UNDERSTANDING THE ERA OF 1937

WALL STREET CRASH

The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, began in late October 1929 and was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States , when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout .The crash signalled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries.

The American Dream final blow began by the Wall Street Crash when the value of shares on the stock market fell dramatically . This marked the start of the Great Depression that swept the world in the 1930s .

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

• Mice and Men written in the height of the great depression is a novel that portrays the way in which, despite being systematically crushed as consequence of depressed circumstances, human spirit still survives. The novel contains both optimistic and pessimistic features – the author, John Steinbeck, illustrates how people, with the help of companionships and dreams, can prevail in the face of all forms of adversity, be it unemployment, isolation, or even death !

The idea of “The Great Depression” is linked in the novel with George and Lennie repeating their dream symbolising their desperate and depressed especially how everyone wants to join in this dream because they are enfaced with isolation and adversity .

THE DUSTBOWL

• This was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the US and Canadian praises during the 1930s; severe drought and a failure to apply dry land farming methods to prevent wind erosion .

• The Dust Bowl forced tens of thousands of families to abandon their farms. Many of these families, who were often known as Okies because so many of them came from Oklahoma, migrated to California and other states to find that the Great depression had rendered economic conditions there little better than those they had left. Author John Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men about such people.

RACISM

Racism is linked with this book by it was a white male dominated place and crooks was the only black man in the whole ranch so was discriminated against for his colour and the fact that he was partly disabled also went against him. That's also why he had a separate living space from all the other ranch workers.