Set in 1930s America, Of Mice and Men provides insight into life during the Great Depression when many people were left unemployed and in poverty. With particular reference to the novella, agricultural workers from the hard-hit western states of America headed to California in search of a better life. California’s milder climate meant for a longer crop season and its soil, compared to that of the over-utilised land in places like Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, promised more harvesting opportunities. However, the reality for many workers was not what they had dreamed; the work was often demanding and unfulfilling, and the workers were frequently treated poorly by the landowners for whom they toiled.

Salinas, California, where the story is set, is just south of the San Francisco Bay Area and known as the ‘Salad Bowl of the World’ for its abundant agricultural industry, especially for its flowers, grapes and vegetables. It was in Salinas, Steinbeck’s birthplace and where he spent summers as a young man working on farms and ranches, that he witnessed the experiences of migrant workers such as those he fictionalises in the novella.