Of Mice and Men Research
By: Gwyneth Steele
The Great Depression
President Herbert Hoover reassured that the crisis will run its course and eventually pass over, but the issues only got worse over the next several years. By 1931, about six million Americans were unable to find jobs and by 1933, thousands of banks had shut down. Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933 and calmed the panic by stating that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". Roosevelt passed laws to improve agricultural and industrial production and to provide careers for the unemployed. He also created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to stabilize the damaged financial systems and to prevent the crisis of October 1929 from reoccurring. Throughout the 1930s, the light soil, strong winds, and severe droughts that covered the Great Plains caused dust storms to form. These severe storms form in the Dust Bowl and are caused by severe weather and poor treatment of the land. The Dust Bowl was another factor that severely damaged the agriculture and economy of the United States during the time of the Great Depression.
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The American Dream
The American Dream is also written in the Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they have certain "inalienable" rights including "freedom, liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness". This dream is that by working hard you will achieve greater, but many don't believe this is possible for the poor who must work multiple jobs to ensure their families' survival. Another aspect to the American Dream is to own land and to have a place to live or to call "home". Many people have different beliefs on what the American Dream is, but the general idea of the American Dream today is that Americans work hard to gain prosperity.
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John Steinbeck
In the book The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck looks at the industrialization of agriculture and how it effects the farm workers who lose their jobs and how society seems to ignore these effects. Steinbeck highlighted the lack of justice involving social status in his books and gave people a voice who normally were not heard. Steinbeck demonstrates how we see identity through ownership in the novel, East of Eden. The American Dream to own land. The book also looks at good and evil and how we as humans can choose our own moral path. Steinbeck asks us a question when looking back on our life of how well we did with our choices and the treatment we give to others. Many of Steinbeck's books were written about characters who are at risk due to their identity as a result to the conflict between cultures at the time. Many of Steinbeck's characters are unable to escape certain influences such as religious and cultural influences or the influences of war and migration.
For More Information, Go To:
- http://www.steinbeck.org/pages/john-steinbeck-biography
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck
- http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/of-mice-and-men/critical-essays/major-themes
- http://www.biography.com/people/john-steinbeck-9493358
- http://faculty.georgetown.edu/bassr/heath/syllabuild/iguide/steinbec.html