
Unemployment (1/4 of workers in 1933)
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Migrant Workers - 1930s
Definition a worker who moves from place to
place to find work Causes droughts, the Dust
Bowl, the Depression, machines During 1930s 3
million No voting rights, home, or union
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OMM - Migrant Workers

• Received work cards from New Deal agencies
• bindlestiff hobo or migrant worker who
  carries a bedroll
• Great Depression -last prominence

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The Dust Bowl
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Migrant Worker - Traits

• Manual Labor (farming, canning)
• Seasonal Work
• Transient Lifestyle
• Underpaid and Underfed
• Immigrants and Bindle-Stiffs

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Migrant Worker Homes
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Farm Factories

• Large, collective farms
• Owned by big landowners or banks, located in
  cities
• Run by local managers
• Similar to industries-corporate farming
• Anti-union

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Images of Migrant Workers
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Migrant Workers in Fields
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Migrant Workers On Break
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Migrant Workers Socializing
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Of Mice and Men

• Trends
• Setting
• Characters
• Themes

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Steinbeck - Trends in Novels

• Characters are victims of society and of other
  men
• Emphasis on struggle
• Focus on the downtrodden common man
• Wrote about CA

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John Steinbeck

• Born February 27, 1902 in Salinas, CA
• His father was a miller and his mother was a
  teacher in Salinas
• English major at Stanford University, but failed
  to meet graduation requirements
• In 1925, he moved to New York to write
• Worked as a cement mixer until he received a job
  with the New York American

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John Steinbeck contd

• Returned to CA and finished his first novel, Cup
  of Gold, 1929.
• First success was Tortilla Flat in 1935. Also in
  the 1930s The Red Pony, The Grapes of Wrath, Of
  Mice and Men
• WWII changed his writing and he eventually turned
  to journalism instead of fiction
• Has been called the greatest American writer of
  the 1930s
• Pulitzer Prize for Grapes of Wrath in 1940
• Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962

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OMM - Geography

• Salinas Valley (Steinbecks homeland)
• Soledad southeast of Salinas (south of San
  Francisco)
• Weed Northern California

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OMM - Main Characters

• George - takes care of Lennie, though he
  sometimes insults him
• Lennie - mental handicap extremely dependent
  on George

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Of Mice and Men - Themes

• Friendship vs. Loneliness
• Dreams (The American Dream)
• Loyalty
• Power vs. Lack of Power