Entry Task

Regarding your research from the last two days…

1. Write one thing you learned about the Great Depression you didn’t know before.

2. Explain the process you used to find this information – list the steps you took

3. What did you learn about the skill of researching that you didn’t know before.

Picture Perspective

• Make only objective observations• No judgments

• Write down your ideas first

• Add ideas as you hear/see them

A picture speaks a thousand words…

1) President of United States

2) Photographer

3) Child

4) Mother/Father

What is one question “you” would ask of the other three people?

1929-1939

The Roaring 20’s• The new concept of

“credit” • People were buying:

– Automobiles

– Appliances

– Clothes

• “Fun times” reigned– Dancing

– Flappers

– Drinking

Economic Issues• Credit system

– People didn’t really have the money they were spending

• WWI– The U.S. was a major

credit loaner to other nations in need

– Many of these nations could not pay us back

The Stock Market• People bought stocks

on margins– If a stock is $100 you

can pay $10 now and the rest later when the stock rose

• Stocks fall– Now the person has

less than $100 and cannot pay for it

And then….

• With people panicking about their money investors tried to sell their stocks– This leads to a huge decline

in stocks– Stocks were worthless now

• People who bought on “margins” now could not pay

• Investors were average people that were now broke

• Farmers were already feeling the effects– Prices of crops went down– Many farms foreclosed

• People could not afford luxuries– Factories shut down– Businesses went out

• Banks could not pay out money• People could not pay their taxes

– Schools shut down due to lack of funds

• Many families became homeless and had to live in shanties

Many waited in unemployment lines hoping for a job.

People in cities would wait in line for bread to bring to their family.

Some families were forced to relocate because they had no money.

“Hooverville”

At the exact same time…

The Dust Bowl 1930-1940

A drought in the South led to dust storms that destroyed crops.

Farm Security Administration:

farmers whose topsoil blew away joined the sod caravans of "Okies" on Route 66 to California. (Circa 1935)

Toward Los Angeles, California. 1937. (Dorothea Lange.)

Perhaps 2.5 million people abandoned their homes in the South and the Great Plains during the Great Depression and went on the road.

John Steinbeck 1902-1968

• Born in Salinas, California in 1902• Attended Stanford but never graduated• Married to three different women• Often used his novels as social commentary• Won the Pulitzer prize for The Grapes of Wrath• Won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962

The Novel

• Written in 1937

• About two migrant workers on a farm in California

• Originally a play

• Considered a novella

The Novel

• Too cruel for school?– Has been banned for racism, mental retardation,

promiscuity, death, vulgarity, and mysogynism– YOU DECIDE!

T-ChartComplete a T-Chart for EVERY chapter. These will be due when the

chapter is due. You will turn these in with your AB for this book.

• SummaryCharacter names/descriptions

Plot details

Setting

• AnalysisSymbols/Motifs

Imagery

Figurative Language

Tone/Theme

Symbols/Motifs

• Pay special attention to the following and note the page number– Hands– Names– Animal imagery– American Dream– Light/Dark imagery

Literary Devices• Simile• Metaphor• Imagery (ch. 1 and ch. 6)• Foreshadowing – Technique of arranging events and

information in a narrative in such a way that later events are prepared for or shadowed forth beforehand. This gives structural and thematic unity.

• Microcosm – The setting represents a larger context or societal issue.

• Naturalism

All of these devices are crucial to deeper understanding of the text. Take notes when you see these elements being used!

Naturalism

• Focus on explanation and detail• Objective writing versus flowery writing• Explores conflicts between social classes

– Of Mice and Men is a microcosm of American society – two workers on a ranch struggle with attaining their dreams.

– What connection does this have to the larger society of the time?

• Setting is crucial and usually not ideal• Narrator and/or reader is an observer to the story