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Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men. Biography. He was born in Salinas, California in 1902. He lived and worked in California. He worked on a dredging crew or in a sugar plant to get money for college although he never completed a degree. He met hoboes, fruit-pickers and migrant workers through his work.

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Of Mice and Men

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  1. Of Mice and Men

  2. Biography • He was born in Salinas, California in 1902. • He lived and worked in California. • He worked on a dredging crew or in a sugar plant to get money for college although he never completed a degree. • He met hoboes, fruit-pickers and migrant workers through his work. • ‘I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wilder hills. I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world.” Steinbeck’s letter to George Albee, Salinas, 1933 • He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962 • His best known novels include: The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, East of Eden, Tortilla Flat and The Red Pony • He died in 1968

  3. Steinbeck’s America

  4. ‘The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.’ ‘Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, Saint John the Apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the word, and the word is man, and the word is with man.’ From: John Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech 1962

  5. The Roaring Twenties $ movie Gin

  6. Jazz Flappers $5 a day Coolidge: ‘America’s business is business Movies Transatlantic flight Model T Hooch

  7. BUT……

  8. Great Depression • Most severe economic downturn in American history • Began with the Stock Market crash of 29 October 1929 • Lasted until the start of American involvement in World War II • Unemployment rose to 30% • 50% of commercial banks failed • Crop prices fell by 50% • Over-production led to unemployment • Hunger, despair, poverty, homelessness – millions of Americans had their lives destroyed

  9. New Deal • The New Deal was Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression • One of the movements was the establishment of a modern Welfare State while preserving the capitalist system • Women, blacks and other minorities gained little from the New Deal • The effects of the Depression were exacerbated (made worse) by the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl which caused many to migrate to California in search of the American Dream – the promised land and wealth

  10. The American Dream

  11. The Reality

  12. The Book Of Mice and Men was originally called Something That Happened. When Steinbeck first thought of the idea for the book he intended it to be for children. Steinbeck told a friend that he was experimenting with a new 'dramatic form'. In May 1936 he had a written manuscript - but his puppy (a setter called Toby) ate it! He said of the book: "It is an experiment and I don't know how successful." .

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