Context OMAM

• Impact of the Great Depression 

  • During the Great Depression, racism and racial violence increased.
  • Black people were severely affected by the Great Depression. By 1932, half of black people in America were believed to be unemployed. 
  • In some northern states, white people demanded that employers fire black people from their jobs to solve the problem of unemployment in white communities.
• The Civil Rights Act - which banned racial discrimination in employment - was not passed until 1964. So the novel is set at a time when racial discrimination was NOT illegal.
• There were a number of laws passed around this time which made it legal to segregate (keep separate) black people and white people
• Treatment of Crooks 

  The only black character in the story, Crooks, is treated unfairly by the other characters. For example:

  • He is not allowed to live with the other men.
  • He is told that he “stinks”.

  The way the other characters treat him reflects the discrimination that many black people experienced in 1930s America and beyond.
• Curley's Wife's behaviour 

  • At one point, Curley’s Wife tells Crooks that she could have him “strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny” (Section 4).
  • This incident references the Ku Klux Klan, a racist organisation in America which has a history of murdering black people, normally by hanging them from trees (known as lynching).
• The American Dream

  • The American Dream is the belief that America is a land of opportunity, and this is rooted in the Declaration of Independence. This states that “all men are created equal” and everybody has the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.
• George and Lennie’s dream of owning “a little place” (Lennie, Section 4) of their own and enjoying the freedom which comes with self-sufficiency or, as they say, living “off the fatta the lan’”, is a typical example of the American Dream, and is something that many ranch workers of the 1930s would have aspired to achieve.
• Curley’s wife’s unfulfilled dream to be “in the movies” (Curley’s wife, Section 5) is also a typical interpretation of the American Dream: the idea that an ordinary working-class girl can make it in Hollywood.
• None of the characters in Of Mice and Men are successful in achieving their ‘American dreams’. This means Steinbeck could be criticising the concept of the American Dream, suggesting that the idea that “all men are created equal” is false.
• Through his presentation of Crooks, Steinbeck also seems to be making the point that the American Dream is only for white people and that black people like Crooks are supposed to be satisfied with being treated like second-class citizens.
• The Great Depression

  • The Great Depression was triggered by an event in 1929 called the Wall Street Crash, which was when the value of shares on the stock market collapsed suddenly and drastically (Wall Street is the main street in the financial district of New York City).
• The most serious consequence of the Wall Street Crash and The Great Depression which followed was mass unemployment. This can be seen in Of Mice and Men as workers like George and Lennie are forced to travel around to find work, always living in fear of being “canned".