The Great Depression

The Great Depression Effects on individuals and society. By: Alex Tracy-Gould, Blaire Webber, Adrie Spraggand Tristan Workman

Working class people. • As a result of the decline in consumer goods, many working class people lost their work because there wasn't enough resources to produce goods. Families weren’t able to sustain their households and were evicted on a regular basis from their homes. Over the course of many years a statistic of 200,000 people migrated around North America to find shelter, food, jobs and proper clothing.

Correlation • In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie didn’t even have a home to be evicted from. They didn’t have money to eat or go places to eat. They were migrant workers as well, constantly roaming around California, looking for work.

Worker Social Programs • When workers lost their jobs, there were no social programs put into place to find relocation for workers to work, nor were there ways of dealing with the chronic feeling of depression among the workers. Because of the depressed nature of the workers, they ended up abandoning their families so they could find work and only have to support one person.

In George and Lennie’s case, social programs did not exist. There was no way for a group to take Lennie in so that they could treat his mental Illness, and instead, he had to stick with George which made all the more difficult for George to look for work for the both of them and than have to take care of Lennie as well.

Worker Migration • During the agricultural seasons of the great depression, people constantly migrated to the south to go work on farms and orchards and what not, because there was a very large amount of work in such places. In of Mice and Men, it clearly describes the migration of workers to go work on farms and such so that they could obtain food and shelter. California was a place all year round that constantly had farms and orchards so that workers didn’t have to worry about their jobs because there would be some stability.

Lennie and George constantly migrated around California to work on farms and what not because there was constant work all year round in that area. George and Lennie were let go on a regular basis because Lennie was constantly getting in trouble with the employers and on the farms in general.

Unions • During the great depression, it was rare that companies would have unions for their work. Because there were no unions, workers didn’t have stability and comfort with their jobs and their jobs weren’t secure at all. So it was common with both small and large corporations, that workers had a high rate of losing their jobs.

With such a small amount of workers on a farm and because it was a farm, Unions were never in place or common for that time. Most of the workers didn’t even have much of an education in the first place so it would be hard for them to actually form a union.

People and Pairs • During the migration of workers in the 1930’s, people constantly paired-up so that if one of the workers were able to find work, than that would act as a great way of suggesting another worker for employers during that time. In of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are a great example of how workers during Great Depression paired-up to find work and suggest work for employees during that era.

Consumer Goods • Manufacturing of commodities during the great depression declined at a considerable rate. Necessities as well fell at a rapid rate so there wasn’t food or clothing for people of that time. The way in which workers lost their jobs and the production of commodities and necessities declined, kept going in the same continuous cycle for many years. Because workers lost their jobs, there was no production. This stemmed from the inequality or the imbalance of the economy

Of Mice & Men • The novella , Of Mice & Men, takes place during the great depression. The story of two young men who are in need of work to survive in America. They had no home, no money, no family, nothing. They were let go, and then they had the notion to go and work on another farm, the only place that was guaranteed work.

Resources: http://www.knowgarden.org/images/mice.jpg

The Great Depression