The following post is for freshmen students only.
RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT:
DUST BOWL AND MIGRANT FARMWORKERS
IN OF MICE AND MEN
You’ll be researching today some of the background for the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
YOUR JOB
Answer the following question:
What is Dust Bowl and what does it have to do with Of Mice and Men? Be sure to explain not only what Dust Bowl was, but who migrant farm workers were as well.
The answer has to be a typed up paragraph - minimum 200 words (more is OK, but not less).
You need to copy and paste the paragraph into the comments section by Monday, October 18, 8AM. Write your response using Microsoft Word. (This precaution is for spelling and safety – if your response does not get posted, you still have the Word copy.) Then copy and paste it onto the comments section below.
REMINDER - HOW TO POST
- Click on 'comments' below
- Copy/paste your entry into the field
- Select profile: name/URL
- Type in your name; skip URL
- Click on 'continue'
- Click on 'post comment'
- Check if you post appears
GETTING STARTED
In order to answer the question above, you’ll have to do some basic research. The links below will help:
1. Dust Bowl
2. Migrant Workers
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ReplyDeleteX-tra fact:
ReplyDeleteThe period of time known as the Dust Bowl is sometimes referred to as the "Dirty Thirties"
The Dust Bowl was the nickname for a region in in the 30's, it was 500 by 300 miles and covered a third of the great plains. It got the name from a natural disaster in which there was very little rain, farmers lost their crops and their money. (This isn't my whole comment, Don't grade it yet)
ReplyDeleteWHAT'S GOOD??!! MY PEOPLE! BROTHERS AND SISTERS!
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was the nickname for a region in in the "Dirty 30's", it was 500 by 300 miles and covered a third of the great plains. It ranged from the Western third of Kansas, Southeastern Colorado, the Oklahoma panhandle, to northeastern New Mexico. It got the name from a natural disaster in which there was very little rain, farmers lost their crops and their money.The drought began in 1930 in the east and moved across the country. Farmers wanted their own land, but eventually ended up working on the land of few wealthy people or companies. They became migrant workers. Dorothea Lange, who documented migrant farm workers and wanted to put an article in life. In her article she described migrant labor camps as "a major migration of people and a rotten mess." The name was lost in the fall of 1939, once the drought ended and the economy stabilized with the start of WWII ending the depression.
ReplyDeleteWhat made this natural disaster so bad was it took place while the Great Depression. This was a huge enviormental disaster of gigantic proportions. The Dust Bowl was a natural disaster which impacted majorly towards farmers and their families. It took place in the midwest during the 30’s. Sand was keep blowing in towards the midwest and it was pretty much like a drought, because of this crops were being destroyed and didn’t allow the farmers to grow anything. These migrant farmers were forced to move to other places due to sand blowing in and were forced to find their jobs. Also they're called, "migrant workers" because of them migrating to other places to find other jobs. It was harsh times for the migrant farmers and they were forced to walk hundreds of miles just to find jobs.This connects to Mice and Men because Lennie and George are like migrant workers. George and Lennie are forced to move around Caliornia and find jobs because of what happened between Lennie and a girl in Weed. "On the fourteenth day of April in 1935
ReplyDeleteThere struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky...
From Oklahoma City to the Arizona Line
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgment, we thought it was our doom..."
~ Woody Guthrie
This was a song called, “ The Great Dust Storm” and this explains how it looked like, and Where it took place too. I think he said that it was their doom because of all the dust swooping in on them like a huge cloud of locusts. Judgement because he probably thought how they were going to survive without anything.
The Dust Bowl is just another name for a drought that happened in the 1930’s. It started in the eastern part of the US and in 1931 it moved toward the west. This is known as a natural disaster. It lasted for ten years and killed people and crops both; especially farmers because their crops are destroyed. People started calling this storm of sand the Dust Bowl on April 15, 1935. People cannot work in the Dust Bowl because there is sand everywhere and also because this is the same time as the Great Depression. Adding sand to environment just makes it harder for people to find jobs. So many people, including Lennie and George, lost their jobs and they had to go place to place for any job they could find. Because Lennie and George came all the way to Soledad, they cannot afford to go back without achieving anything and George says, “…Damn near lost us the job.” In this situation, George is mad because Lennie wasn’t acting smart and they almost didn’t get the job that the two men traveled all the way to Soledad for. People will travel thousands of miles just to get a job to support his or her family. Migrant farm workers did just that; they moved from state to state just for a earning of money to stay alive.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl affected migrant farm workers across the eastern and western part of the United States. Migrant farm workers are people that move periodically in search for farm work. They would work at a farm for a couple of months and then they would move to another farm to work there. What the Dust Bowl was was it was a major drought that struck the United States during the 1930s. It destroyed crops, people’s houses, and much more, which latter affected the careers and food supply of many farm workers. The sand that the Dust Bowl created destroyed many farmers’ crops which limited people’s food supplies. For some people, crops was where they got their food which is why when the crops were wiped out, it damaged people’s food supplies. Since many people didn’t have any more places to get food or to grow their crops they were forced to move out of their town. In the book Of Mice and Men, the main characters, Lennie and George, are not only forced to move from the town Weed because of Lennie, but also because of the Dust Bowl. George and Lennie were migrant workers that didn’t have any place to work in their old town Weed because of the Dust Bowl. Because of no work, they were forced to leave like many other people that were affected by the Dust Bowl. In the quote, “We live with the dust, eat it, sleep with it, watch it strip us of possessions and the hope of possessions. It is becoming real," said by Avis D. Carlson, shows how much people suffered because of the Dust Bowl.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a giant drought that occurred within the Great Plains in the 1930’s. It started in 1930, began to spread westward by 1931, and by 1934 the Great Plains had become America’s own little Sahara. The Dust Bowl stretched over 100 million acres. Eventually, big dust storms began to sweep through the region, leaving havoc and destruction in their wake.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a giant problem for farmers who lived where the Dust Bowl hit. Farmers were unable to make money and were starving as a result of the dust storms and the drought, being unable to grow their crops. Many eventually got sick of it, and left the region, with most heading to California. These farmers became migrant farmers. It was never easy for these people to get jobs wherever they moved to.
