Context

Question 1

Racism

Answer 1

-unstable job positions
-Jim Crow Laws
-The Ku Klux Klan

Question 2

Racism - unstable job positions

Answer 2

-It is thought that by the end of 1932, 50% of black Americans were unemployed
-In some cities in the northern states, white people called for black people to be fired from their jobs due to unemployment in the white communities – seen as 2nd class citizens

Question 3

Jim Crow Laws

Answer 3

-Named after: the white actor Thomas Dartmouth ‘Daddy’ Rice in the early 1830s, who made his name by performing minstrel routines as the fictional ‘Jim Crow’, a caricature of a clumsy, foolish black slave
-this was the stereotypical view of the slave which were enshrined in the Jim Crow Laws
-They were state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the former Confederate states. They were enforced until the 1960s
-Education, transportation, public facilities and interactions were segregated
-facilities for African Americans were consistently inferior and underfunded, sometimes non-existent

Question 4

The Ku Klux Klan

Answer 4

-a racist group found in 1865 established by people who believed that white people were better and wanted to see black people remain as enslaved people
-At its peak in the 1920s, Klan membership exceeded 4 million people nationwide.
-They would lynch African Americans and burn crosses to intimidate people

Question 5

Treatment of the physically disabled

Answer 5

-People with disabilities were treated very unsympathetically by the majority of society, as they were seen as unproductive and a burden.
-Especially during the Great Depression, when everyone was struggling. This can be seen from Lennie to George.
-once you finish being useful, your existence doesn’t matter anymore

Question 6

George Milton name

Answer 6

Reference to John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost -a retelling of the story of Genesis and corruption of Adam and Eve.
-George’s name is another hint that OMAM is about the corruption and unfair nature of society

Question 7

Lack of friendship during the Great Depression

Answer 7

During the Great Depression, men often travelled alone, separate from their families, leading to an increased sense of competition, individualism, and the struggle for survival

Question 8

The American Dream

Answer 8

Idea ingrained in American society since the writing of the Declaration of Independence:
-‘All men are created equal’ and they have the right to ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’
-serves as an idealised goal for the millions of poor people living in America in the 1930s and millions who migrated to America in the 19th and early 20th century
-In OMAM, Steinbeck argues that it is an illusion in society, especially during the Great Depression

Question 9

The Great Depression

Answer 9

-In 1929, the new York stock market plummeted in value and millions of investors lost their savings as millions of dollars were wiped off the value of shares (the Wall Street Crash) – shares in the stock market lost all their value
-at the peak, it was thought that 13-15 million people in the USA were unemployed
-Industrial production dropped by almost half

Question 10

The Dust Bowl

Answer 10

-The 1930s saw farming become more desperate in the Southern Plain states (from Texas to Nebraska)
-Over-farming during the 1920s left this region vulnerable to poor weather conditions
-toxic mixture of drought and storms that turned this area into a wasteland of blowing dust, making it impossible to farm
-Struggling farmers could not manage these environmental conditions and thousands of families were forced to leave their homes and seek work in other states such as California
-Californians turned away many migrants and workers, scared they would be overrun
-’The Grapes of Wrath’ was written about a family struggling with the dust bowl

Question 11

The Gold Rush

Answer 11

-little known of George and Lennie’s background, but the reader is told that they grew up together in Auburn, a gold rush town that boomed in the late 1800s but suffered by the 1920s as gold prices dropped
-families hoped to make their fortune continued to flock to Auburn and soon it was overrun by people camping by the river, hoping to pan for gold

Question 12

Hollywood

Answer 12

-the early 1930s to the late 1930s are known as ‘The Golden Age of Hollywood’ as technicolor was invented
-at the same time that thousands of Americans were penniless, actors such as Mae West and Clark Gable were making thousands for their on-screen talents
-the movies managed to draw people in even when they had almost nothing to spend
-provided an escape from the suffering of everyday life
-estimated 80 million Americans went to the movies each week during the Great Depression

Question 13

George and Lennie’s dream

Answer 13

-ranch workers wish to be their own bosses, be independent, self-sustaining, and have stability in their lives
-idea of having any control in their lives, even a small piece of land, is a strong motivation

Question 14

Crooks and Curley’s wife dynamic

Answer 14

-black people were classed as the lowest in the hierarchical system and could not talk back to people higher than them. Curley’s wife has more power as she is white
-shows how racism forces black people to become husks of their former selves, and to conform and submit to others

Question 15

Lynching

Answer 15

-lynching of black people was common from the post–Civil War years into the 1950s and the Ku Klux Klan still had a lot of power
-white mobs often used dubious criminal accusations to justify lynching. A common claim would be perceived sexual transgressions from black men against white women

Question 16

The Title

Answer 16

-Taken from a poem by Robert Burn – where a mouse’s house get destroyed by a farmer
-‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/ gang aft a-gley’ -No one can control the harsh environment
-‘A daimen-icker in a thrave ‘S a sma’ request’ - migrants only want a little
-Initially, the novella was to be called – ‘Something that happened’
-meaning that it’s nobody’s fault, it is merely an event that happened in the past
-empathises with the poor and hopeless

