The Lives And Treatment Of Migrant Workers In The 1930s And John Steinbeck

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Recommended: Essay on john steinbeck's life

Caroline Jordan
Mrs. C Edwards
10 Pre-Ap English 5th
25 April 2014
The Misery of Being a Migrant Worker
The Lives and Treatment of Migrant Workers in the 1930s and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck’s widely popular Of Mice and Men is a historical fiction novella that portrays the lives and treatment of different groups of people. One group in particular, which is one of the main focuses of the book, is the migrant workers. According to the Encyclopedia of American History: The Great Depression and World War II 1929 to 1945, from 1935 to 1940, net out-migration of the farm population had averaged more than one-half million per year. This is one of the reasons this book was so widely popular. The issue of migrant workers was such a monumental deal, and people loved reading about the struggles that came with it. The question is: how accurately does Steinbeck depict and interpret life in the 1930s? John Steinbeck correctly portrays the treatment and lives of migrant workers in the 1930s in presenting how unattainable the “American dream” was, showing the loneliness of the migrant workers, and illustrating the poor living conditions of the laborers.
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck reflects the conception of the fleeting American dream in the characters of George, Lennie, and Crooks. Steinbeck depicts the harsh reality that migrant workers, most likely, would not achieve their dream through George and Lennie’s failure to gain their perfect ranch that they worked so hard for. Despite the bond between the paternal George and the child-like Lennie and their seemingly indestructible determination and will, they were still unable to grasp the great American dream that so many migrant workers fantasized. The struggles of bei...

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...le had towards the migrant workers in general, the cleanliness of the living quarters was not the authorities’ priority.
One of the tasks of being a historical fiction author is making sure you portray the era one is writing about efficiently and correctly. This is especially true for a book as popular as Of Mice and Men. The era John Steinbeck tackled in Of Mice and Men is the 1930s, or the Great Depression. One of the types of people Steinbeck depicts is the migrant laborer group. John
Steinbeck succeeded in illustrating what it was like being a migrant worker. Based on Steinbeck demonstrating how unsurmountable the “American dream” was, showing the desolation of the migrant workers, and illustrating the not-up-to-par living conditions of the laborers, he correctly portrays the treatment and lives of the migrant workers in the 1930s in his Of Mice and Men.

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