Of Mice and Men context

Of Mice and Men Context (how it's relevant to the time)

In 1929 Wall Street (the American stock market) crashed. This meant the economy collapsed, many people lost their jobs and many businesses were shut. Many farm hands lost their work and were forced to travel to find some. These men were known as migrant workers. George and Lennie in the novel are migrant workers, and have had to travel to the ranch for work. This makes them in some way lucky, as they do have work, whereas so many did not. They are similar to many workers at the time, in that they traveled to California, which was supposed to have enough land for everyone. This links in with the 'American dream', when everybody just wanted some of their own land. This is basically George and Lennie's dream within the novel. 

At the time the novel was written there was much discrimination towards people in society. Steinbeck uses discrimination throughout the novel, with various characters bearing the brunt of the others criticism. Candy is discriminated towards because…