John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck is a famous 20th century American author whose books are still widely popular today. John Steinbeck lived from 1902-1968. He was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, to Ernst and Olive Steinbeck. Steinbeck released his first novel, Cup of Gold, in 1929. At first, the book did not attract much attention. Steinbeck made enough money from the sale of the book to permit him to marry Carol Henning in 1929. He was married three times in total. John Steinbeck’s first successful novel was Of Mice and Men, published in 1937. Steinbeck wrote his most prosperous books during 1935-1940. In 1962, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. He also published a popular work, Travels with Charley, in 1962. Events in the 20th

The Great Depression started on October 29, 1929, the day the stock market crashed substantially, and lasted till the late 1930s. Twenty-five percent of American workers lost their jobs. Because of this, it became common for men to travel around from farm to farm picking up any work they could get. The two main characters in Of Mice and Men, Lennie Small and George Milton, traveled to Salinas, California, for work. It was typical for migrant workers during this time to travel on boxcar in search of their next destination. The idea of Lennie and George was derived from the experiences Steinbeck had with the migrant workers he toiled with on the orchards. He experienced that people had to do whatever they could to survive during the Great Depression. The Dust Bowl that swept many countries during the Great Depression destroyed countless farms. Lennie and George split from their families, something very common of migrant workers. People who traveled not only gave up their families, but they also gave up their roots and

Steinbeck not only read about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, but he experienced and lived through these events of history as a young adult. In high school, he first experienced what these events were causing people to do. Of Mice and Men displays an example of the American Dream, something many people believed in during the Great Depression. The American Dream is