The Great Depression :: History

The Great Depression The Great Depression is comparable to Lennie and George's life. I would like to give a comparison of George Milton and Lennie Small to the Great Depression. The time that this story took place was during the Great Depression. John Steinbeck captured the reality of this most difficult time. During the Great Depression people needed to travel together to share chores and duties to make a living until something better came along. That is the way George and Lennie traveled. They traveled together to take care of each other but George took care of Lennie the most, because he was always getting in trouble. "You do bad things and I got to get you out." (Of Mice and Men p.11). During the Great Depression money was very scarce. You had to travel around to find a job in order to make money to survive. Lennie and George were in that type of predicament. Keeping enough money until the next job was difficult because prices were rising during the Great Depression and you had to budget your money. During this depression most people worked on farms because after the stock market crashed people realized that the reason the stock market crashed was because farms were not producing enough goods. People started to work on farms more to help everyone. Lennie and George worked for ranches and also in the fields. "He's a good skinner. He can rassel grain bags, drive a cultivator. He can do anything." (Of Mice and Men p.22). If you really look closely, George and Lennie's way of life and the Great Depression have a good deal in common. George and Lennie were outcasts in life. George Milton was small in size and a very smart man compared to Lennie. He was actually only of average intelligence. Lennie Small was a large person and very retarded. Since Lennie was so retarded he did not grasp the things that were happening around him. For example, if someone became upset about anything he would grab them and hold and squeeze until they stopped moving. Lennie would accidentally harm them and that is how he got inck smoke into the environment constantly. This disgusting smog stains buildings, covers trees, and hovers above many of our major city in large masses. Automobiles also contain some fluids that can be deadly to us and our wildlife. We often hear of gasoline spills by tanker trucks or by ships, both of which are meant to supply our automobiles with fuel.