http://eprentice.sdsu.edu/S055/jlemaster/john_steinbeck.html

The 1930sDepression - an economy with high unemployment, falling income, failing business, decline in production and sales.The Great DepressionMisconception: - Stock market crash was the cause of the Great Depression.

Farming Depression (1920-1935)Cheap land (Banks allowed buyers to put 25% down on an acre that cost $15.00)Over production on wheat (five million acres)The Dust Bowl

Heavy Real estate losses in Florida Mass Consumption:

Living above means

Uneven Distribution of WealthUninsured banksStock Market Crash

To attract investors brokers sold stocks on margin -- the investor paid only part of the selling price in cash and borrowed the rest on margin from the stock broker.Brokers borrowed money from the banks to cover the margin.

March 1928 – Stock prices soared and the number of shares traded rose sharplyStock prices were 400 percent higherInvestors became cautiousFewer buyers drove prices down

October 1929 “Black Tuesday”

Confidence in stock market failedInvestors began selling stocksMargin calls- Banks wanted their money from brokers, and brokers wanted their money from investors.

Extra! Extra! Readall about it! StockMarket Crashed!Sad days ahead!

The Dust Bowl itself was restricted to a 97-million-acre piece of high, level land in the southern portion of the Great Plains: Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

From 1932-1936 the annual rainfall didn’t exceed 12 inchesLow wheat prices and yields drove farmers from their landsDust clouds lifted and settled over millions of acresFarmers and farmhands moved into California as migrant workersSeventy severe dust storms recorded in 1933

Atlantic Monthly, 1930s“Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair, eyes, teeth, and throats…”People in Cimarron County remember hanging wet blankets across their windows and laying wet cloths over their faces when they went to sleep.

Ceilings collapsed under the weight of the accumulated dust mounds.

Migration - movement of people from place to place for permanent settlementDrought in the plains forced owners off farmsThe Grapes of Wrath depicts this lifestyle

Migrant farm workersHomeless/farmless due to drought and “Dust Bowl”Poor mid-western farmers despised and abused in California

Factories and Mills closedManufacturing cut in halfUnemployment rose from 3.2 % to 24.9%Banks ran out of money“The Banking Crisis” F.D.R.

Mortgages foreclosed Homelessness; poverty“Riches to Rags” For

Sale

Living ConditionsMalnutritionDoubtMost severe for men, women’s jobs actually roseChildren more self-reliantWhites took-over jobs held by minorities

The Government Responds

Hoover: self-reliance, restore confidence, grew unpopular as conditions worsenedRoosevelt elected in 1932“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”New Deal

End of Depression1939 - unemployment still 15%Outbreak of WWII - expansion of national defense, stimulating jobs and growthFederal Government expanded its role in social and economic areasDemocratic Party - majority of America’s support for next half of century

The American Dream

Defining your own American Dream

The phrase the American Dream came into the American vocabulary starting in 1867 when writer, Horatio Alger came out with his book “Ragged Dick.” It was a rags-to-riches tale of a poor orphan boy in New York City who saves his pennies, works hard and eventually becomes rich. It became the model that through honesty, hard work and strong determination, the American Dream was available to anyone willing to make the journey.

What is the American Dream?

The term was used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states:

"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to achieve the fullest stature of which they are capable of, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the circumstances of birth or position."

Themes in ‘Of Mice and Men’

-The American Dream -The American Dream:

Having a piece of land/home of your own, thereby establishing a sense

of equality and also personal freedom from poverty and/or

persecution

The American Dream

In the Declaration of Independence our founding fathers state the following: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Might this statement be considered the foundation for the American Dream?What is your American Dream?

Is the American dream possible in the historical context of the novel?

Videos

America’s Great Depression Great Depression Video

American DreamAmerican Dreams