the grapes of wrath he was born in salinas, california in 1902. he lived and worked in california....

The Grapes of Wrath

• He was born in Salinas, California in 1902.

• He lived and worked in California.

• He worked on a dredging crew or in a sugar plant to get money for college although he never completed a degree.

• He met hoboes, fruit-pickers and migrant workers through his work.

• ‘I think I would like to write the story of this whole valley, of all the little towns and all the farms and the ranches in the wilder hills. I can see how I would like to do it so that it would be the valley of the world.” Steinbeck’s letter to George Albee, Salinas, 1933

• He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962

• His best known novels include: The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, East of Eden, Tortilla Flat and The Red Pony

• He died in 1968

Biography

Steinbeck’s America

‘The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing our many grievous faults and failures, with dredging up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement.’ ‘Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope. So that today, Saint John the Apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the word, and the word is man, and the word is with man.’

 From: John Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech 1962

The Roaring TwentiesThe Roaring Twenties

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Coolidge: ‘America’s business is business

BUT……

Great Depression• Most severe economic downturn in American history

•Began with the Stock Market crash of 29 October 1929

•Lasted until the start of American involvement in World War II

•Unemployment rose to 30%

•50% of commercial banks failed

•Crop prices fell by 50%

•Over-production led to unemployment

•Hunger, despair, poverty, homelessness – millions of Americans had their lives destroyed

New Deal

•The New Deal was Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression

•One of the movements was the establishment of a modern Welfare State while preserving the capitalist system

•Women, blacks and other minorities gained little from the New Deal

•The effects of the Depression were exacerbated (made worse) by the ecological disaster of the Dust Bowl which caused many to migrate to California in search of the American Dream – the promised land and wealth

The American Dream

The Reality

The BookOf Mice and Men was originally called Something That Happened.

When Steinbeck first thought of the idea for the book he intended it to be for children. Steinbeck told a friend that he was experimenting with a new 'dramatic form'.

In May 1936 he had a written manuscript - but his puppy (a setter called Toby) ate it!

He said of the book:

"It is an experiment and I don't know how successful."

.

To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest, With The Ploug'

Wee, sleekit, cowrin', tim'rous beastie,

O, what a panic's in thy breastie!

Thou need na start awa sae hasty,

Wi' bickering brattle!

I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,

Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,

Has broken Nature's social union,

An' justifies that ill opinion,

Which makes thee startle

At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,

An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;

What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!

A daimen icker in a thrave

'S a sma' request;

I'll get blessin wi' the lave,

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!

It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!

An' naething, now, to big a new ane,

O' foggage green!

An' bleak December's winds ensuin,

Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,

An' weary winter comin fast,

An' cozie here, beneath the blast,

Thou thought to dwell ---

Till crash ! the cruel coulter past

Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,

Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!

Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,

But house or hald,

To thole the winter's sleety dribble,

An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy !

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!

The present only toucheth thee:

But och! I backward cast my e'e,

On prospects drear!

An' forward, tho' I canna see,

I guess an' fear!

An' never miss't!

Robert Burns