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Primary Source Sets
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A photograph of an insane asylum, 1963.

A photograph of an insane asylum, 1963.

In this photograph, men are laying on the floor, one with what appears to be a manacle on his leg. Conditions like this were common in insane asylums. George sees no choice but to kill Lennie because institutionalization was a horrific option. Photographer Richard Avedon’s photographs of the East Louisiana State Mental Hospital in Jackson, Louisiana helped with the 1963 institutional reform movement. Avedon planned to send the photographs to President Kennedy. This reform movement eventually led to the Community Mental Health Care Act. While the photograph was taken twenty-five years after the publication of Of Mice and Men, it shows that the treatment of patients had not improved.

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Citation Information
Avedon, Richard, “Insane Asylum (C),” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/76e0fbd61b3f30db6aa2f280d74293ac.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center via Smithsonian Institution.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 4 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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An excerpt from a critical study entitled The Novels of John Steinbeck, 1939.
An oil-on-canvas painting entitled Valley Farms by Ross Dickinson, 1934.
An excerpt from a pamphlet entitled Legislation for the Feeble-Minded by Miss A. H. P. Kirby, 1914.
A photograph of an insane asylum, 1963.
A photograph of two migrant workers in California, 1937.
A photograph of workers gathering seedlings in California, 1930.
A photograph of migrant workers in San Joaquin Valley, California, 1940.
A photograph of San Jose State College Speech and Drama Department’s production of Of Mice and Men, 1961.
A photograph of men playing cards and drinking in the forest, ca. 1930.
Robert Burns’s poem “To a Mouse” in A Primer of Burns, 1907.
A drawing of the ranch of S.M. Hoover in Sacramento County, California, 1879.
An architectural drawing of a small farm and residence, 1930.
A political cartoon about World War II by Dr. Seuss, 1942.
A drawing by David Smith titled “Private Law and Order Leagues,” depicting vigilante justice in America, 1938-39.

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