In the 1930s, the number of unemployed people skyrocketed. In the worst year, 24.75% of the labor force, about 1 in 5 people, were without a job, without income, and without support for their families. The historical events, time period, and situations throughout Of Mice and Men are linked to the economic and social situations during the time in which the book is set and when it was written, these elements in Of Mice and Men affect its theme of determination as well. First of all, in this piece of text it is shown what living in America was like during a historic event called the”Dust Bowl”, “The areas hit hardest by the drought- Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and parts of Colorado and Texas-were devastated, as farms and crops and ultimately …show more content…
They were paid by the quantity of fruit and cotton picked with earnings ranging from seventy-five cents to $1.25 a day. Out of that, they had to pay twenty-five cents a day to rent a tar-paper shack with no floor or plumbing. In larger ranches, they often had to buy their groceries from a high-priced company store” (Mass Exodus from the Plains 1). To put it differently, migrant workers already had it extremely tough, but their employers were making it worse. The hardships for the workers were immense, and they just kept adding on. Most can’t even imagine what people went through back then, or what George, Lennie, and all the other workers in Of Mice and Men experienced as …show more content…
‘Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble” (Steinbeck 13). To explain, George is basically saying that he wishes Lennie would just leave him alone so he could have an easier life. However he changes his mind a few moments later; that can be seen in this piece of text, “‘If you don’ want me I can go off in the hills an’ find a cave. I can go away any time.’ ‘No-look! I was jus’ foolin’, Lennie. ‘Cause I want you to stay with me’” (Steinbeck 14). To clarify, even with all the hardships that Lennie brings into George’s life, he is still determined to help him and stay with him as long as he can. This is linked to the real world because Lennie is based on a real migrant worker back in the 1930s, the events of the Great Depression affect the characters of the book and causes them to be much more determined and persistent to make it in America, to succeed in all aspects, and to help themselves and others along the
To begin with, the “Dust Bowl” was one of the causes of economic fallout which resulted in the Great Depression. Because the “Dust Bowl” destroyed crops which were used to sell and make profit, the government had to give up a lot of money in order to try and help the people and land affected by the “Dust Bowl”. The “Dust Bowl” refers to a time during the 1930’s where the Great Plains region was drastically devastated by drought. All of the areas (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico) all had little to no rainfall, light soil, and high winds, which were not a very suitable combination. The drought lasted from 1934 to 1937, most of the soil during the drought lacked the better root system of grass.
The Dust Bowl was the name given to the Great Plains area in the 1930s. Much of the region was an agricultural area and relied on it for most of their economy. Combined with The Great Depression and the dust storms, farmers in the Great Plains area were severely hurt. These farmers were seeking opportunity elsewhere near the Pacific where they were mistreated by the others already there. The mistreatment is a form of disenfranchisement, by excluding and segregating a group of people from the rest of society. The disenfranchisement of the Oklahoma farmers during the 1930s was caused by a combination of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression which led to the farmers being forced to move west where they were mistreated because there were not enough jobs.
...t Bowl. Unfortunately the circumstances in the Great Plains all came to a head resulting in a horrific ten years for citizens of the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl caused government and people to look at farming practices and to evaluate their output. These policies resulted in overproduction of crops causing the prices to fall. The conclusion of World War I and countries that stopped importing foods added to the pain the farmers were already feeling. Yet with the establishment of government policies such as the Federal Relief Administration and the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act and with drought coming to an end, the Dust Bowl came to an end. The American people knew that they needed to do everything that was possible to end the Dust Bow. Tom Joad, the lead character in The Grapes Wrath best sums it up “ I know this... a man got to do what he got to do.”
In Of Mice and Men, the author attempts to portray the hardships that a man attempts to face yet fails to withstand. Set in the post-depression era, the book depicts the harsh truth of the
The “Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s”, was written by Donald Worster, who admits wanted to write the book for selfish reasons, so that he would have a reason o visit the Southern Plains again. In the book he discusses the events of the “dirty thirties” in the Dust Bowl region and how it affected other areas in America. “Dust Bowl” was a term coined by a journalist and used to describe the area that was in the southern planes in the states of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, between the years of 1931 and 1939. This area experienced massive dust storms, which left dust covering everything in its wake. These dust storms were so severe at times that it made it so that the visibility in the area was so low to where people
At the core of understanding the Dust Bowl is the question of whose fault it was. Was it the result of farmers tilling land beyond what the environment could bear, or is it just a natural fluctuation in the atmosphere? These questions have intrigued historians and started a new evolution of theories. The Dust Bowl grazed across the Midwest of the United States, destroying the ecology and agriculture of the United States and Canadian Prairies"1.
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the Midwest was full of agricultural growth. The Panhandle of the Oklahoma and Texas region was marked contrast to the long soup lines of the Eastern United States.
(Worster12) but neglects the fact that at the time of the Dust Bowl many of the farmers weren’t fully educated in preventing most of the natural disasters that occurred. The drought has caused a lot of unfavorable conditions for farmers in the southwest. In Worster’s book he says “Few of us want to live in the region now”. There is too much wind, dirt, flatness, space, barbed wire, drought, uncertainty, hard work.”
