Honors English 9

OConnor
23 February 2016

Roosevelt and Steinbeck

By: Quinn Davis and Griffin Epstein

A Tough Time to be the President

Right:
Hoover

Roosevelt won the election over Hoover

Fallen into the Great Depression during Hoover
s term
Roosevelt offered a new deal as a main part
of his campaign
Roosevelt's plan was to end the Great
Depression
He was elected and took office in 1932

Roosevelt's First Job

His first job was to fix the banks

Roosevelt and the Congressmen made a
deal that would have the government
control what the banks did: how they held
money, how they let out money, and
Roosevelt got complete authority over the
gold in the banks
Stabilized the banks that had been
mismanaged under Hoover

Roosevelt's Most Influential Bills

The New Deal is the most important action
done by Roosevelt
Involved new laws and bills to help banks,
made relief programs, and helped
agriculture
Second New Deal included a union
protection program, and involved
additional programs to help migrants

Steinbecks Concerns
John Steinbeck was concerned about many
things in the world
Steinbecks concerns affected his writings
Steinbeck's was concerned with many of the
injustices on the world
Concerns: migrant workers treatment, upper
class taking advantage, inhumane actions,
racism, alcoholism, disabilities, etc
Steinbeck cared deeply about these problems
which explains why he chose to use them in
his novels

This photo below shows that the more money

you have the more money you continue to earn.
A CEO has worked for 1,300 gallons of milk in
the time that a medium wage worker would earn
one gallon of milk. While the worker wages
system has improved this shows that we still
could have many improvements like raising the
minimum wage that would greatly help the less
wealthy workers.

How Steinbeck was Affected by Roosevelt

and his Policies

Scott Wilson is the

governor of Wisconsin.
Wilson made a law that
crippled the unions in
Wisconsin that took
away almost all Unions
rights.

The Fair Labor Standards Act greatly affected Steinbeck and

his concerns
It provides Minimum Wage and a limit of hours for workers
Gives workers a chance to unionize and always have fair rights
in the workplace
Parts of the act are still being argued today

Steinbeck's Characters and Roosevelt

The characters in his stories are treated like animals.

Ex: Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men
The policies of the Fair Labors Standards Act would
have greatly helped the Joad family.
The act ended the big banks inhumane treatment of
workers and stopped the big banks taking advantage
of an unfair system.
This act would have greatly helped both the Joad
family and George and Lennie along with other
characters in Steinbeck's novels

Did Roosevelt Solve Steinbecks Concern?

Helped end the migrant crisis and the wellbeing of the

migrants and workers
Multiple parts of the New Deal that Roosevelt made
addressed Steinbeck's concerns toward migrant workers
He passed laws to protect farming land so the big banks
didn't take advantage
Never addressed mental illnesses or much other
discrimination however Roosevelt was very busy
Ironically Roosevelt had signs of a mental illness at the
end of his life

How Does This Affect us Today?

Helped reshape our country pulling us out of the Great Depression.

Addressed worker rights and helped end the worker crisis.
These are problems Steinbeck's characters have to face
Not all the problems were greatly improved. Ex: discrimination of women, the mentally
disabled, and African-Americans.

So what is the impact today?

Workers rights changed the way Americans worked

The problem of the big banks taking advantage of the system to their own benefit is still
happening in the form of pouring money into politicians to win elections or the big banks
bribing them to say no to these laws that are not beneficial for the banks.
Examples that big banks don't like: higher minimum wage, more power for unions, and paid
family leave etc.
Roosevelt and Steinbeck made great contributions to help end their countrys problems and
we can continue to learn from their actions

Works Cited
Franklin D. Roosevelt: Impact and Legacy. Miller Center of Public Affairs.
University of Virginia. N.D. Web. February 9, 2016.
Glassman, Bruce. Americans get a new deal. Logan, Iowa: Perfection Learning
Corporation, n.d. Print.
"Library of Congress." The Great Depression and WW2. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb.
2016
Woolner, David B. "FDR and the New Deal Response to an Environmental
Catastrophe." Roosevelt Institute.org. Roosevelt Institute, 3 July 2010.
Web. 21 Feb. 2016.