The Role Of Migrant Workers In The Grapes Of Wrath

Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men' explores the everyday lives of migrant workers during the Great Depression. In this era, American men were forced to leave their families and become 'drifters'. These were people who didn't have a fixed job and continually moved from place to place.

In the excerpts George and Lennie are two friends, one smart the other intellectually disabled, both on a ‘mission’ to achieve the American dream. Their journey reveals a lot about the two. Lennie is a follower, in that he follows and imitates George’s every move. Lennie also suffers from a mental disability. It is also understood that they are from a working class upbringing.

The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.

At one point in time, nearly all the characters in the novel have admitted to being “lonely” and have vulnerably shared their hopes and dreams with another person at the ranch. To begin, the main characters (George and Lennie) travel together everywhere and never leave each other’s side. The other men envy what George and Lennie have- a friendship. Many question why George always sticks with Lennie and never leaves him, regardless of his mental disability. The answer is simple. They have built a dependency towards each other, and all they have is each other. They both believe in the dream of one day having a ranch, crops, and rabbits to tend to.

In the late 1930 unemployment rates were dropping at exponential rates, people were traveling west looking for jobs, hoping to gain even the smallest amounts of money. They were struggling to survive, fighting for jobs and living in horrible conditions. The Dust Bowl had wiped out most of their homes and many were desperate, people referred to them as migrant workers. The story Of Mice and Men revolves around the adventure of two migrant workers, George and Lennie. The book begins with a scene of nature, calm and beautiful yet cruel and complex. Much like nature, John Steinbeck's book tells the dark side of our nation and it’s people. Because of this, Steinbeck's book is still valuable to teach students. His simple yet complex story characterizes

“Well, you keep your place then, n*****. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny” (Steinbeck 81). In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the readers are following the life of Lennie and George, who are migrant workers during the Great Depression. Migrant workers, unlike Lennie and George, primarily travel alone, and they go from job to job. George and Lennie have been together since they were younger, as Lennie would come along with George while he worked, so they had become inseparable. Lennie got them kicked out of many jobs, but they landed a spot as a ranch hand bucking barley. Once they became acquainted with the farm, Lennie and George become friends with a man named Crooks, but before that, they are introduced to the ranch by Candy. As the story progresses, a theme of isolation, discrimination, and loneliness on Candy, Lennie, and Crooks is revealed.

The Great Depression created a devastating shortage of jobs in the United States. According to Document A, there were nearly 11 million people without any jobs at all and those who did have jobs suffered a decrease in pay. Not only was pay down but because of the lack of jobs, production was down as well with steel production being at 15 percent capacity and the New York Times business-activity index “showed a new low of 55, meaning 55 percent normal.” The people of the U.S. migrated everywhere to look for work just how the Mexican immigrants had done just before the Depression

In the late 1930’s novel, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck follows the lives of two men and how they live on one another to endure the hardships nurtured from the Great Depression. George and Lennie, the main characters, venture together along the rolling hills of the western United States, looking out for one another and being there for each other even in the hardest times looking for work to pursue their lifetime dream. Lennie, a strong bold man and a hard worker, is handicapped with a mental disability while George, on the other hand, is a slim, but strong man who has taken care of Lennie ever since his Aunt Clara had perished. Both the men have big dreams of living on a beautiful farm together and raising farm animals such as chickens,

The novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ was written by John Steinback, whom depicts how life was like for men and women in the 1930’s. From the outset, we were shown through the title itself ‘Of Mice and Men’ that the novel wouldn’t end well for George and Lennie. As this title was inspired by a Scottish poet whom said in his famous poem ‘To a Mouse’ ‘…the best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley’, conveys how no matter how well we may plan the future, things will often go wrong and obstacles will appear. Additionally, despite the American dream – the lack of hope, violence and harshness surrounding the men; gave a clear view into the lives of migrant workers such as George and Lennie. Portraying how the American dream is deemed unattainable for the men at the ranch, whom are destined to fall prey to a vicious cycle of harshness and violence – unable to escape from the world that they are living in.

During the Great Depression, which lasted from 1929-1939, the stock market crashed and companies and businesses did as well. Banks lost life savings, leaving the majority of the United States broke. Then, sandstorms that covered 5 million square miles of the Midwest left farmers without farms or money (“Grapes,” Novels 114). The bank had to force farmers out of their homes and these farmers and their families began migrating to California and were nicknamed “Okies”. Unfortunately, the Okies were hated by the Californians rather than welcomed. Many different kinds of people in California hated the Okies for various reasons. The first kind of people were the laborers. The laborers hated the Okies

     John Steinbeck wrote about what surrounded him. At the time he was writing, the nineteen-thirties, a great depression was plaguing the United States. Many people were out of work. Many farmers were losing their farms and homes. An extreme drought had also wrecked the farms of the Midwest and made them into what is now referred to as the "dust bowl". It was a terrible time to be poor, and most were. People died of malnutrition every day. In California, where Steinbeck resided, migrant workers dominated the workforce. Thousands traveled from all around to pick fruit in the farms of the Salinas Valley for minuscule wages. Thousands more could not find suitable

Of Mice and Men by Jacob Pedler John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression which explores the sufferings that were confronted by migrant workers through the themes of loneliness and isolation. The text takes us through a journey with two migrant workers named George and Lennie that live their lives moving from ranch to ranch chasing their ‘American Dream’. Steinbeck uses various literary techniques to explore the themes of loneliness. Steinbeck uses the novella to take us in to detail about the cause and coping mechanisms involved with loneliness through a range of examples and quotes through the text.

In Steinbeck's popular novel, Of Mice and Men, written and issued in 1937, he narrates regarding on how the leading characters, George Milton and Lennie Smalls, migrant workers who had been through difficult situations of being homeless and bankrupt during the Great Depression. During their grueling times, George, the smaller, and moreover, the mature man, who differentiates from Lennie made the option to have an opportunity for a job at Tyler Ranch in California. George and Lennie primarily focused on getting a sizeable amount of stake to find a land to live on. Along their journey, the two men had experienced the toughest obstacles. With George being an aid to a disabled Lennie, aiding him made things usually punishing. Throughout the novel,

John Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show how hard life was for migrant ranch workers during the time of the Great Depression and how they were often exploited by their employers. In showing how George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own piece of land did not come true, Steinbeck explores a wider theme, criticising the idea of the American Dream. The American Dream tells people that there is ‘opportunity for each... regardless of the fortuitous circumstance of birth and position. Steinbeck criticises this as these ranch workers were given few opportunities. Settings play a very important part in the novel as they pinpoint clear times and places giving a sense of realism to the story, but they are also used to create atmosphere.

In the novel The Grapes of Wrath, we are shown many social issues within the story. Social issues are displayed through homelessness, adaptation, prejudice and more. The social issues bring the novel together as one, and they have a great effect on the Okies in the book. Also, adaptation plays a big part in the social issues. Steinbeck captures great struggles in migrant work on the farm and shows how workers needed to come together as one.