Question 17

Steinbeck interviews

Answer 17

-with The New York Times
-wrote a series of articles for the Sans Francisco News titled ‘the Harvest Gypsies’

Question 18

Steinbeck interview with the New York Times

Answer 18

Steinbeck said, ‘I was a bindlestiff myself for quite a spell. I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent’
-Steinbeck grew up in one of the richest agricultural valleys in California. In the 1920s, Steinbeck saw a huge and troubled man kill a ranch foreman
-He said ‘Lennie was a real person. He’s in an insane asylum in California‘
-Steinbeck takes from the harshness of his own life

Question 19

‘the Harvest Gypsies’

Answer 19

-Steinbeck wrote a series of articles for the San Francisco News titled ‘the Harvest Gypsies’
-he saw California’s farmers, landowners and bankers as partly to blame for the migrants’ suffering, due to their deliberate exploitation of cheap labour provided by the migrant workers
-he wrote OMAM in part to expose the role that cruelty and indifference of landowners (represented by the boss and Curley) to the suffering of homeless workers (George and Lennie)

Question 20

Steinbeck - increasing social awareness

Answer 20

-OMAM and The Grapes of Wrath (published two years later) succeeded in raising awareness and political, activist movements focusing on the plight of migrant workers arose

Question 21

Transient lifestyle

Answer 21

-California’s wheat and fruit crops were harvested largely by itinerant workers, mostly single men for whom roving became habitual
-Wages low, living quarters squalid, opportunities for advancement practically non-existent
-To be a farmworker was to be among California’s dispossessed, powerless, degraded, ill-paid fraternity
-constant craving for human company
-most men hate to travel alone on the road

Question 22

Physical danger of ranch life

Answer 22

-The Occupational Safety and Health Act was not introduced in the USA until 1970, so there was minimal health and safety regulations in 1930s California
-Farmers used dangerous machinery and were often poorly trained, so accidents were common
-not only emotional, but physical damage this lifestyle does to people
-tragic, as due to these injuries caused by working, they are now regarded as less valuable in society

Question 23

The hierarchy of power

Answer 23

-Survival of the fittest
-Steinbeck observed that during the Great Depression, without companionship we become like animals, feeding off others and spurning the weak – like Darwin’s concept of ‘survival of the fittest’

Question 24

The boss’s power over workers

Answer 24

-Murray and Ready – allusion to an employment agency during the Great Depression
-shows that workers were not in control but only required when the owners wanted them – dehumanising

Question 25

Curley’s name

Answer 25

-His name is the old English word for ‘strong man’

Question 26

Curley’s insecurity of his wife

Answer 26

-to have a wife that strayed was a bad reflection on the husband, suggesting he is incapable of controlling the ‘weaker sex’.

Question 27

Employment of women in the 1930s

Answer 27

-During the Great Depression, the number of employed women rose, as the job’s available to women (so called ‘women’s work’) were less impacted by the stock market – women were 25% of the workforce
-they were employed in more stable industries such as clerical work, teaching, and domestic service -reflects the stereotypical views of women during that period
-However, wages were lower for women. Jobs created under theWorks Progress Administration (WPA) confined women to fields like sewing and nursing that paid less than roles reserved for men
-the government discouraged married women from entering the workforce, and critics of new societal roles blasted women, accusing them of robbing men of much-needed jobs

Question 28

Tension between men and women in the 1930s

Answer 28

-Financial insecurity and a shift in gender roles led to tension between husbands and wives, an increase in alcoholism, and rise in domestic violence
-men felt that the loss of the ability to provide for their families posed a direct threat to their sense of manhood and their traditional role of protector and provider – Curley feels that insecurity with being unable to control his wife
-most women felt increased family pressures as they tried to make due with reduced income and fulfil their childrearing household obligations
-between 1929-1939, there was a 22% decline in marriage rates

Question 29

Demonization of women

Answer 29

A ‘femme fatale’ - classic role for women in this era of film:
-French for ‘deadly women’ – women were seen as tempting seductresses, demonised and feared for their allure. They are associated with promiscuity and ‘rejection of motherhood’
-Curley’s wife - associated with Eve from the Garden of Eden

Question 30

The treatment of the mentally disabled

Answer 30

-Perhaps his animalistic description mirror the way mental health patients were treated in mental institutes – lobotomy, electric shock therapy
-The mentally disabled were usually placed by, or removed from, their families (usually in infancy) and housed in large professional institutions – viewed as ‘feeble minded’ and that they should not have children and should be sterilised
-Many of these facilities were ‘self-sufficient’ through the labour of the residents themselves. Heavy tranquillisation and assembly line methods of support were the norm. Services were provided based on the relative ease to the provider, not based on the needs of the individual.

Question 31

Form of the novel

Answer 31

-There are very few settings in the novel as Steinbeck envisaged it as a play as well as a novel.
-described it as a ‘playable novel’
-Every chapter begins with a description of a setting
-Steinbeck also wanted to emphasise the feeling of enclosure and entrapment