The Great Depression began in August of 1929, when the United States

economy first went into an economic recession. Although the country spent
two months and declining, it was not until the Wall Street Crash of
October, 1929 that the effects of a declining economy were felt, and a
major worldwide economic downturn ensued. The market crash marked
the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low
profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for
economic growth and personal advancement. Although its causes are still
uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss
of confidence in the economic future.

In the 1930s in America, the Great Depression was ending and America
was trying to get back on its feet. Migrant workers were trying to find work
in fields. There was illegal immigrants settling in California, but
immigrants were not just farms hands. They also worked in canneries and
fruit stands. Others were entrepreneurs and some worked in factories.
While immigrants were looking for work, they were still able to
recreational activities, such as singing and making music.
The role of women in the 1930's is that of the homemaker and mother.
The Great Depression caused a number of people to lose work, but women
were still discouraged from being able to work to support their family
during such a difficult time. In the 1930's many women started to go
against the grain and step outside of the typical role of women.
The Great Depression of the 1930s worsened the already bleak economic
situation of African Americans. They were the first to be laid off from their
jobs, and they suffered from an unemployment rate two to three times
that of whites. In early public assistance programs African Americans often
received substantially less aid than whites, and some charitable
organizations even excluded blacks from their soup kitchens.
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. Although his family
was wealthy, he was interested in the lives of the farm labourers and
spent time working with them. He used his experiences as material for his
writing.
He wrote a number of novels about poor people who worked on the land
and dreamed of a better life, including The Grapes of Wrath, which is the
heart-rending story of a family's struggle to escape the dust bowl of the
West to reach California. Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1962, six years before his death in 1968.

A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to

the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such
as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestockraising operations in USA. People who own or operate a ranch are called ranchers, Ranching is
also a method used to raise less common livestock such as elk, American bison or even ostrich, emu,
and alpacas