The characters George and Lennie from the novella “Of Mice and Men,” by John Steinbeck, were migrant farmers. They have migrated to California, trying to make a living, first in Weed, then on the ranch where the majority of the novella takes place. Although it never makes mention of the Dust Bowl, it is fairly obvious as to why George and Lennie are going from farm to farm, being migratory workers. This wasn’t an unusual situation – there were many migrant workers during that time period. “In fact, during the 30s hundreds of thousands left the plains for the West Coast,” Since there were so many, it only makes sense that George and Lennie are as well, since the probability of them being migrant workers is so high. Finally, John Steinbeck has written other books about the Dust Bowl and it’s repercussions, so one could use inductive reasoning to assume that this is the case for “Of Mice and Men”.
The dust bowl was a drought that blew sand everywhere, exhausting the topsoil making it impossible to grow crops. When farmers cannot grow their crops, then they have no way of making food for themselves and no way to make money to survive. This dust bowl lasted for ten year, forcing families to move from town to town, running away from the dust bowl. Like these farmers, Lennie and George are affected by the dust bowl making their old environment inhabitable, so they keep on moving from town to town looking for jobs-migrant workers. George and Lennie were migrant workers, moving from one city to anther searching for jobs to start a new life. They were traveling around looking for a place to be safe from the dust bowl and make money for survival; all the men on the ranch were in the same situation. They didn’t have much to bring with them because they had to leave most of their belongings, so that the traveling would be easy. They were practically homeless people trying to start from scratch, “Always at the bottom of the economic ladder, the migrant labor population was filled time and again with marginalized groups-the poor, immigrants, and racial minorities.” As you can see, the migrant workers had nothing to call their own. Lennie and George’s dream was exactly this, to have land to call their own, searching for a prosperous life.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl in the 1930’s turned many parts of the U.S into arid desert. The 10 year drought forced people to flee the dust filled areas. The Dust Bowl ended up covered 1/3rd of the great plains, destroying land, crops, and people’s lives. A Oklahoman woman wrote a letter about her experience, “In the dust-covered desolation of our No Man’s Land here, wearing our shade hats, with handkerchiefs tied over our faces and Vaseline in our nostrils, we have been trying to rescue our home from the wind-blown dust which penetrates wherever air can go. It is almost a hopeless task, for there is rarely a day when at some time the dust clouds do not roll over. 'Visibility’ approaches zero and everything is covered again with a silt-like deposit which may vary in depth from a film to actual ripples on the kitchen floor.” Many people faced a similar fate in the Dust Bowl. The farmers in the Dust Bowl were migrant workers. They were workers who traveled around looking for work at farms or ranches. In Of Mice Of Men, George and Lennie are perfect examples of migrant workers back in the time of the Dust Bowl. They travel around looking for work at ranches and farms, because that is their only source of money.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930’s an event occurred that forced people out of their homes and out of their jobs and left them and their families with nothing to eat and nowhere to go. The event was called the Dust Bowl and it was an event that carried on throughout the entire 1930 decade. A yellow-brownish dust blew all over the Southern Plains. It complicated several simple tasks such as breathing, eating, growing crops, and transportation. A massive drought also dragged on through the decade making the Dust Bowl even worse. The event turned the great-plains into a desert. It also produced migrant workers. Migrant workers were those that were forced to flee the area and search for work. Two familiar migrant workers are George and Lennie and they are searching for work. In of Mice and Men when the old man is showing George and Lennie their bunkhouse the old man said “last guy that had this bed was a blacksmith” and that quote indicates all of the migrant workers that came and went during the Dust Bowl only because they were making an effort to survive the disaster. The event was a complete disaster and it can only be prayed for to never happen again.
ReplyDeleteThe 1930 Dust Bowl was a natural disaster that caused great distress to many people who lived in the southern U.S. The farmers, cattleman, and common men who relied on their jobs to support their families, suffered greatly because of the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a series of brutal dust storms that wiped out crops, buried homes, and took the lives of many. When crops were destroyed, farmers and other working men whose jobs relied on the agriculture migrated to find new work. This situation relates to what happened to George and Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. In the story something happens which causes George and Lennie to migrate and find new work. George describes what happened with Lennie back in Weed (their old home) to Slim. “Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do.” Basically, Lennie’s situation with touching this girls dress caused him and George to move and look for new work. This is just like what the Dust Bowl did to the farmers. Both problems made both sets of characters/people change their jobs, lifestyles, and lose their old land/homes.
