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