Of Mice and Men Subject and Theme in Our World: Poverty

The story Of Mice and Men is taken during the times of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time of economic crisis that led the the loss of millions of jobs and left people homeless and poor in an instant. Because George and Lennie were poor and did not have anywhere to go, they are stuck moving to different ranches to work on. They are lonely and isolated from society. They have no where to go for help and they have no one to be with but with each other. The theme for Of Mice and Men is that even the most lonely and isolated people in society have the biggest dreams. George and Lennie obviously wish that the Great Depression wasn't happening. If it wasn't happening then they would have much better jobs and would have some place decent to live. Then, they could go out and communicate with the world and be a part of society. Instead they are poor, homeless guys working like animals on a ranch in order to make very little money a month.The subject and theme in Of Mice and Men can be easily related to poverty. In this post, I will take a look at today's poverty situations.

Graph comparing the HDI values in African Nations

Let's start with a continent where poverty is a major issue; Africa. Africa is a continent with usually the continent with the most countries facing poverty. Whenever a list is released which measures economic activity, African nations are usually the lowest. In 2009, 22 of 24 nations were categorized as "Low Human Development" on the UN Human Development Index were all located in Sub-Saharan-Africa. In 2006, 34 out of 50 nations on the list of least developed countries are located in Africa. The GDP per capita in most African Nations is much less than $200 US.

One reason of poverty in Africa is the mismanagement of land. South of the Sahara Desert, there is large amounts of fertile land. However, the problem is is that most of the land is often owned by European settlers. According to the 2005 Integrated Regional Information Networks report, 82% of fertile land located in South Africa is owned by descendants of European settlers.

Another reason is that Africans misuse money a lot. The US has sent over $500 billion US to African Nations as direct aid. However, reports have shown that the money had little long term effect. There are some Africans with large amounts of money. Out of stupidity, these people spend their large quantity of money on weapons. This meant that the money was brought toward developed nations (where the weapons are produced) and no money was brought into the local economy. On top of that, the weapons make no use in providing necessities for life. Or, some corrupt governments take that money away and put it toward unnecessary production of, say, nuclear weapons. One example of a country that wasted its money is Ghana. When Ghana became independent, it was the richest country in Africa. The money Ghana had was spent on projects that turned out in the end to be of no use. Here are two examples: A highway was built in Ghana. It was a very superior highway except the only problem was, was that Ghana has very few vehicles so no one barely uses this highway. Another project that went to waste was the creation of storage silos for storing cocoa. Ghana built storage silos to store cocoa because the commodity price was fluctuating. They could take advantage. However, cocoa cannot be stored unprocessed for even a short time, so the storage silos were a waste. Another example of misused money was the building of the Aswan High Dam. This dam was built on the Nile River and was supposed to modernize Egypt and Sudan right away. However, by blocking the natural flow of the Nile River, the dam blocks the flow of a natural fertilizer called nitrate fertilizers as well as other organic material. Because of this problem, now one-third the electricity produced by the dam is used to produce fertilizer which wouldn't be needed if the dam wasn't built in the first place.

Disease is a major concern in African nations. The biggest cause of disease in Africa is the vast amounts of unsafe drinking water. HIV/AIDS is another major concern in Africa. 3000 Africans die each day due to AIDS and 11000 people are infected each day.

Now let's look at poverty in present-day USA. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, to be considered poor, an average 4 or 5 person family must make about $25000 or less annually. Here is a chart that shows the number of poor people in the US from 1959 to 2009. There is currently about 300 million people in the US.

Why is poverty so high in the US? Here are some factors. Firstly, the income you receive is compared to the education you have. In the US, a household headed with a person with less than a 9th grade education receives about $20000, high school graduates receive $40000, bachelor's degree receives $77000, and a professional degree receives $100000. Statistics show that poverty is caused by job loss. 21.5% of poor people have no jobs and only 2.5% of poor people have jobs. Studies show that income varies by age. The older you are, the higher income you receive. This might be due to additional experience or higher education. Shockingly, statistics show that income varies by ethnic groups. 21% of children in the US live in poverty which contains 46% of black children and 40% of Latino children. The poverty rate for whites is a bit lower than blacks. In the US, Asians on average receive the highest income, however, Asians are reported to complain the most about discrimination than any other race.

So as you can see from all the information I have provided in this post, poverty is a growing concern not only in Africa, but even in the power house we call the US. In fact, the US is at an equally advancing pace of poverty as Africa. The US is in debt right now and sooner or later, the US will have to go bankrupt and the whole world economy will collapse. If you go to http://www.usdebtclock.org/ you can see this is a counter of the total US debt and this counter is just speeding away. You will be amazed at all the stats given on this website. Let's recap. The subject of Of Mice and Men is alienation and loneliness and the theme of Of Mice and Men is that even the most lonely and isolated people of society have the biggest dreams. When you are living in poverty, you are isolated from society because you are poor and cannot live a good life so you have to focus on trying to keep up your family. Nobody will accept you in life because you are worthless and cannot do anything for society. These people in society have dreams of not being poor and living a middle-class life. Same with the people of Of Mice and Men. They are all poor which is why they are working on the ranch. They wish they weren't poor and would rather live a decent middle-class life owning their own house, family, and piece of land.

Thanks for reading,

~ Ramez Fares

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_the_United_States

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/US_poverty_rate_timeline.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Africa

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Africa_by_HDI%2C_UNDP_2004.png