ReplyDelete“It looked like tobacco juice, but it was dirt,” recalled Imogene Glover. The Dust bowl that turned day into night made many believe that the world might be coming to an end. This dust storm passed out millions of blinding, black dirt across the southern Plains. When the rains had stopped and the black blizzards began, families picked up their belongings and drove away, not even bothering to shut the door behind them. Migrant workers were employees who traveled around looking for work at ranches. In John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are perfect examples of migrant workers. “When the rain came, it meant life itself, it meant a future,” said Floyd Coen of Kansas. When the dust stopped blowing, people in the dust storm knew that they had another chance. This situation relates perfectly to George and Lennie. They were forced to evacuate, for safety, because of the conflict between Lennie and the girl in the red dress. Since Lennie and George had found a ranch to work at, they knew for a fact that they have one more opportunity and that there is a future waiting for them.
ReplyDeleteReporter Erni Pyle once said, “If you would like to have your heart broken, just come out here”. Erni was referring to the western states where the dust bowl took place. The dust bowl happened during the Great Depression and lasted for ten years in some places. It happened because a drought was going on and farmers did not change the plants. The top soil got loose because of that and when winds came it just blew away. The wind also blew away the farmers crops. Now everything was covered in dust in the west. There were also dust storms that would block out the sun in some cases. Dust was everywhere. The once prosperous farmers were now without work and had to move to find it. The farmers usually went out to California and became migrant workers. Migrant workers and the farmers without jobs and move around to find work. Their working conditions were poor and did not get that much pay. From the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck we can infer that George and Lennie came from the West and when the dust bowl happened moved to California and became migrant workers. After the Great Depression laws were passed so a repeat of the dust bowl would not happen. The laws said that farmers would have to rotate their crops, use irrigation systems, and many more persuasions not to make the soil blow away. Many farmers had their dreams destroyed out west and there was nothing they could do except work somewhere else for low wages.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl of the 1930's was an event that effected the lives of many. It forced people to move out of their homes and lose their jobs because their crops were dying. Children had to wear masks and their mothers hung sheets over windows to try and stop the dirt from coming in. The Dust Bowl occurred for a decade and only lengthened the time of the Depression. Ernie Pyle once said “This is the dust-storm country. It is the saddest land I have ever seen.” For farmers, this would be the saddest land they have even seen because the Dust Bowl and the drought had a great effect on their lives. They were no longer able to grow their crops and make money. If they tried to do so, their crops would either die, or not be able to grow at all. As a result of this, farmers moved towards California and became migrant farm workers. Migrant workers health is undetermined because of the hard outdoor labor and exposure to pesticides. These workers barley received any money to even survive. They have incomes below the below the poverty level and their income is below $10,000. The Dust Bowl has to do with John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men because it happened during the same time period and also because George and Lennie were forced to move from Weed and become migrant workers in a different area to be able to make money to make their dreams come true. They had the same dreams as the majority of the migrant workers, they not only wanted their own land, but they wanted their dreams to become reality.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl started in the 1930's and lasted for about a decade, during the Great Depression. It affected the southern plains with droughts and dust storms. It also destroyed homes and many crops, shortening food supply and even taking lives. During this time, simple things people had to do became difficult. Many migrant workers who were affected by the Dust Bowl decided to head west, to states like California, to look for jobs. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie represent migrant workers during the Dust Bowl. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place..." is what George says to Lennie because they are always moving around for work, trying to make something out of their lives, just like many migrant workers during the Dust Bowl.
ReplyDeleteThe disastrous1930’s Dust Bowl created a major impact on farmers in eastern and western parts of the United States. Not only did it affect the people, but it had a significant impact on the migrant farmers. Migrant farmers are basically farmers that would travel periodically in search of work. The dust bowl in 1930 destroyed any crops, land, houses, buildings, etc that passed it’s way. The strong dust made it difficult for farmers to grow crops, which in result made it impossible to make money out of destroyed land. For 10 years, people escaped the deadly Dust Bowl to find land and crops that were not already ruined. They would all travel south in search of decent work like California. “The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."-John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice of Men George and Lennie represent migrant farmers. They would always be on the move because of Lennie “messing up” and could never work in a stable area for a long period of time. When George tells Candy about Lennie’s incident with the red dress, it shows how they are always drifting from one place to the next trying to start over. It’s exactly what the migrant farmers do, especially once the Dust Bowl dramatically hit the United States. George and Lennie act as a common migrant farmer. They are all looking for something that they don’t have, and with not enough money to accomplish their dreams its just the start of their journey.
ReplyDeleteThe disastrous 1930’s Dust Bowl created a major impact on farmers in eastern and western parts of the United States. Not only did it affect the people, but it had a significant impact on the migrant farmers. Migrant farmers are basically farmers that would travel periodically in search of work. The dust bowl in 1930 destroyed any crops, land, houses, buildings, etc that passed it’s way. The strong dust made it difficult for farmers to grow crops, which in result made it impossible to make money out of destroyed land. For 10 years, people escaped the deadly Dust Bowl to find land and crops that were not already ruined. They would all travel south in search of decent work like California. “The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."-John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath. In John Steinbeck's Of Mice of Men George and Lennie represent migrant farmers. They would always be on the move because of Lennie “messing up” and could never work in a stable area for a long period of time. When George tells Candy about Lennie’s incident with the red dress, it shows how they are always drifting from one place to the next trying to start over. It’s exactly what the migrant farmers do, especially once the Dust Bowl dramatically hit the United States. George and Lennie act as a common migrant farmer. They are all looking for something that they don’t have, and with not enough money to accomplish their dreams its just the start of their journey.
