How many different ways are there
to greet someone?
Discuss on your table and come up with
a list of ideas.
Now split your list - which ones
depend on :
• Where you live?
• How old you are?
• What religion you are?
• Other

How many different ways are there
to greet someone?
Share your list with the next table, are
there anything's that are common
between you?
Share your list:
• Where you live?
• How old you are?
• What religion you are?
• Other

How many different ways are there
to greet someone?
We will know share our list as a class…
What is the most common thing we ALL
have?
The List:
• Where you live?
• How old you are?
• What religion you are?
• Other

How many different ways are there
to greet someone?
There are THREE things that we as a
class have just discovered… What are
they?
Can you DEFINE
Social
this?
Historical
Cultural Context
Can you DEFINE
this?
Can you DEFINE
this?

Social, Historical and Cultural Context
Todays Targets:
• To understand and explain the
importance and impact of social,
historical and cultural context in the
story. (A*)
• To understand the message behind the
story the writer has set.

Why Is Social, Historical and Cultural
Context IMPORTANT?
Why do YOU think Social, Historical and Cultural
Context is IMPORTANT in everyday life?
Race
Sexuality
Nationality
Modern Era
Family Life
Community
Background
Religion
Age

What is social, historical and cultural context?
• What symbol is this?
• What does it make you think of?
Nazi Germany? Holocaust? Dictator?
• Originally The swastika literally
means "to be good“
• Used originally and even now in
Hindu and Buddhist religions as a
symbol of lucky and positivity.
• It was first used thousands of years
ago.
• ONLY on 1920 did Nazi Germany take
the symbol as a symbol of their party
and with it did awful things.

What is social, historical and cultural context?
• What symbol is this?
• What does it make you think of?
Swearing? Offensive?
• Making a V with your two
fingers originally was used in
1415 after the Battle of
Agincourt by British Bowmen
to show that they still had their
bow fingers.
• In 1960 it was taken on as a
peace sign.

Social, Cultural and Historical Context Of Mice
and Men…….
• It is important to understand the social, cultural
and historical context of the story.
• Therefore, you will have to look at different texts
to help you extinguation the social, cultural and
historical contexts of the story.
• You will need to include this information in your
assessment.
• It will be your group’s job to find out the
information and then teach it back to the class.
You will have TWO lessons to prepare this.

Information Table
Facts, dates and statistics?
The Author
The Great
Depression
Treatment
of Mental
Illness
American
Dream
Wall Street
Cash
Farming
How does it impact on the characters
and the story?
How will you teach it to the class?
Task?

Gathering The Information
• There are SIX texts from which you need to
gather information from.
• ONE person from each group will choose ONE
text.
• That person will have to walk around the
classroom and find that text, then GATHER the
information that is needed and TEACH it to the
group.
• Only ONE person is allowed to go at ONE time! 

The Author
John Ernst Steinbeck born in
Salinas, a farming town, California in1902 and
spent most of his life in Monetery County, the
setting for most of his novels. On Summer
breaks from Salinas High School, Steinbeck
worked on farms. During his summer work he
noticed the difficult working conditions of his
fellow workers, many of whom were migrant
workers and the darker aspect of human
nature, experiences he was later to explore in
works such as “Of Mice and Men”. Although he
was an author of twenty-seven books,
Steinbeck was best known for his novel, “The
Grapes of Wrath”, for which he won the
prestigious Pulitzer Prize. This book was banned
from schools and libraries as the authorities
deemed it to be obscene and misrepresent the
rich landowners and bankers whom Steinbeck
heavily criticises for their mistreatment of
migrant workers.

The Great Depression, which began in 1929 in US and rapidly spread to
the industrialised countries of the world, did not affect everyone the same way. Many
rich people felt no impact at all, and were oblivious to the suffering of others.
Unemployment rose from 5 million in 1930 to 13 million by the end of 1932. 200,000
people lost their homes at the start of the Great Depression and became itinerants
travelling across America looking for work. Rural America suffered the greatest.
The Depression changed the family in dramatic ways. Many couples delayed marriage the divorce rate dropped sharply (it was too expensive to pay the legal fees and
support two households); and birth rates dropped below the replacement level for the
first time in American history. Families suffered a dramatic loss of income during this
period, dropping 35% in those four years to $15M. This put a great deal of stress on
families. Some reacted by pulling together, making due with what they had, and
turning to family and friends for help. Other families did not fare as well, and ended up
falling apart.
Traditional roles within the family changed during the 1930s. Men finding themselves
out of work now had to rely on their wives and children in some cases to help make
ends meet. Many did not take this loss of power as the primary decision maker and
breadwinner very well. Many stopped looking for work, paralyzed by their bleak
chances and lack of self-respect. Some became so frustrated that they just walked out
on their families completely. A 1940 survey revealed that 1.5 million married women
had been abandoned by their husbands.

