The novel Of Mice and Men is set in the Salinas valley, the area where John Steinbeck grew up. Because Steinbeck knew this area very well the visual images in the novel were from first hand experience and are very believable. Steinbeck's father owned land in this area and John grew up working for him as a farm hand. The background setting and ranch in the novel would have been very similar to what Steinbeck was used to. The era in which Of Mice and Men was set was in a time in history when the great depression had hit America and there was a huge unemployment problem. George and Lennie, characters in the novel, were two of the many labours out of work. They would travel the countryside looking for work usually involving harvesting wheat. They would get paid between $2.50 and $3.00 a day, plus food and basic...