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteFor eight years the dust blew, which forced children to wear masks, woman to do everything to stop the dust from entering households, and men to watch helplessly as their crops blew away in the dust. The dust bowl lasted for about a decade. It destroyed everything in its way. People just moved away from the area for good. “If you would like to have your heart broken, just come out here,” wrote Ernie Pyle, “This is the dust-storm country it is the saddest land I have ever seen.” He was a traveling reporter who saw this area and reported with a sad heart. He was right because many dreams and lives were destroyed and never given back. The drought hit first in the eastern part of the country in 1930. In 1931, it moved toward the west. It was a horrible sight to see. The farms had become nothing but dust. People worked all their live on farms but suddenly they had nothing left but their lives. Some would also lose their lives as well. Americans had never seen a sight like this. This was truly dust country, in fact everywhere you looked all you saw was dust. Just like in the story, Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George traveled from their former location to California because the Dust Bowl hits and they became job-less. Then they search for jobs and go to work at the ranch just like many other people of their the time. California a the state that had once needed more migrant workers now found themselves overwhelmed by up to 7,000 new migrants a month, much too many. For some workers, work would start that day but other workers would have to wait for a long time. They would work for cheap so many could be hired. The Dust Bowl was an important event in our history, it shows us how when things are going so good, it can fall right away. It affected many things like food, lives, land, and population. Migrant workers came from many areas mostly from the central of the U.S. Dust Bowl was followed by the great depression, then WW1 which helped boost the economy. The Dust Bowl changed many lives for a long time, and will be remembered as a terrible time for many people.
ReplyDeleteAn event in the early 1930’s caused many workers to lose their jobs and change their lifestyles. This event was the dust bowl. The dust bowl was a term for the drought- stricken region during the great depression. The dust bowl was a decade full of natural disasters such as blizzards, tornadoes, floods, drought, and dirt storms in the 1930’s. Common workers were affected greatly. Workers became migrant workers, which were workers moving from one region of the country to another to find employment. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie experience a similar situation. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress—jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse—Well, how the hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress? She jerks back and you hold on like it was a mouse. She yells and we got to hide in a irrigation ditch all day with guys lookin’ for us, and we got to sneak out in the dark and get outta the country.” (11). George and Lennie had to locate a new place for a job and change their lifestyle because of a situation that happened between Lennie and a young lady. This is exactly what migrant workers had to do as well, find a new location and change their lifestyle because of the dust bowl and its effects.
ReplyDeleteThe Dustbowl was a severe drought that lasted from 1934-1940. With the ground literally blown away, farmers left the region. By 1940, almost half of the population had migrated. A majority of these people headed to California in hopes of work and a better lifestyle. The people who roamed the country in search of work were called migrant workers. They would work at a farm for a few months and then move to another farm to work there. Lennie and George represented these migrant workers. Before migrating to California, they most likely lived somewhere in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico or Colorado; where the Dust Bowl occurred. The pair was probably farmers, and were fired after powerful sand storms. They then migrated to California. Even though John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men never directly states this, from outside research and quotes from the story, you can infer this.
ReplyDeleteWhen Lennie and George meet their boss for the first time, he is upset with them because they were supposed to arrive earlier. Lennie’s excuse was that “The bus driver gave us a bum steer… We hadda walk ten miles.” This shows how during this time, laborers would walk miles and miles to get to a job. This is because there was very little work, so any type of job was valuable.
Overall, the story Of Mice and Men was indirectly influenced by the Dust Bowl.
woah people you did this already!? i forgot to start.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl is a series of destructive dust storms and winds that hit the United States of America in the 1930’s. It lasted for about 10 years and was during the Great Depression. It started because the soil in the West was becoming dry and unfortunately, the farmers covered the grassland with wheat. The main problems started in the early 1930’s when there was no rain at all. A lot of people during this natural disaster lost their jobs. Migrant workers led a nomadic lifestyle and they lived in temporary camps as they traveled to follow the seasonal work. In “Of Mice and Men,” the main characters, Lennie and George go place to place to search for a job in California because the Dust Bowl made them give up their land. "Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes." This quote by John Steinbeck explains how there was too much dust and how it came so fast that people didn’t even realized it. I picked this quote because it clearly explains how serious the conditions were during the 1930’s and also, it shows how people had such a hard time living their normal lives.
