Examining Social Themes and Historical Context

Understanding the historical context is crucial for analyzing Of Mice and Men. The novel serves as Steinbeck's critique of American society during the Great Depression, exploring themes of economic hardship, discrimination, and the death of the American Dream.

Essay questions often ask students to evaluate Steinbeck's social commentary. When addressing these questions, candidates should consider multiple perspectives and support their arguments with specific textual evidence. The relationship between characters and their social circumstances should be carefully examined.

The novel's treatment of friendship, particularly through George and Lennie's relationship, provides insight into how social conditions affected human connections during this period. Students should be prepared to discuss how economic hardship and social instability influenced personal relationships.

Example: When discussing the novel as social protest, consider how Steinbeck portrays various forms of discrimination - against the elderly (Candy), the disabled (Lennie), women (Curley's wife), and racial minorities (Crooks).

The Civil Rights Movement: Understanding the KKK and NAACP's Role in American History

The 1920s marked a pivotal period in American civil rights history, characterized by racial tension and organized resistance. During this time, many African Americans faced severe educational disadvantages, with widespread illiteracy due to systematic discrimination in schooling opportunities.

Definition: The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) was a white supremacist organization that primarily consisted of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs) who targeted African Americans, immigrants, Jews, Catholics, communists, and socialists through violent intimidation tactics.

The KKK employed various methods to suppress African American voting rights and maintain racial segregation. They implemented poll taxes that required payment before voting, effectively disenfranchising impoverished black communities. Additionally, they enforced literacy tests with deliberately complex reading passages, and even when African Americans successfully passed these tests, they faced violent threats and attacks to prevent them from exercising their right to vote. The organization's brutal tactics included night raids, physical assault, tar and feathering, lynching, rape, and murder. In Georgia alone, 135 people were lynched between 1924-1925. The KKK's influence was particularly insidious because many of its estimated 5 million members by 1924 were law enforcement officers, judges, and government officials, making prosecution nearly impossible.

Highlight: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, emerged as a crucial counterforce to racial oppression. Their primary objectives included:

• Eliminating segregation
• Securing voting rights for African Americans
• Achieving equal educational opportunities

The Great Depression of the 1930s disproportionately affected African American communities, with over half of northern black populations requiring government assistance by mid-1934. President Roosevelt's New Deal provided some relief, helping over a million African Americans find employment and receive support. This period saw increased political engagement from the African American community, leading to more black representatives in both national and local government positions. By 1940, approximately 100 African Americans held federal government positions, marking a significant though limited progress in civil rights advancement.