What does a reading of 'Of Mice and Men' reveal about the cu

             What does a reading of 'Of Mice and Men' reveal about the culture and
             experience of migrant workers in the 1930s America?
             Of Mice and Men is a novel set on a ranch in the Salinas Valley in California during the Great Depression of the 1930s. By reading it, the reader learns a lot about the lives of itinerant workers and society during that time. Steinbeck also conveys his views on society to the reader and how he feels society without law, morals and politics can not sustain itself and will collapse in on itself. He achieves this through a variety of methods and techniques, which also make the novel an absorbing read.
             Steinbeck's novel emphasises the loneliness of its characters. Every character's life introduced in the story is lonely and empty in a way whether it is obvious to the reader or not. "Hell, I seen too many guys... seems like ever' guy got land in his head", this shows how every ranch worker has to take comfort from insubstantial dreams of a better life in order to overcome their loneliness. Steinbeck establishes this idea of loneliness to the reader right near the start of the book and reminds the reader again at the end of the book, "Guys like us... are the loneliest guys in the world... work up a stake and go inta town and blow their stake". This again illustrates to the reader how the loneliness of a worker makes them willing to pay for a short term relief which would bring about only a short period of excitement. Crooks, the only Negro, is isolated by society's segregation, his loneliness is emphasised by his separate quarter where his bunk is situated. Steinbeck describes in detail his living conditions to prove this to the reader, "...a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn... and scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions." The scattering about of Crook's personal possessions show how Crook's is painfully a...

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