ReplyDeleteWith clouds of dust that spread all the way to the east coast, the Dust Bowl was a massive disaster. In the story Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the Dust bowl negatively affected its main characters who were migrant farm workers. Two hardworking men, George and Lennie, had a dream to save some money to buy a house with a little land. Over a period of 6 years, the Dust Bowl destroyed much of the Great Plains. This was a devastating time in history. Originating in the Great Plains, and due to poor farming and drought, it forced many people to move. These people became migrant farm workers that traveled to other states, particularly California, to look for work. “Why’d you quit in Weed?” (p.23). In the book, George and Lennie became migrant farm workers and moved to California in search of work because sadly the Dust Bowl forced them out of their town of Weed. George and Lennie usually only stayed where they were employed for a month or two at a time. Moving often was very common for workers in the 1930’s, in order to find work. George and Lennie typically only stayed where they were employed for a month or two at a time. This proved to be a difficult lifestyle for them. The main characters in this book exemplify the difficult lifestyle that the farm workers of the 1930’s had to face.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl took lives, jobs, and food. It was the sad time for families, and workers. In the 1930’s the western part of America suffered a drought that lasted for ten years. In never rained and it was hot and dry day after day. Many people died from inhaling dust and land was so barren, crops could not grow. Many famers lost jobs, and many families lost homes. Dust would pile up so high people could not even open the front doors to their houses. People migrated to find new work and new places to live. Numerous amounts of people migrated to California, much like George and Lennie did in the novella Of Mice and Men. People left as quickly as they could “Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most importantly for land”. George and Lennie left California to find work because they where migrant farm workers during the Dust Bowl. They traveled from farm to farm attempting to make enough money to someday have their own land. Migrant farm workers were usually poorly educated and looking for a way to earn money, but during the Dust Bowl many people did not have a choice but to become one. It was difficult to have a job and earn money at that time so people would travel and look for jobs on famers. The Dust Bowl had a big effect on everyone living through it, it cause people to lose everything important to them.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a major natural disaster that affected many lives in the1930s. It was a severe drought that lasted for a period of about ten years. The drought and poor agricultural practices, such as over- plowing and overgrazing, caused dust to blow over all over the southern plains of the United States. Huge clouds of dust called black blizzards would sweep over the area resulting crops and livestock to die. This affected many people, especially farmers, because they lost their jobs due to the Dust Bowl. Without crops and livestock to tend to, they could not earn a living. People who lived in this region were forced to move to other areas, such as California, because of the harsh conditions, unemployment, drought, and lack of crop production. Ernie Pyle, a reporter in Kansas, described the plains, “This is the dust-storm country. It is the saddest land I have ever seen.” Migrant workers traveled all over the country looking for work. The characters from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie, relate to the Dust Bowl. George and Lennie are both migrant workers searching for a job because of the drought. They both were forced to find work someplace else, and ended up in Soledad, California. Because of the Dust Bowl George and Lennie both found a job on a ranch bucking wheat.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a disastrous time in history. The severe droughts and over planting caused the soil to become “loose”. The wind picked up the soul and caused huge dust storms which blew across all of the southern plains. “On the fourteenth day of April in 1935 there struck the worst dust storms that ever filled the sky from Oklahoma City to the Arizona Line Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande it fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down, we thought it was our judgment, we thought it was our doom…” said Woody Guthrie. This ruined the agriculture and caused the farmers that lived in these areas to move away to other states to find work. These people were called migrant farmers. Most of these migrant farmers moved to California in search of work. They would work on a farm for a few months then they would go and move to another town and work on a farm there. Migrant farmers were almost constantly on the move. Even though John Steinbeck never mentioned the Dust Bowl directly George and Lennie were most likely from one of the areas affected by the dust storms. They go around to different farms and work there for a few months at a time to make a little money just like the migrant farmers did.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl occurred in the 1930s and lasted about a decade. Drought, windblown dust, and agricultural decline caused the displacement of families. As a result, as many as six thousand migrants arrived in California from the Midwest every month, driven by unemployment and the negative effects of the Dust Bowl. For people whose lives were destroyed and filled with desperation (migrant workers), California was the ideal place to look for work, but emphatically not the promised land of the migrants' dreams. Owning no land, many traveled from farm to farm picking fruit and other crops at starvation wages. In "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, Lennie and George became culprits of the disastrous Dust Bowl. Working on the laborious ranch in Soledad ultimately morphed them into migrant workers. George described their life when he said, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.” (13). Similar to the migrant workers, the ranch was not Lennie and George’s “promised land”, which is the reason they constantly dreamt of owning their own land, a representation of freedom and a “light” in the “dark” times of the Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930s there was a big drought in the southern plains. The big drought was called The Dust Bowl of the 1930s. it started out as droughts hitting the southern plains, as the crops die dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow. In 1933 alone there were reported thirty-eight dust storms, and the number kept increasing year after year. In 1934 the drought was covering more than seventy-five percent of the country and affecting 27 states. The drought was the worst in 1934. The drought alone did not cause the dust storms it was the over plowing of fields that helped trigger dust storms. Migrant farm workers were men, woman, and children who moved from places of drought seeking work. As many as six thousand migrants arrived in California from the Midwest every month because of unemployment, drought, and the loss of farm land. But the migrants competed with Mexicans and other immigrants for work. A reporter in Kansas described the Plains “This is the dust-storm country. It is the saddest land I have ever seen.” Lennie and George form John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men were migrant workers traveling and seeking work because of the drought. Fall of 1939 finally ending the drought when a rainstorm came. During the next few years the country is pulled out of the depression and the Plaines become full of agriculture before the coming of World War II.
