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Migrant Farm Workers In Of Mice And Men

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In “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, George Milton and Lennie Small are two migrant farm workers who travel together during the Great Depression. George is a small but smart man, while Lennie is a big, and strong man. Even though Lennie is mentally disabled, it doesn't stop him from working. George always says that his life would be so much easier without Lennie, but he always refuses when Lennie offers to leave. George and Lennie share the same dream. They share the “American Dream”- to own their own ranch and animals and gain freedom. They arrive at their next ranch and a lot of trouble happens. Lennie, George and Candy, an old handyman with one hand, believe that the “American Dream” is attainable. Curley's wife and Crooks called Lennie …show more content…

“While the numbers of workers in search of work rose during the Depression,the amount of land in production decreased. Moreover, farmers who also faced economic difficulties — falling prices for their crops, higher taxes, and increased debt”(Mapes). This shows that there was not of land that was able to be bought, so George and Lennie might not even have found land to buy or a ranch to tend. “Migrant workers in California who had been making 35 cents per hour in 1928 made only 14 cents per hour in 1933”(Mapes). The Great Depression began in 1929, so this quote proves that as the Great Depression went on, pay got lower and lower. “migrant families during the Depression could expect yearly earnings of between $278 and $500, hundreds of dollars below what experts at the time estimated it would cost a family of four merely to survive” (Mapes). The income for a farm laborer in 1930 was $444 a year; by 1934, the income for a farm laborer went down to $286 a year (Derks). This shows that George and Lennie would not be able to have good lives when it came to money. “The Great Depression then began late in 1929, and unemployment soared over the next four years—to nearly 13 million workers” (Jeffries). George and Lennie might not even have found workers to work their land.
In “Of Mice and Men”, the “American Dream” of owning land is a major theme in the novella. This is because George and

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The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941 and juxtaposed some of the best and worst aspects of the human experience. On one hand, the Great Depression destroyed lives; as a result of the Great Depression, millions of people lost their jobs, their homes, and their ways of life. On the other hand, the Great Depression forced people to work together in order to survive; according to Doris Lindberg, “People helped each other.” Additionally, the Great Depression fostered a hardworking, thrifty, and tenacious character among those who survived it. Doris Lindberg is one of the survivors.

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Document 9, has observed that the chart "U.S Family Income Distribution (1929)," which was the year when the Great Depression starts shows the annual income and the percentage of Ameican Families Earning this Income. If it was over $10,000 the percentage overall was 40% and below it such as $2,000 there was 60% of families lived in or below poverty. The Great Depression hurt all income brackets not just the poor. Indeed, in 1929 the wealthiest 5% of the U.S. received about 33% of income. Furthermore, in document 11, it has been proven the "The Stumbling Block" cartoon has how the farm industry was affected which led to over-production which was the problem.

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The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck is a gripping tale of two men and their lives during the Great Depression. George Milton and Lennie Small are two migrant workers who travel together finding work. They take on a new job “bucking barley” at a ranch in central California for the ranch owner and his son. While working at the ranch they encounter Curley the ranch owner’s son and his wife, a flirtatious woman. The story reaches a climax when Lennie unintentionally kills Curley’s wife and runs back to the Salinas River just as George instructed.

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They are doomed from the start because of Lennie’s fatal flaw—he is developmentally disabled and therefore incapable of bringing the dream to fruition—but his naïveté also allows both him and George to pursue the dream. Lennie’s innocence permits George to believe that the dream might be attainable: “George said softly, ’I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.’” Lennie is the keeper of the dream; he does not question its inevitable fulfillment, he simply believes. Without this innocence, George would be like all the other ranch hands, wasting his money on whiskey and women, drifting aimlessly from one job to the

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