1. In your notes answer the following question:
Have you/your family ever experienced unemployment? If so, what was the experience like? If no, what do you believe it would be like? How do you think it would affect your family?

2. The Great Depression

3. The Great Depression was the longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the western industrialized world.
Stock Market crash of October 1929 wiped out millions of investors

4. As years went by consumer spending and investment dropped.
By 1933, thirteen to fifteen million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the countries banks failed.

5. Election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to presidency in 1932.
Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy.
Despite active government intervention, mass unemployment and economic stagnation continued, though on a somewhat smaller scale.

6. March 4th, 1933 Roosevelt delivered his first inaugural address.
March 5th, 1933 Roosevelt declared a four-day bank holiday
March 9th, 1933 Congress passed Roosevelt’s Emergency Banking Act
March 12th, 1933 Roosevelt released his first “fireside chat” where he urged Americans to put their savings back into the banks. (By the end of the month almost three quarters of them had reopened.)

7. The Great Depression also impacted the world of agriculture
In 1935 dust storms began (The Dust Bowl)

8. The SCS formed in 1935 to promote farm rehabilitation
Government worked on local levels to help the rehabilitation of the land
By 1941 most of the land had been rehabilitated.

9. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.
The war effort stimulated American industry. As a result, the unemployment rate dropped drastically.

10. 1930’s American Dream
1930’s : h?v=GhIhnVCwxrI

11. Setting:
Soledad, Salinas river/valley in California
1930’s (Great Depression)
Characters:
Lennie Smalls
George Milton
Candy
Curley
Curley’s wife
Slim
Crooks
Carlson

12. Themes of the novel:
Friendship
Innocence
Vision of America
Isolation

13. Writing Prompt: To turn in, Due today.
Think about your American dream and what you’ve just learned about the Great Depression. I would like you to answer the following prompt in 2 complete paragraphs using complete sentences, specific examples and ample explanations. If you do not explain your response, you will receive NO credit.
Prompt:
How would a modern depression in America (similar to The Great Depression) affect YOUR American Dream?