John Steinbeck
Born Febuary 27 , 1902 in Salinas, California. He went to Stanford but dropped out. In 1925 he moved to New York in an attempt to become a freelance writer but after failing he moved back to California. In 1935 Steinbecks first popular book, Tortilla Flat, is published. In 1939 his famously acclaimed book, TheGrapes of Wrath, is published before this he had Of Mice and Men published. Steinbeck wrote twenty-seven books, including sixteen novels, six non-fiction books, and five collections of short stories. In his life time Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature, 1962, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1964, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, 1938 for Of Mice and Men, the Pulitzer Prize for Firction, 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath, and the National Book Award for Fiction, 1940 for The Grapes of Wrath. At age 66 Steinbeck died on December 29, 1968.
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The 1930's
The Dust Bowl also known as the "dirty thirties" was a series of dust storms that began in 1931 and hit around the same time as the stock crash which caused the great depression. The dust blizzards and storms started two years after the depression making the times doubly hard for farmers in the the Great Plains area. States affected included Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and Arkansas, Life was even worse for people in the pan-handle region. There were days when nothing could be seen due to the dust blowing around and no matter what farmers and others did dust could not be kept out of their homes. Not only was dirt everywhere people, and espically children, often got what was known as "dust pneumonia". Dust pneumonia was a respitory disorder which many people living in dust bowl territory caught. Causes of the "dirty thirties" mainly include over farming land to the point where crops could no longer be grown; without crops to hold dust down it was free to blow around. Along with crops not being able to grow there was also a drought at the time wihch made growing things even more impossible. The dust bowl lead to people from this area migratating towards other states, mainly California, for "a better life." Steinbeck even writes about such a family later on in his book Grapes of Wrath. Better effects of the dust bowl included work relief programs.
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Migrant Workers in California came both from outside of the United States and even in it. The two largest groups of migrant workers in California in the 30's were Hispanics, mainly Mexicans, and people affected by the dust bowl. The people coming from the plains were not welcomed kindly and instead were yelled at saying there was nothing for them and that they were better off going back where they came from. There was also a border patrol set up which kept migrant workers from entering. The people who did make it past border patrol ended up working in farms alien to them. They often picked cotton and grapes paying a portion of the money they made to componies which owned the farms for a place to live. On the other side the Hispanics which once worked where Americans were coming were sent back to Mexico. Any and every Mexican who was once a hard working famer now had to go back to a life they left in hopes for a better one. Many Americans saw Mexicans as competion for already scarse jobs. Although with the start of World War II jobs would soon become plenty as people enlisted in the armed forces.
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Mental Retardation
The usual treatment for mentally ill people in the 30's included seclusion from society, shock thearpy, and being sent to an asylum. Asylums were places where people went to be away from society. With the mentally ill most people seemed to agree that "out of sight out of mind" was the best way to go. Now it is much more common to get proper treatment and diagnoses.
Mercy Killings
Mercy killing, more commonly known as assisted suicide, is when someone helps someone else kill themselves. Mainly this form of killing is used for elder pets. Sometimes situations arise where an elderly or very sick person has decided they no longer want to be a burden to their family and instead kill themselves with the help from doctors. Since it has been around it has found both praise and contrversy. As with most things a main reason for the contreversy is religion. Many modern religions equate suicide and mercy killing with murder which is forbbiden by their relgion. When the war began Hitler let a law pass in which mentally disabled, physically handicapped, and terminally ill people where to be killed on the bases that they were useless in a German society. What Hitler did does not count as true euthenasia or mercy killing since none of the people being killed were given a choice.
Censorship
From 221 B.C, when the first recorded time of a library beeing burned arose, to now books and other materials have been banned for multiple reasons including religous views, sexual explictness, and foul langue. There are other reason for banning books aside from this such as the Nazis in the 1930's who took this to an extreme and instead of just prohibiting and banning "un-German" books went on to burn them. In this case the Nazis decided that the public needed to be censorded from views they felt opposed their own. This was about the same time Steinbeck published Of Mice and Men which was later banned. Steinbeck also managed to get another book banned; The Grapes of Wrath due to the fact that it was seen as communist propaganda and against the war. Even after the Nazis and World War II books are still being banned and challanged even in the Untited States in fact the top ten banned and challenged books of 2015 were:
- Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. - Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”). - I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group. - Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”). - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”). - The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint. - Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”). - Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. - Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence. - Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).