Of Mice And Men Compared To The 1930s

Of Mice and Men In Comparison To The 1930s

John Steinbeck’s life influenced the context in his novel Of Mice and Men. In fact, he was knowledgeable towards the issues of women’s rights and mental disabilities, and even worked on a ranch as a migrant worker himself. Likewise, these same ideas and actions took place during the Great Depression and are vividly displayed within the characters and the plot of Steinbeck’s book. Women’s rights, mental disabilities, as well as ranch work during this time period are depicted through Curley’s wife, Lennie, and the setting of the ranch. In the early and mid 1900s, the roles of women in a society were clearly portrayed when they fought for their liberties. Similarly, Curley’s wife does not have a significant

Comparably, John Steinbeck had similar experiences when he too worked on a ranch as a migrant worker, taking up a big part of his life. He showed his own experiences through George and Lennie, as well as the other characters who were migrant workers in his book. Most migrant workers had very poor working conditions and living environments and the larger ranches provided their workers with housing. This relates to the bunk house where there are two make-shift shelves per person, and each person each has a very little belongings (“Farmers”). They work long hours out on the fields in the hopes of making a sufficient wage. Laborers typically made anywhere from $2.50 to $3.00 for each working day. In his earlier years, John Steinbeck lived through these experiences himself. By working at company-owned ranches in Salinas during the summer, he learned of these conditions. Moreover, he came upon the conclusion that most migrant workers were typically single men that were recruited during the seasons of harvest to work on the ranches, all of which is included in the story (“Of Mice and Men” 240-62). The other laborers on George and Lennie’s ranch all meet these criteria, with the exception of Curley. The readers are able to see that Steinbeck’s personal experiences played a huge role in his characterizations of his protagonists, George and