ReplyDeleteThe 1930s was most famous for the Dust Bowl. For years, topsoil was blown off barren fields and carried in storm clouds for hundreds of miles. People all over the region starved and were forced to work as migrant workers and travel very long distances just to find a job. This is a similar story for Lennie and George. Migrant workers are people who don’t have a home and work on farms doing anything they can to get some money. In the beginning of the book, Lennie and George are walking to the farm they know they can get a job at. This is what happened during the Dust Bowl. They might have been farmers in their hometown with Aunt Clara. They would be forced to move after all of there crops that died. “Houses were shut tight, and cloth wedged around doors and windows, but the dust came in so thinly that it could not be seen in the air, and it settled like pollen on the chairs and tables, on the dishes." - John Steinbeck. The Dust Bowl really change the way people lived. Lennie and George lived as the migrant workers in the 1930.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a series of severe dust storms that started in 1934, during the Great Depression. This storm caused a big drought in the following years until 1936. These storms strengthened the severity of the Great Depression. The increased severity of the Great Depression resulted in migrant workers; migrant workers were people who were looking for employment and due to the fact that employment was hard to come by, they spent their time moving from region to region in the United States. Workers were most commonly used for crop harvesting, which is dangerous and undesirable work. During the Great Depression, jobs were rare and people were desperate. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George Milton and Lennie Small are two migrant workers going around the country for any job during this time. Lennie’s retardation prevents them from settling into one place to work for a long time. What this means is that certain actions of Lennie would cause him and George to be kicked out from one place and run away to another region. George and Lennie worked in several places before coming to one place in California, which is the book’s setting. George and Lennie go to California to work so that they could make money, buy their own farm with another man whom they met in California, and create a life for themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl is connected to Of Mice and Men because it’s the whole reason why George and Lennie are migrant workers. The Dust Bowl is a natural disaster that lasted 10 years as a drought; migrant workers during the time were starving and eventually took what every they were capable of carrying on their back and went off looking for new jobs and food. Outside the fact George and Lennie left Weed because of the incident that took place there, but another fact of looking for a job because of the drought from the Dust Bowl. Every character’s life introduced in the story is lonely and empty in a way whether it is obvious to the reader or not. “Hell, I seen too many guys… seems like ever’ guy got land in his head”, this shows how every ranch worker has to take comfort from insubstantial dreams of a better life in order to overcome their loneliness. Also George and Lennie believed they have great futures ahead of them, just like the farmers did during the Dust Bowl. George believed he had a rich life in front of him, but was only dreaming and could not see reality. George and Lennie had a dream to own a farm, plow the land on their own, and live a good life. George always talked about it and always told Lennie how it is going to be in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe dustbowl was caused by droughts and the soil becoming loose because of the droughts. The soil began to be picked up by the wind and it became a disaster. The dustbowl affected the country because it was unbearable to work and live in. With dust blowing everywhere, it was impossible to live and make money in those conditions. Even simple things, like taking a dog for a walk, breathing/living, and eating were difficult. Houses with the tightest windows and doors could not even protect the people living inside. There was not a single place where dust did not inhabit and take over, everywhere you looked there was dust. Many of those living in the dust bowl moved away due to the conditions. One's who moved away for work, are called migrant workers. People all over moved away from this region and traveled long distances so they could survive. This applies to George and Lennie because they lived around in the region of the dust bowl. Lennie and George were migrant workers, due to the dust bowl.They needed employment to pay the bills and survive so they took the job at the farm, where the beginning of the book starts.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl, also called the Dirty Thirties, was a period of severe dust storms that ruined and destroyed the agricultural growth around the American and Canadian prairie lands area. All of this took place from 1930 to 1936, and even lasted until 1940 in some areas. At first, it started around the eastern parts of the country, then around one year later it moved west. During the time of the dust bowl, there were some natural disasters such as tornadoes, blizzards, etc. These natural disasters, including the dust bowl affected workers significantly. So greatly that they had to move around to find employment; this is what they migrant workers. The migrant workers would find a farm, settle in for a couple of days to get shelter, food, and water, and then they’d be on their way to the next city and the next farm. These migrant workers are just like Lennie and George in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Before Lennie and George arrived at the farm, they were camping out in the woods. This infers that they came from someplace, and left without shelter. If one was to compare this story to the dust bowl event and put them together, you could infer that the dust bowl was going on during the time period this story takes place in. “That ranch we’re goin’ to is right down there about a quarter mile.”(6) This is another source of proof that this story takes place during the time period of the dust bowl. Finally, George and Lennie find a place to stay at the ranch.
ReplyDeleteThe story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck takes place during the Great Depression of the 1930s in America, and could relate to another event that took place around the same time (but not quite in the exact same locations). The “Dust Bowl” was a major ten year long drought that occurred in the southern part of the Great Plains region of the United States. Several dust storms occurred as well. The Dust Bowl also occurred during the Great Depression, and actually worsened it due to the fact that it killed millions of crops across the Great Plains, which decreased food supply across the nation. Besides the crops and farmland, the peoples who lived here were strongly affected, both economically and physically due to the frequent dust storms and drought. This caused several groups of people to flee the affected area to look for better land, and for better jobs. Also, in Of Mice and Men, there were unappreciated workers in the economy at the time known as migrant workers. The beginning of migratory labor (mostly agriculturally related jobs) in the U.S. began after the Civil War, when agriculture became one of the main businesses in the nation. Always at the bottom of the economic ladder, the migrant labor population was filled time and again with many poor and racially discouraged peoples. Then, after the Great Depression, migrant workers were never referred to that again. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men relates to these terms, since the two main characters, George and Lennie, are figures of what people had to go through during the Great Depression. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place...” This is what one of the main characters, George said. He is saying the kinds of people that he and Lennie are like have no real “good life” due to the Great Depression. Since workers get low pay and have to deal with an awful lifestyle, they do not have much to live for at that point in time. However, dreams of a better lifestyle do indeed come up in these peoples’ minds frequently, which is what is keeping them going. So, during this time of economic tragedy, the Dust Bowl, migrant workers, and the characters from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men are all relate to the events that take place around them.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1930’s a great drought came about, and in some areas it lasted up to ten years. The drought became known as the Dust Bowl (or as some might call it, the “dirty thirties”). The Dust Bowl affected 100,000,000 acres (400,000 km2), and mainly swept though Texas and Oklahoma, some parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. The Dust Bowl played a large role in the Great Depression; many farmers lost their crops and where often forced to move, becoming migrant farmer workers, just like many of the characters in Of Mice and Men. The Great Depression caused many job losses, and a lot of literal "depression", so much like Lennie and George, they had to continuously move in order to earn enough money to support themselves and their families. Being a migrant farm worker was a job that became quite popular as a result, because cheap labor was easy to come by in such hard times, and not many other options where showing themselves. George and Lennie seem to have had the same problem as many others at the time, and they also seem to have dealt with it like many others; though their tasks were made more difficult with all of Lennie’s “Special-ness.”
