Steinbecks novels can all be classified as social novels dealing with the economic problems of rural labour in America in the 1920s and 30s. Around the time of publication of Of Mice and Men climate changes had turned large areas of the American West into a dustbowl of infertile land. Many Farmers lost their farms and were forced into the life of itinerant workers. Their numbers were increased by the large number of unemployment due to the depression that hit America and the coincidence of the Wall Street crash in 1929.
John Steinbecks knowledge of life as a farm hand and the lifestyle they led is evident throughout the novel. During the 1930s America set up agencies to send the farm workers where they were needed. In the novel we hear of George and Lennie getting their work cards from Murray and Readys. This would have been one of these agencies. The workers would earn between $2 - $3 a day plus food and very basic accommodation. In the novel Steinbecks description of the bunk house with its whitewashed walls and unpainted floor, rows of bunks with a burlap sack of straw that was a mattress, gives us a good impression of the basic accommodation the men would have encountered. The conversation with Candy concerning the lice infested mattress gives us the impression the bunk houses where used by many workhands passing through.
Steinbeck would have encountered the racism that was evident around this time. The "nigger" is mentioned quite early in the novel when Candy tells George how
One Christmas the boss gave them a whole gallon of whisky and that night they even let the "nigger in"
During this period in America the blacks were treated badly. They would not have been allowed to share the same bunkhouse as the white workers. This is evident in the novel when we are introduced to Crooks. He has a bunk in the Stables among the harnesses. You get a sense of his unease when Lennie shows up one night and enters his room.
"You got no right to come to my room, this here's my room, nobody got no right to be here but me" crooks says sharply. Lennie is confused when crooks tells him
"I ain't wanted in the bunk house and you ain't wanted here".
Lennie would not have had any concept of the racism crooks would have encountered during this time. Ironically Lennie would have been subject to the same racism due to his 'simple mind' and him being 'different' from normal folk. Crooks tells Lennie he cant go in the bunk house because he's black, showing us again what the black people would have had to contend with in the 1930s America.
The novel focuses on the 'American Dream', obtaining a better and more prosperous life. This is mentioned when George and Lennie talk of their 'little house and a couple of acres'. They plan to work and save enough to buy that land. Just as many of the migrant workers would have too. Curlys wife also in a sense had hopes of 'the American Dream' when she talks about how she 'coulda been in the movies and had nice clothes'. She also has dreams of making it and having a better life.
The Title of the book Of Mice and Men comes from a poem by Robert Burns
The best laid shemes o' mice and men
Gang aft agley (often-go wrong)
And leave us nought but grief and pain
From promised joy
This reflects the outcome of the story, George and Lennie have dreams and plans of a better life, but however hard they try things always go wrong. The first we encounter this is in the first chapter by the river. We learn why they had to leave their last job. Then in the closing chapter we return to the same spot at the river to see George kill Lennie. We see this as a merciful killing as George would not want Lennie to suffer at the hands of Curly and the other farmhands. With the killing of his friend and travelling companion their 'dream' dies with him.
