The Social, Historical and Cultural Context of Of Mice and Men

A Doomed Prophecy

• In 1928 the American president Herbert Hoover confidently stated, 'We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.'

• Within a year, all the confidence had ended and America was plunged into Depression.

The Wall Street Crash

• In October 1929, there was a very serious event in the world economy.

• The Wall Street Stock market in New York crashed.

Consequences of The Wall Street Crash

• The world economy plunged into what was called The Great Depression.

• A depression is when economic output gets less and less over a long period of time.

• It is more severe than a recession.

The Great Depression

• The number of unemployed people reached in excess of 13 million.

• Many people ended up living in poverty, very close to famine.

• It is estimated that around 1.5 million people travelled around America looking for work. Signs saying ‘No Men Wanted’ were often displayed around the country.

Migrant Workers

• Those people who travelled across America looking for work were called migrant (or itinerant) workers.

• Many migrant workers came to California from other parts of the USA.

• George and Lennie, the main characters in Of Mice and Men, are two examples of such migrant workers.

• In the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas, a series of droughts and failed crops added to the migration west.

Where many people

migrated to looking for

work

Droughts and failed crops = lots of farm workers struggling to make money.

Draw an arrow to show the direction of migrant farm workers in 1930s USA. New York Wall Street Crash caused

The Great Depression which affected not only the USA but also many other

national economies in the world.

The Life of the Migrant Worker

• Men, mostly travelling alone, moved/migrated from ranch to ranch taking short-term, poorly paid contracts.

• This was often the only work available to them at the time.

The Life of the Migrant Worker

• When President Franklin Roosevelt came to power in 1933, he implemented the ‘New Deal’ economic regeneration program.

• As part of this, agencies (such as Murray and Ready’s mentioned in the novel) directed migrant farm workers to ranches and farms where work was available.

George and Lennie: Migrant Farm Workers

• We never find out where they come from – this is not made explicit.

• They illustrate the migrant farm worker of the time.

• Their dream – of owning their own farm and living off ‘the fat of the lan’, was apparently typical of many migrant workers.

• Many wanted to settle down in ‘the promised land’ that was California.

The Title of the Novel

• The title of the book comes from a line of Robert Burns’s poem ‘To A Mouse’: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley”.

• The poem recounts the tale of a mouse that makes a nest in a field, only to have it destroyed by an unwitting farmer.

The Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Times)

• At the time of The Great Depression, many people lived by the unwritten rule ‘every man for himself’.

• People who looked after others (like George looks out for Lennie) were viewed with suspicion.

• This is exemplified in the way the boss acts when George and Lennie first arrive at the farm.

Facts About the Novel

• The original title of the novel was actually ‘Something that Happened.’ Steinbeck changed it after reading Burn’s poem.

• John Steinbeck, the author the novel, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.

• The novel is one of the most challenged books of the twenty-first century. It was thought that novel encouraged bad language and even euthanasia.

Consolidating Your Learning1. What was the serious economic event that

happened in October 1929?2. How did this contrast with an assessment made

by the then president Herbert Hoover?3. What happened to the world economy as a result

of this serious economic event?4. Suggest two human consequences of the Great

Depression. 5. Why did many migrant workers of the time come

from Oklahoma and Arkansas?6. What was the role of agencies such as Murray

and Ready’s? 7. What was the zeitgeist and how do George and

Lennie challenge this?8. What was the original title of the novel? Why

did Steinbeck change it?