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John Steinbeck and the Great Depression

Social Context

John Steinbeck was alive during the time of the great depression and World War II which influenced many of his novels such as Of Mice and Men. The great depression caused many people to move from Oklahoma to California, because of failed crops, to look for jobs and money. John Steinbeck wrote about the economic state of America and the mass unemployment which was taking place at that time. Steinbeck made a novel about the dust bowl called The Grapes of Wrath published in 1939 and was awarded the nobel prize in 1962.

Political Context

General Information about John Steinbeck

Historical Context

  • He was born on February 27th 1902 and died on December 20th 1968 in Salinas California.
  • His Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath sold over 14 million copies in the first 75 years it was published in 1939.
  • He has two sons called Thomas and John Steinbeck IV.
  • Most of his books were based on the lives of people living during the Great Depression.

John Steinbeck’s contacts with leftist authors , journalist, and labor unions may have influenced his writing. This caused him to be a member of the League of American Writers which was a communist party in 1935 in the United States. During the Great Depression, communist were not looked up as great people, since Steinbeck was considered a communist he would constantly be harassed by having his taxes audited every year. This influenced him to have some of his characters in his books being harassed by the government in some way.

Political Context (cont.)

Steinbeck made a trip to the Soviet Union in 1947 as a journalist and he ended up on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) “watch list” which means he was surveillanced every where he went. At one point Steinbeck wrote a letter to a government official saying to call off the FBI’s surveillance because they were being to obstructive. His trip to Russia confirms to many people that he was a socialist or a communist.

Steinbeck's political belief system, which was certainly to the Left, did not prevent him from supporting the United States in Vietnam. As a war correspondent, Steinbeck wrote several very pro-government pieces about our involvement in the war and, in fact, he was criticized by the anti-war faction for his support of the war.

John Steinbeck’s eminent works consider personally with the bind of un-wealthy Californian travelers, which, unfortunate of the brutality of their situations. Always politically involved, he had three novels about the bind of the Californian labouring party, starting of with In Dubious of Battle 1936, then Of Mice and Men in 1937, and the The Grapes of Wrath in 1940; which won a prize called Pulitzer prize and soon became John Steinbeck’s most famous novel. Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men is set in the background of the Depression era of America. In addition, the economic conditions at that time were heavily mistreated of workers, as their search of land was prevented by powerful strength. The historical impact on John Steinbeck, was quite heavy due to the Great Depression and the conditions having to go through.

Cultural Context

‘Of Mice and Men’ was written during the time of the Great Depression which had influenced John Steinbeck’s perspective on the political, employment and social matters. The stock market crash of October 1929 sent panic to Wall Street as well as wiping out millions of investors which led to the consumer spending and investments to drop over the next several years. The country’s industrial productions had dropped to half of what it had been, bread lines, soup kitchens and homeless people had increased which were caused by employment and poverty. By 1933, when the Great Depression had reached its peak, about 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half the country’s banks had failed.

By Sebastian, Mikhail, Diyanah and Annie

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