Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

Historical Background Great Depression • Stock market crashed in 1929, causing nation wide economic depression • Drought caused The Dust Bowl in the Great Plains in 1931 • Farmers out of business, lose farms • Look to California for work • Longer growing seasons and bigger diversity of crops • Easy access on Route 66

California Depression! • Not enough jobs for farmers • Didn’t pay well • Thus, migrant farmers…followed crop harvest around the state • Potatoes, cotton, lemons, oranges, peas, etc. • Migrants set up “camps” – unsanitary and unhealthy, lawless • Federal Govt sets up formal camps beginning in 1937 • Better sanitation • “courts” and “councils”

John Steinbeck • Born in Salinas, California in 1902 • Grew up in agricultural community • Went to Stanford University in 1919, left in 1925 (No degree) • Worked as laborer and journalist in NYC • Moved to be an estate caretaker in Lake Tahoe • Wrote first novel in 1929, Cup of Gold • Married 3 times • Novels take on many themes, but a lot are about the laboring class in America

Themes in Of Mice and Men • The Elusive American Dream • “live off the fatta the lan” Lennie’s quote • Race and Discrimination • Crooks, the black stable hand • Handicaps and Isolation • Lennie, Crooks, Candy (Useful but all handicapped) • Friendship and brotherhood • George and Lennie, How do people care for each other? • Loneliness – even when you have friends… • Women’s place in society • Curley’s wife: unnamed, gaudy, underestimated, distrustful

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Presentation Transcript

Of Mice and men

Of Mice and Men..

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men:

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

“Of Mice and Men”

Of mice and men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

OF MICE AND MEN.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

“Of Mice and Men”

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men