The book The Worst Hard Time describes my experience on trying to get through this book but somehow almost made me grateful that even as difficult and exhausting as it was in actuality there was nothing worse, difficult or exhausting than living through the dust bowl storms in the 1930’s which luckily I did not do. If you ever feel ungrateful or depressed about something in your life just read this book and you will know that most problems now a days in the United States don’t compare to the hardships and loss of loved ones who died during the dust storms in the 1930s. The people who inhabited the dust bowl area which consisted of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado and Kansas where sold an Idea of the American dream of owning property
The area of severe wind erosion, soon known as the Dust Bowl, compromised a section of the wheat belt near the intersection of Kansas, Colorado, and Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. ”(Gregory, 11). Along with Gregory, John Steinbeck in his book, The Harvest Gypsies, and Debra Weber in her book, Dark Sweat, White Gold, also write about these events, and in particular the people who were affected by it. The Dust Bowl had ruined any chance of farmers in those regions being able to farm, because of that they were forced to relocate to be able to survive.
In Of Mice and Men, George and Lenny are migrant workers in an area where they aren’t taken seriously. This is because other migrant workers that came around the farm wasted their monthly pay on drinking and gambling. George and Lenny have different plans though, they want a permanent home to live on, instead of traveling around to find work and leaving once Lenny screws up. They are treated like the drinking and gambling migrant workers throughout the book, because that’s exactly what those other workers had on their minds. During the Great Depression, this was what many had on their minds, but they could never get it because they couldn’t find work, or the work they found didn’t pay well enough. Perhaps, in the book, some migrant workers
First the northern plains were hit by the dry spell, but by July the southern plains were in the drought. Because of the late planting and early frost, much of the wheat was damaged when the spring winds of 1932 began to blow. The region was blasted by a horrible dirt storm, which killed almost all the wheat. Although the dirt storms were fewer in 1934, it was the year, which brought the Dust Bowl national attention. A severe storm blew dirt from Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. In spite of the terrific storm in the year 1934 there was a satisfying break from the blowing dirt and tornadoes of the previous year. But nature had another trick up her sleeve, the year was extremely hot with new records being made. Before the year had run its course, hundreds of people in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas had died from the heat. The weather in the Dust Bowl again made the national headlines. A description of this storm of coming was made by a farmer:" The storm causes a tremendous amount of damage and suffering mentally and physically some of the conditions were animals dying from dust in the lungs and people developing dust pneumonia.” A giant dust storm engulfs Oklahoma. These storms destroyed vast areas of the Great Plains farmland. The methods of fighting the dust were as many and varied as were the means of finding a way to get something to eat. Canned foods had became the only way anybody could eat. Every possible crack was plugged, sheets were placed over windows and blankets were hung behind doors. Often the places were so tightly plugged against the dust that the houses became extremely hot and stuffy. Men, women and children stayed in their houses and tied handkerchiefs over their noses and mouths. When they dared to leave, they added goggles to protect their eyes. Houses were shut tight, cloth was wedged in the cracks of the doors and windows but still the fine silt forced its way into houses, schools
George’s struggles with himself become apparent at the beginning of the novel. Steinbeck clearly lets the reader know that George has conflicting feelings about Lennie. He believed, “ ...if he was alone he could live so easy. He could go get a job an ' work, an ' no trouble” (11). George is basically telling Lennie that sometimes, he wishes he could live
The Grapes of Wrath attempts to show the difference between the groups of people and the characters along the lines of race, class, and religion, which are discussed in this paper. The Okies' racial status as Anglo Americans appeared to distinguish them from other immigrant workers. Steinbeck utilizes their whiteness further bolstering his good fortune. The "Harvest Gypsies" articles underline the migrants' Anglo-Saxon legacy: their names "show that they are of English, German and Scandinavian plunge." To these families living in provincial regions, with names like "Munns, Holbrooks, Hansens, Schmidts," majority rules system "was not just conceivable be that as it may inescapable" (Hicks, 1939). Steinbeck announces that "this new race" is in California for all time, dissimilar to past migrant gatherings who were extradited when they were no more handy; consequently, he predicts, the state will need to adjust its framework to suit them. Since they are Americans, "the old routines for constraint, of starvation wages, of imprisoning, beating and intimidation are not going to work." The Grapes of Wrath offers a challenge to working class readers to unite with the working population subjects of the story, contending that the desolates of capital amassing are felt all around the society, even all the more intensely on the penniless migrant workers.
Imagine living in a world where people are working incredibly physically demanding jobs for only 25 cents per hour. Where women are treated like objects and 60% of the workforce is unemployed. That was the setting in John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men. The two main characters are Lennie and George, and they are field workers in California. They travel together, which most men moving around for jobs didn’t do. Lennie and George were close friends and had plans to own a house and live off the land together. But in their time working they faced a lot on inequalities in society like women not being treated equally, the disabled being treated like small children, and the poor being exploited for their labor. I feel that the reader can learn a valuable lesson in this book how to not be manipulated and exploited as well as teaching that one needs to look at situations from another point of view before they act or judge.