Importance Of Setting In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

During the decade long Great Depression of 1929 to 1939, there were great afflictions upon men leading to tragedy, loss, and despair. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the significance of these afflictions is only brought to attention because of the book’s setting, the Great Depression. The Great Depression itself emotionally affected many of these men, and Steinbeck writes characters that resemble the lives of migrant workers. In his rural setting, Steinbeck focuses upon the lives of his characters, the emotions they undergo, and the following wishes to depart from their unfulfilling lives. For Steinbeck's readers, the themes and writing techniques augmented by the setting, help the readers understand the setting’s importance. He wants

Gathering some historical context, the Salinas Valley was the home of many large farms during the depression. This fact proves to be significant because large farms employed large numbers of workers. This amount could range up to hundreds. Nomadic workers with no steady employment who traveled to find work from place to place, ended up in these types of communities. Steinbeck uses the historical background of the Salinas Valley during this time to set-up the lives of his two main characters, George and Lennie. They are migrant farm workers struggling to find somewhere they can maintain a stable life. They have hopes and dreams all men have; yet in this book, all men refuse to open themselves up to one another. After some troubles, George and Lennie, logically, retreated to a ranch, in the Salinas Valley. Although these places held many workers, Steinbeck uses George and Lennie to contrast the importance of migrant workers towards one another, as George reassures Lennie, “ ‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to

Steinbeck makes this impossibility of the American Dream a theme throughout his novel because he wants to use it as part of the novel’s ongoing plot. The American Dream especially served to be migrant workers hope when all hope was lost. This life they all lived, filled with distress, was only bearable because of the American Dream. The dream is one that offers people of any social class, any race, gender, and etc., a new life in which they could pursue what they desired. In this way, the burdens of the Great Depression would no longer have a hold on them. Most of the characters in Of Mice and Men go through this same struggle in life, dreaming about one day leaving it all behind. Continuing Steinbeck's theme of the American Dream’s impossibility, Candy, an old ranch hand, searches for a hope to believe in after the despairing death of his dog. George and Lennie had their dream to live on a farm and live off the “fatta the lan”. As George and Lennie expressed this dream when Candy overheard, a new light shined through his dim heart. After several offerings of personal services and the money he had earned, George and Lennie embraced Candy in their dream. Candy had found a new hope with them, as they were just ready to pursue their dream. George describes the wonders of being free from hard-labor and self-sufficient to Candy as he had realized the dream was