Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

1. Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck Setting & Background Information

2. John Steinbeck • Born 1902, in Salinas, California, USA. • He went to university but didn’t complete his degree. • His family wanted him to have a respectable career as a lawyer. • Steinbeck had many casual jobs ranging from newspaper reporter to itinerant ranch hand. • He had very little success as a writer until 1937 when ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published, which was an immediate and worldwide success.

3. John Steinbeck • He was a lonely, modest and restless man. • He was never content and was always searching for something more. • He was difficult to live with, yet easy to love; hence he was married 3 times. • He had a great love of the outdoors and of animals, especially dogs and horses.

4. The American Dream • The ‘American Dream’ arose from the way in which America was populated. • People came from almost every country and background, united in a belief that America would give them opportunities denied to them in the own country. • They were driven by the hope of a new way of life free from political or religious persecution or to escape poverty and starvation.

5. The American Dream • In America, the poor had the opportunity to settle on frontier farmland. • New gold mines were being discovered. • There were many opportunities to make money, careers and reputations. • The ‘American Dream’ was the idea that ordinary people could make a clean start to achieve security and prosperity. • The dream survived until the economic depression of the late 1920’s.

6. The Death of a dream • The Wall Street Crash in 1929 led to the ‘Great Depression’. • At the same time, ignorance and over farming, had turned large areas of farmland into the ‘Dust Bowl’ – the land became like a desert. • Crops failed and farmers could not afford to pay the loans they had taken out to buy their farms. • Many people lost their dream and there was mass unemployment. • Machines were becoming available that could do the work of many men adding to the unemployment situation.

7. Itinerant Workers • The main characters in the novel are George and Lennie. • They are examples of the ‘itinerant’ or ‘migrant’ farm workers at this time. • The itinerant workers would travel vast distances from farm to farm looking for manual work. • They were often exploited, poorly paid and lived in very basic accommodation. • Many of these workers shared the dream that they would one day own their own ranch or smallholding.

8. Ordinary People • All these things had happened or were happening by the time ‘Of Mice and Men’ was being written. • The novel is about:- • Social change • The end of the dream • Social problems • Exploitation of itinerant workers • Relationships between people