ReplyDeletedsgakasdg the dust bowl is soooo boring!
ReplyDeleteDust Bowl
ReplyDeleteIn the early 1930s, the Dust Bowl hit and forced many people to pick up and move. The dust bowl caused this because it wiped out all of peoples land which was mostly farms, so they had no jobs. They had no way of feeding their families so they picked up and moved around the country. Many families and individual people moved around the country more than once before they could find a job or someway to get any sort of food, whether they stole, begged or got it with money, they needed food to survive. Lennie and george are a perfect example of individuals moving about the country because something happened. Although George and Lennie were not directly affected by the Dust Bowl itself, they have been through some of the struggles that families and individuals went through from the Dust Bowl. When Lennie grabbed that woman, he and George had no idea what they were going to have to do, like many of the families affected by the dust bowl, it was an unexpected happening that wasn’t convenient for anybody. When the Dust Bowl hit and when Lennie grabbed that woman. all they could do was react.
The Dust Bowl was a drought that occurred in 1930 and lasted for about a decade. It devastated farmers and their crops as waves of dust and sand engulfed parts of Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Dust polluted the air while sand contaminated kitchens, making the simplest tasks of walking, eating, and even breathing nearly impossible. The Southern Plains were described by Ernie Pyle as “the saddest land I have ever seen.” The 1930’s were also called the “Dirty Thirties” because the Dust Bowl occurred during the Great Depression, which made everybody’s lives harder. The Dust Bowl forced thousands of people out of their native towns, forcing them to find new lives and jobs a.k.a. migrant workers. “As many as six thousand migrants arrived in California from the Midwest every month, driven by unemployment, drought, and the loss of farm tenancy.” Two of these people happen to be George and Lennie. Their journey began because of the Dust Bowl. The drought forced George and Lennie out, therefore putting them under the category of migrant workers. They left their hometown and eventually settled in California. Basically, the entire novella Of Mice and Men is initiated through the events of the Dust Bowl.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl is a way of calling the natural disaster in the 1930's, that first hit the eastern part of the country and then migrated itself onto the western part, during the Great Depression. Unfortunately, it carried on for ten years. Already, in 1934, it turned the Great Plains, filled with grass and sunshine, to a desert filled with filthy air and no hope. “If you would like to have your heart broken, just come out here,” wrote Ernie Pyle, a roving reporter in Kansas. It was a place that nobody would have imagined. The crops were destroyed, water supply was limited, and people just wanted to survive. After the big storm, there was dust everywhere — in food, in water, and in the lungs of animals and people. To protect themselves, people had to wear masks over their nose and mouth to not breathe in the dust. People lost jobs and money yet, they still needed way to get through the day. Not only adults were the ones working, but also children. Farmers and workers had transformed into migrant workers - searching for employment; anywhere was lucky. The groups were basically the poor, immigrants, and racial minorities. In relation to the book, "Of Mice and Men", Lennie and George are migrant workers that are looking for a job anywhere, and finally found employment in Soledad. It is a book that can describe how hard it was to find a job, and the changes people had to go through and the way people had to adapt to the environment. Finally, in 1940, the drought came to an end, but still people needed the basic necessities of everyday life. The Dust Bowl not only hurt people for ten years, but also had long-lasting damages, still in need of care.
ReplyDeleteThe great drought covering part of the southern plains in dust is referred as the Dust Bowl. It occurred during the Great Depression from 1930 to 1936. The Dust bowl got its name from the amount of dust there was from the lack of rain. Later during the time period, huge dust storms formed burying, if not destroying hundreds of buildings as well as much more. The land was incapable of growing plants, devastating many farmers. It was like the plains had turned into a desert holding absolutely no vegetation. Families starved due to lack of food. Many farmers had to move away from their current location in order to get money and support their family. Those people are referred to as migrant workers since they had to keep moving to were ever they could find money. Many went to California to find work on plantations or ranches like George and Lennie in the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. George and Lennie moved to a ranch in California from a town called Weed in order to get to find work to buy a house, some land and so that they can stop having to migrate to other locations in order to support each other.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl of the 1930’s started off as a drought, which is an area that didn’t get any rain for a long time. The drought soon got much larger and it turned out to get much worse. The Dust Bowl is related to John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men because he relates it to another one of his books, The Grapes of Wrath. He mentions that the all the people scurry out of the southern states to find food and jobs so that they could feed their families: “And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out.” So George and Lennie want to get a job so they could get their own house and land. They had to find a job and get money because of the Dust Bowl. It made them get out of their hometown and look for jobs so they could get some food to eat. Migrant workers were people who had to migrate from their hometown and look for work so they could survive. George and Lennie migrated from Weed (their hometown) so they could find a job, get some money, buy a house and some land, and raise a farm with rabbits.
