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The Effects Of The Great Depression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Cayleigh Meier Mr. Van Velzer Honor English 9 Block 2 5, March 2023 During the Great Depression 24.9% of the nation's total workforce, 12,830,000 people, were unemployed. Also during this time, a man named John Steinbeck wrote one of his most infamous books, Of Mice and Men. How do these two things connect? What happened as a result of this economic crisis? Steinbeck in his novel explores the effects of the Great Depression, a time of extreme poverty that led to many changes in political and social beliefs, on the working class. He does this through multiple examples illustrating the realities of being a traveling farm worker during this time. Specifically through his characters' dialogue. The Great Depression was one of the worst economic …show more content…

During the Great Depression farmers usually had to travel around the country during the time to find work if they did not have a job. They typically had no permanent place to stay and often had to deal with bad working conditions and low pay. George, a migrant farm worker himself, talks about how he has been traveling all over the country for work to Lennie, his friend. He says, “I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose every job I get. Just’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time” (Steinbeck, 11) George says that Lennie has been shoving him all over the country, meaning they are migrant workers. Migrant workers were common during the Great Depression and since the book is set in the 1930s, the period of the Great Depression, we can assume that there is a correlation between the Great Depression and Of Mice and Men. During this time, since migrant workers did not own the land they worked on, they could be exploited by the owners of the farm and were often unable to fight back. In the novel, Curley, the Boss’s son, instigates a fight with Lennie, a ranch hand. Lennie at first helplessly tries to cover his face while Curley punches him over and over but eventually after George tells him to fight back, he does so which results in Curley's hand being crushed under Lennie's grasp. George worriedly asks Slim, another ranch hand, “Slim, will we get canned now? We need the stake. Will Curley's old man can us now?”(Steinbeck, 64) Although Curley was the one to start the fight, the fact that he was the boss’s son gave him the authority to get them fired. Since migrant workers during the great depression were often exploited by the owners of the farms they worked on because they did not own them, this scene shows a connection between the book and the crisis. George and Lennie, who are migrant workers, were able to

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