Of mice and men context

• Eugenics

  The practice or advocacy of improving the human species by selectively mating people with specific desirable hereditary traits. It aims to reduce human suffering by "breeding out" disease, disabilities and so-called undesirable characteristics from the human population.
• Societies promoting eugenics


  • Human Betterment Foundation
• Compulsory sterilisation


  Targeting the "feeble-minded", the poor, the unhealthy and those who upset the moral applecart
• California legalised compulsory sterilisation in 1909 (IQ less than 70)
• Men were often sterilised, especially if their behaviour was seen as aggressive or they showed signs of criminal behaviours
• The law was finding more and more ways to institutionalise and marginalise the mentally "unfit"
• "Booby Hatches"


  Essentially prisons for the mentally disabled
• One institution deliberately fed their patients with TB, resulting in a death rate of 40%
• Ageism


  Age is seen as something that can make you weak in 1930's America
• The Depression created a 'survival of the fittest' mentality within the population, with age therefore being viewed as a weakness
• America was reliant on manual labour and so an inability to do this rendered you useless in society
• The poverty caused by the Great Depression caused America to be a violent and unkind society - those that could not work were often viewed as taking up valuable resources that could be better used for the young
• The older generations were isolated and lonely because of this attitude
• During the 'Roaring Twenties' women start to play a growing role in the American economy, both as consumers and workers
• Between 1920 and 1929 the number of working women over the age of 15 increases by 50% to c.10 million (25% of the female population over 15)
• Women's wages were usually considerably lower than those of men, even where they were doing the same or similar jobs
• Women were subject to criticism for the way they dress and act as skirts and hair get shorter, cosmetics got cheaper and women become more economically independent
• In the 1930s the role and treatment of women changed as there was more competition for jobs due to the Depression
• Their wages were 50% less than their male equivalents, but the expectation was that only unmarried women could work
• The men visit prostitutes to escape the lack of human warmth in their lives-women (a little like the farm hands) have to sell their bodies to survive
• Curley's wife is not even given a first name - it is as if she 'belongs' to Curley
• The men in the novel have very misogynist views-even George is suspicious of them: "You give me a good whore every time'
• Steinbeck presents the reader with an accurate image of the sexism in American culture in the 1930s
• In 1937, the American dream was only really open to men
• Curley's wife could be viewed as a prisoner of her sex, as much as the men are the prisoners of poverty
• Consumer boom in 1920 meant that people were able to afford more materialistic items and were able to lead more comfortable, luxurious lifestyles
• In the 1920's after WWI the American Economy had a 'boom time' because of low inflation, low unemployment and low interest rates
• Land owners became bankrupt and their farms were repossessed
• In 1929 the Great Depression consumed America when the economy went bust
• The Wall Street Crash of 1929 caused many to lose their jobs - there was 25% unemployment
• Draught and over-farming reduced the amount of fertile land
• High unemployment, poverty and homelessness
• Labourers migrated west to California (known as the Golden State) to look for work
• In 1932, Franklin D Roosevelt was elected President of the USA
• FRD devised a 'new deal to improve the life of Americans
• Relief, recovery, reform
• FDR's new deal created optimism as people's lives began to slowly improve
• The stock market crash meant that many farm owners couldn't afford to keep their land so many lost their jobs
• Western America became known as a Dust Bowl because of draught and over-farming
• 1920 saw the rise of Hollywood - film stars began to become well known and American's began to believe they could live a similar lifestyle