ReplyDelete“It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours”. This is one of Harry Truman’s famed quotes. This was such a major quote because it described what The Great Depression actually was. During the great depression many people in the US became unemployed. On top of that the dustbowl caused majority of farm workers to become unemployed too. The Dust Bowl was a massive drought in the southwest during the late 1920’s to early thirties. This caused massive dust storms that went on for miles. Crops could not be grown in these harsh conditions so farmers were forced to become migrant workers. These workers traveled around usually to California in search of job opportunities, these jobs were typically crop harvesting and temporary jobs. After the workers were finished with the job they would move to somewhere else looking for work. In the story Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Lennie and George got kicked out of weed and were forced to become migrant workers. They managed to land a job in California on a farm. This was only a short period of time because crops do not always stay in harvest, and soon they would have to look for another job. Lennie and George are great examples of migrant workers trying to make a living during The Great Depression.
ReplyDeleteThe Dust Bowl was a horrible natural disaster that took place in the United States in the 1930s (also known as the “Dirty Thirties”) during the Great Depression. During this time, a drought took place causing huge, mile-long dust storms to form and sweep over the nation, taking everything with it. The storms buried and destroyed civilizations and vegetation. Land during this time was not fertile and the area became a total desert. Farmers and their families suffered during this time from a lack of food and lack of money. This caused many farmers to become migrant workers and forced them to look for work elsewhere for money to support themselves and their families. Most of these farmers and families migrated to California in search of jobs and hope. However, it was very very difficult to find work wherever they searched. Even after the storms were over, the result of the Dust Bowl left its evidence of dust everywhere. It can relate to Of Mice and Men because Lennie and George were forced to become migrant workers as well and had to look for work. The struggle for the search for during the Dust Bowl was like the search that Lennie and George had to struggle through.
ReplyDeleteThe raging storm clouds of the Dust Bowl during the decade of the 1930’s brought stress and drama to those of the southern Plains, stretching anywhere from Colorado, Kansas, Texas, or even Oklahoma. Skies could be subject to darken for days, causing difficulty to breathe and eat or walk outside. Farmers’ crops got destroyed and wearing dusk masks was a necessity for people at the time. The Dust Bowl was also during the time of the Great Depression and the cause was due to poor agricultural practices and years of drought. Migrant workers during the era were used for crop harvesting and working in the fields. Typically, these people were of different ethnicity or even immigrants that needed pay, but unfortunately the pay incomes were below poverty level. In the book, Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George portray to be migrant farm workers and are in search for a job. The book is set in the years of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression when jobs were scarce. This time resulted in economic downturn and social issues evolved such as racism and sexism. “Someday we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres and a cow and some pigs and live off the fatta the land,” Lennie insisted, referring to the dream across America. During that time period, the American Dream existed and every person just wanted to have a job, have a place to live in, and a bit of money to live off of. This was a problem for people to maintain in this part of their life. Everything was hard to find. George and Lennie were just two of the many that struggled throughout this depression, and life was a tough thing to maintain.
ReplyDeleteMice, men, migrants, and dust…What do they have to do with each other? Well they’re actually all related due to the Dust Bowl that occurred in the 1930s, affected migrant workers, and connects to John Steinbeck’s novella, “Of Mice and Men”. The Dust Bowl began in 1930 and lasted until about 1940.It was indeed a depressing decade for the middle states of the U.S., as said by a reporter in 1936, “This is the dust-storm country. It is the saddest land I have ever seen.” The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms in the “middle states” of the U.S. that destroyed farmland/soil and the crops that normally grew on that land. People in those states couldn’t make a living without those crops so they left and “migrated” to other places in search of something better. Those “migraters” soon became migrant workers; they picked crops for a little money, a place to sleep, and a meal for a while. Then they would just go move on to a new place for new work. Most migrant workers were poor immigrants with no education that had no choice but to work these “dead end” jobs. It was a sad circumstance for earning money during a sad time, because it was just a cycle that had nothing definite/steady about it whatsoever. “Of Mice and Men” is set during the Depression and sort of involved with the repercussions of the Dust Bowl.Lennie and George are sort of “living on God’s good humor” and going where ever there’s work and where ever their travels take them.Lennie and George barely have anything but the clothes on their backs and a dream of a better life. As much as they want that dream, they have to go along with life during the economic depression that was the 1930s.The 1930s Dust Bowl is the reason why Lennie and George have the lives they have, they barely have any hope or an apparent choice.
ReplyDeleteThe dust bowl was horrible natural disaster that destroyed everything in its path. The dust bowl first started in the 1930's. It was a very long period of time of drought during the great depression. Many United States citizens fled the towns. The towns became deserted within days. Robert Geiger, a reporter for the Associated Press said, “Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer’s tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent – if it rains.” The dust bowl was so bad that by 1934 it had turned the Great Plains into a desert. The storms completely desolated the farms in the vicinity. Manny families lost their jobs because of the storms. This forced families to move somewhere else to make money. This went on for an excruciating eight years. President Roosevelt said in his second inaugural address, "I see one-third of the nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished . . . the test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." The dust storms finally stopped in 1939. It was a very grueling eight years.
ReplyDeleteThe dust bowl can be related to Of Mice and Men because Lennie and George were forced to find other work because of the great depression. Many families had to find other work because they could not farm in the area because the storms wiped out all of the crops. I think that Johns Steinbeck based this book on the dust bowl.
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