Of Mice and Men - Contextual Background - Conflict

Of Mice and Men is a prose fiction text by John Steinbeck. In order to bring his work to life, Steinbeck selected a specific context and in this way has set forth a realistic presentation of ideas, characters and events. By setting the text in the 1930’s Steinbeck has used the Great Depression, when America’s stock market crashed, as context for his novel to give a realistic representation of his ideas.

The American Dream came to be during the decade of the 1920’s, commonly referred to as the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and was fabricated by America’s first population. This population consisted of migrants from almost every country, believing that America would give them opportunities they could not obtain in their country. To the poor of Europe and other countries unsettled farmland could only be found in America resulting in an expanding frontier, gold fields were discovered one after the other and mass migration was promising a substantial amount of money and careers to flourish. The American Dream was the clean start to achieve wealth, a secure future and independence.

The possibility of living the American Dream survived until the late 1920’s when there was no frontier or unsettled land left to claim and America had built itself into a country based on wealth and an upper class society of single race. In 1929 the share prices in New York fell drastically and business died, people lost savings and those borrowing had to sell their homes. America was propelled into recession; this period was known as the ‘Great Depression’. Problems with the agricultural economy began in the plains between The Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains as an environmental disaster occurred, resulting in the annihilation of 10 million buffalo. By over farming, drought resistant buffalo grass was removed and replaced with shallow rooted alfalfa for the cattle. During the drought of the 1930’s the topsoil was blown away as there were no deep-rooted plants to hold the soil down to prevent erosion. By the end of 1935 no substantial amount of rain had fallen in years, many rural workers from distant and surrounding eastern states migrated to California looking for work. For many people this period was rough as they went from being self sufficient and living the American Dream to working for others and being people dependent.

Through the use of powerful visual imagery, Steinbeck presents George and Lennie’s American Dream to the audience as the pair recite, “Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and—” “live of the fatta the lan’,”(Ch1). For George this means being independent in his own home, on his own land, being self-sufficient and able to produce crops. Lennie shares the same dream but his focus is on tending to animals, specifically rabbits so he hoped to care for them by growing a crop of alfalfa to feed them. This dream of theirs helped to keep the pair together as it gave them a goal in life consisting of a secure future with self sufficiency and wealth, resembling the American Dream.

For seasonal ranch workers forming long lasting friendships is almost impossible as they are always on the move for work opportunities. Steinbeck stresses that ranchers are loners, therefore the relation between Lennie and George stands out amongst their social class. Steinbeck confirmed the abnormality of George and Lennie’s friendship when The Boss suspects George is taking Lennie’s pay. Through an objective third person point of view Steinbeck revealed the event in dialogue: “I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him?” “No, ‘course I ain’t. Why ya think I’m sellin’ him out?” “Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is.” (Ch2). This allowed the reader to observe the action and develop their individual point of view about the characters involved.

Before the time of the Great Depression Negroes suffered racial discrimination but this was only made worse by the depression. Usually most would experience racism in the workforce, low wages, poor hours and terrible living conditions. Unfortunately an overwhelming number of white Americans wanted as few Negroes as possible. This is evident in 1924 when the Klu Klux Klan had five million members and regular lynchings took place during torchlight marches.

This tragic reality is used by Steinbeck to build a realistic character to represent his chosen context. As the character Crooks, “reduced himself to nothing. There was no personality, no ego - nothing to arouse either like or dislike” in response to Curley’s Wife’s discriminative manner when telling him that he is black. Curley’s wife enforced his lower place in society when she told him: “Keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny.”(Ch4). In threatening that she could get him “strung up on a tree so easy” Curley’s Wife was implying that she could easily get him lynched and with the Klu Klutz Klan around at the said time of context this conveys to the reader a strong sense of realism to the social class of character, Crooks.