The Great
Depression is comparable to Lennie and George's life. I would like
to give a
comparison of George Milton and Lennie Small to the Great
Depression. The time that this story took place was
during the Great
Depression. John Steinbeck captured the reality of this
most difficult time.
During the Great Depression people needed
to travel together to share
chores and duties
to make a living until something better came along.
That is
the way George
and Lennie traveled. They traveled together
to take care of
each other but
George took care of Lennie the most, because he was always
getting in
trouble. "You do bad things and I
got to get you out." (Of Mice
and Men
p.11). During the Great Depression money
was very scarce. You
had to travel
around to find a job in order to make money to survive. Lennie
and George were
in that type of predicament. Keeping
enough money until
the next job was
difficult because prices were rising during the Great
Depression and
you had to budget your money. During
this depression most
people worked on
farms because after the stock market crashed people
realized that the
reason the stock market crashed was because farms were not
producing enough
goods. People started to work on farms
more to help
everyone. Lennie and George worked for ranches and also
in the fields.
"He's a good
skinner. He can rassel grain bags, drive
a cultivator. He can do
anything."
(Of Mice and Men p.22).
If you really look closely, George and
Lennie's way of life and the
Great Depression
have a good deal in common. George and
Lennie were
outcasts in
life. George Milton was small in size
and a very smart man
compared to
Lennie. He was actually only of average
intelligence. Lennie
Small was a large
person and very retarded. Since Lennie
was so retarded he
did not grasp the
things that were happening around him.
For example, if
someone became
upset about anything he would grab them and hold and
squeeze until
they stopped moving. Lennie would accidentally harm them and
that is how he
got into trouble. George would then have
to try to get Lennie
out of the
current predicament. This sort of ties
in with the attitude of the
people during the
Great Depression because people were constantly unsettled.
The people in the
Great Depression were losing all of the money that they had
worked so hard to
earn and save. When the banks closed,
they lost
everything. When someone found themselves in great
difficulty on a farm or
ranch they had to
seek some other opportunity. It was very
important to not
let anyone know
what had happened where you were previously employed.
In 1929, Herbert Hoover was elected
president. Wall Street was
greatly affected
by the greatest stock market crash in the history of the United
States of
America. This caused everyone and
especially the banks to panic.
Everyone was
naturally concerned about the safety of their money. They
went to the banks
to get what money they could. There was
not enough
money for
everyone to withdrawal. This was the
beginning of the Great
Depression. During this period president Franklin D.
Roosevelt was
inaugurated. President Roosevelt said, "So, first of
all, let me assert my firm
belief that the
only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified
terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into
advance."
(The Great Depression An Eyewitness History p.105). His first
action of
presidency was to implement what is known as the New Deal to
help the country
to emerge from the Great Depression.
In conclusion there are many things that
can be compared between the
two
subjects. First, the settings between
the two stories were similar and they
both took place
during the same time frame. Second, they
told of the
hardships that
everyone faced during the 1930's.
Hardships and relationships
never last but
memories help us to make better decisions in the future.
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