Causes of the Depression
Causes of the Depression
As early as 1926, there were signs that the boom was under threat - this was seen in the collapse of
land prices in Florida.
Eventually, there were too many goods being made and not enough people to buy them.
Farmers had produced too much food in the 1920s, so prices for their produce became steadily
lower.
There were too many small banks - these banks did not have enough funds to cope with the sudden
rush to take out savings, which happened in the autumn of 1929.
Too much speculation on the stock market - the middle class had a lot to lose and they had spent a
lot on what amounted to pieces of paper.
The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 was a massive psychological blow.
America had lent huge sums of money to European countries. When the stock market collapsed, they
suddenly recalled those loans. This had a devastating impact on the European economy.
The collapse of European banks caused a general world financial crisis.
Effects
Unemployment - 13 million people were out of work.
Industrial production dropped by 45 per cent between 1929 and 1932.
House-building fell by 80 per cent between 1929 and 1932.
The entire American banking system reached the brink of collapse.
From 1929 to 1932, 5,000 banks went out of business.
Although many people went hungry, the number of recorded deaths from starvation during the
Depression was 110, although many other illnesses and deaths were probably related to a lack of
nutrition.

Treatment of Mental Illness During
1930s in America
Although, the treatment of the mentally ill had made significant pathways in the twentieth
century, the practices used in the 1930s were still far from ideal. Sufferers of mental
illnesses were no longer considered as lunatics or were bled to death because they were
considered to be possessed by the Devil, they were, however, seen as social outcasts. It was
not unusual for families to abandon their kin or keep them out of sight for fear of being
shunned by the community.
Drugs, electro-convulsive therapy (electric shock), and surgery were the most popular
methods to treat people with schizophrenia and others with persistent mental illnesses
during this period. Some were infected with malaria; others are treated with repeated
insulin-induced comas. Some had parts of their brain removed surgically, an operation
called a lobotomy, which was performed widely over the next two decades to treat
schizophrenia, intractable depression, severe anxiety, and obsessions. It was not
uncommon for patients to be abused and their individual needs neglected by the people
who were designated to care for them. These inhumane practices continued well into the
1950s until advances in drugs to treat mental illnesses were made. Attitudes too were
slowly changing.

What Is The American Dream?
The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in
his book The Epic of America which was written in
1931. He states:
"The American Dream is "that dream of a land in
which life should be better and richer and fuller
for everyone, with opportunity for each according
to ability or achievement. It is not a dream of
motor cars and high wages, but a dream of social
order in which each man and each woman shall
be able to achieve the fullest stature of which
they are capable of, and be recognized by others
for what they are, regardless of the circumstances
of birth or position."

The Wall Street Crash
In 1928 the new Republican president Herbert Hoover confidently stated, 'We in America
today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any
land.' Within a year, all the confidence had ended and America was plunged into
the Depression.
Wall Street Crash
When the Wall Street stock market crashed in October 1929, the world economy was plunged
into the Great Depression. By the winter of 1932, America was in the depths of the
greatest economic depression in its history.
The number of unemployed people reached upwards of 13 million. Many people lived
in primitive conditions close to famine. One New York family moved into a cave in Central
Park. In St Louis, more than 1,000 people lived in shacks made from scrap metal and boxes.
There were many similar Hoovervilles all over America. Between 1 and 2 million people
travelled the country desperately looking for work. Signs saying 'No Men Wanted' were
displayed all over the country.
the time of the election in November 1932, Hoover's popularity had reached rock bottom. It
was not even safe for him to go onto the streets to campaign. After his heavy defeat, Hoover
told his friends, "we are at the end of our string... there is nothing more we can do". The
American economy did not fully recover until the USA entered the Second World War in
December 1941.

Farming
Migrant farmers
Added to the man-made financial problems were natural ones. A series of droughts in
southern mid-western states like Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas led to failed harvests and
dried-up land. Farmers were forced to move off their land: they couldn't repay the bankloans which had helped buy the farms and had to sell what they owned to pay their
debts.
Many economic migrants headed west to 'Golden' California, thinking there would be
land going spare, but the Californians turned many back, fearing they would be over-run.
The refuges had nowhere to go back to, so they set up home in huge camps in the
California valleys - living in shacks of cardboard and old metal - and sought work as casual
farmhands.
Ranch hands
Against this background, ranch hands like George and Lennie were lucky to have work.
Ranch hands were grateful for at least a bunk-house to live in and to have food provided,
even though the pay was low.
Think about how the men agree to hush-up the fight between Curley and Lennie and
claim that Curley got his hand caught in a machine: they know that Lennie and George
would be fired if the boss came to hear of it, and then Lennie and George could be left
with nothing.

Time’s Up! You must know stop
teaching/finding information.
Return back to your seats.

In your groups take ONE of the topic areas and together work
through the six different ways to think about the information.
Group Thinking
Green – How can weand ideas this information? What tasks can we the
Creative thinking teach
Critical thinking, what are
create?
problems?
Red – Feelings and opinions – How would the characters feel about
the topic? How are you made to feel knowing this information?
Feelings and opinions of ideas and thoughts
Yellow – BE positive – what are the positives of this information?
And positive for who?
White – What are the dates, statistics facts and figures? CONTEXT.
Positive thinking of ideas and thoughts
Black – What are the problems for the characters in the story from
the information?
What is the “big picture” of the
idea?
Blue – What are the BIG messages that the writer wants the reader
to understand about the topic?
Facts and figures
Once you have completed your group sheet – ASSIGN roles for each
person – who is doing what?

Group Review
• Next lesson is the final one to be prepared.
• Discuss and fill in sheets identifying exactly
who is doing what.
• Make sure that everyone knows their job!