The Social, Historical and Cultural

Context of Of Mice and Men

 A Doomed Prophecy
• In 1928 the American president Herbert
Hoover confidently stated, 'We in
America today are nearer to the final
triumph over poverty than ever before
in the history of any land.'
• Within a year, all the confidence had
ended and America was plunged into
Depression.
 The Wall Street Crash
• In October 1929,
there was a very
serious event in the
world economy.
• The Wall Street
Stock market in New
York crashed.
 Consequences of The Wall Street Crash

• The world economy plunged into what was called

The Great Depression.
• A depression is when economic output gets less
and less over a long period of time.
• It is more severe than a recession.
 The Great Depression
• The number of unemployed people reached in
excess of 13 million.
• Many people ended up living in poverty, very
close to famine.
• It is estimated that around 1.5 million people
travelled around America looking for work.
Signs saying ‘No Men Wanted’ were often
displayed around the country.
 Migrant Workers
• Those people who travelled across America looking
for work were called migrant (or itinerant) workers.
• Many migrant workers came to California from
other parts of the USA.
• George and Lennie, the main characters in Of Mice
and Men, are two examples of such migrant
workers.
• In the states of Oklahoma and Arkansas, a series of
droughts and failed crops added to the migration
west.
Draw an arrow to show the direction of migrant
New York Wall Street Crash caused
farm workers in 1930s USA.
The Great Depression which affected
not only the USA but also many other
national economies in the world.

Where many
people
migrated to Droughts and
looking for failed crops = lots
work of farm workers
struggling to
make money.
 The Life of the Migrant Worker
• Men, mostly travelling alone, moved/migrated
from ranch to ranch taking short-term, poorly
paid contracts.
• This was often the only work available to them
at the time.
 The Life of the Migrant Worker
• When President Franklin Roosevelt came to
power in 1933, he implemented the ‘New
Deal’ economic regeneration program.
• As part of this, agencies (such as Murray and
Ready’s mentioned in the novel) directed
migrant farm workers to ranches and farms
where work was available.
George and Lennie: Migrant Farm Workers

• We never find out where they come from –

this is not made explicit.
• They illustrate the migrant farm worker of the
time.
• Their dream – of owning their own farm and
living off ‘the fat of the lan’, was apparently
typical of many migrant workers.
• Many wanted to settle down in ‘the promised
land’ that was California.
 The Title of the Novel
• The title of the book comes from a line of
Robert Burns’s poem ‘To A Mouse’:
“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft agley”.
• The poem recounts the tale of a mouse that
makes a nest in a field, only to have it destroyed
by an unwitting farmer.
 The Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Times)
• At the time of The Great Depression, many
people lived by the unwritten rule ‘every man
for himself’.
• People who looked after others (like George
looks out for Lennie) were viewed with
suspicion.
• This is exemplified in the way the boss acts
when George and Lennie first arrive at the
farm.
 Facts About the Novel
• The original title of the novel was actually
‘Something that Happened.’ Steinbeck changed
it after reading Burn’s poem.
• John Steinbeck, the author the novel, was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
• The novel is one of the most challenged books
of the twenty-first century. It was thought that
novel encouraged bad language and even
euthanasia.
 Consolidating Your Learning
1. What was the serious economic event that happened in
October 1929?
2. How did this contrast with an assessment made by the
then president Herbert Hoover?
3. What happened to the world economy as a result of this
serious economic event?
4. Suggest two human consequences of the Great Depression.
5. Why did many migrant workers of the time come from
Oklahoma and Arkansas?
6. What was the role of agencies such as Murray and
Ready’s?
7. What was the zeitgeist and how do George and Lennie
challenge this?
8. What was the original title of the novel? Why did
Steinbeck change it?