Unheard Voices
This is a topic covering the aspect of creative writing, and highlights unseen or marginalised characters in texts.
Notes (4.4.25)
(?) - unconfirmed "" - teacher quotes
- The author of “Of Mices and Men” wrote a book called “Grapes of Wrath”
- John Steinbeck wrote his books based on The Great Depression (?)
- America had a horrific drought in the South-West
- There was a “dust-bomb” during this time
- Dust and mechanisation (?) had driven farmers away
- Steinbeck was on the side of the working men
- Pretty Boy Floyd, robin hood, used as role model for the main protagonist for “Grapes of Wrath”
- Route 66?
- All texts from Steinbeck have the same setting
- Steinbeck wanted to use the Bible to make the texts feel more “heroic”
- 1936, LAPD stopped migrants from having jobs for not being from Cali
- Cali was cutting its links from the rest of the US
- “There are no jobs here, go home.”
- “Really turned on each other”
- Cali stated to people that jobs being plentiful were lies
- Steinbeck portrayed the labour camps, malnutrition, disease, beatings, and loss of civil rights during the Great Depression (?)
- Led civilians to concentration camps (?)
- Exploited labour in California during a crisis
- Political extremism and mob rule
- “Steinbeck grew wealthy, but fought for social justice and lived with the people who were not wealthy” (?)
- Steinbeck wanted to be a writer since he was 14
- From age 14 - 66 (he died at 66), he wrote everyday
- He was drawn to people who were not in the mainstream, drawn to marginalised people
- “Of Mice and Men is full of hands”
- “The hands in the novel are emotive”
- “Everybody’s working with their hands [throughout all of the novels]”
- Steinbeck’s early reputation was based on the Valley (?)
- From the 1930s, marginal characters took centre stage in his novels
- Steinbeck set to meet with communist leaders (?)
- “It depends if the module’s changed for the HSC — if they don’t change and you study Billy Elliot, the strikes might be relevant”
- “Indubious Battle is [more of a neutral stance] on the strike”
- The real workers do not have good living conditions based on appearance
- “I want it merely to be a recording conscious, not judging…” - John Steinbeck
- “See that child; not great conditions”
- There were many famous images from the Great Depression
- “Many people wanted to ignore the pain and awful things [of the event at the time]”
- “Steinbeck was labelled a communist since he highlighted the things happening”
- Did not let people strike
- Forced to work with guns
- Steinbeck described California as a “bomb ready to explode”
- Shot 62 people (?)
- “They’re calling people communists for those [who want more wage]”
- “He wanted to work as a migrant worker”
- “He actually went there and lived there to find out what was really happening”
- Riffed with myths and references to the Bible
- “I want to put a tag of shame for the greedy [__] who were responsible for this”
- Best selling book of 1939 and 1940 (?)
- Steinbeck identified with the left (?)
- There would be right-wing backlash and it was expected
- The book was burned and banned from schools
- Thought it was too blunt and overly sexual
- In the 30s, he began to hold a revolver
- “He had to bring a gun because of a book”
- There was a film for “The Grapes of Wrath” in 1940
- Casting changed the perception for the book (?)