Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you know about the Great Depression and the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929? What does a “stock market crash” mean? How did the crash affect the lives of Americans for the next decade, and how did people learn to survive despite these challenges?

Teaching Suggestion: Depending on past learning, students may have some or little familiarity with the Great Depression era. Use the first discussion point to clarify what exactly a stock market crash is; then students who are not familiar with the subject should still be able to reason out the possible effects such a situation might have on average people. While the novel’s focus is not on the crash itself, the effects are one of its driving forces.

• In the 10-minute video “Interviews with Survivors of the Great Depression,” people who lived through the 1930s tell stories of everyday life during that time.
• “Migrant Mother” is a famous photograph of a woman during the Great Depression with her children; it embodies the desperation and constant worry of the era.