Returning to the Text • Return to the text as you respond to the following questions. Use text evidence to support
your responses.
• Write any additional questions you have about the short story in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. What is George's "little mental handicap radio," and what is its purpose?

The great depression, which lasted throughout the 1930s in the united states, affected many people, and it had a devastating impact on an entire subset of the u.s. population. modernist writer john steinbeck wrote about the toll the depression took on these families, many of whom were forced to leave their farms and find other sources of income.