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What do we learn about life in Americas in the 1930's from John

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What do we learn about life in Americas in the 1930's from John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men? John Steinbeck was born and raised in Salinas, in 1902. Steinbeck was of German and Irish ancestry. His father was the county treasurer and his mother was a teacher. Steinbeck attended Salinas High School and went on to study Marine Biology at Stanford University, but failed to finish his course. He travelled to New York and worked as a reporter, unfortunately he was fired. After he took on many different jobs and became an apprentice, a painter, a caretaker, a surveyor and a fruit picker. He married three times in 1930, in 1943 and in 1950. During the World War Two, Steinbeck became a War correspondent. In 1960 he toured 40 …show more content…

At the beginning of chapter two there is a very clear description of the bunkhouse. Steinbeck writes, "The bunk-house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing the burlap ticking." This is a clear description of the room. Steinbeck adds, "Near one wall there was a black cast-iron stove, its stove pipe going straight up through the ceiling. In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing-cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on." This suggests that the workers lives were based on the ranch and if they were not working then they would be playing cards or going to a whorehouse on a Saturday night. There was a ranking system in America that was similar to an unwritten law. This ranking was used on the ranches and unfortunately put Crooks at the bottom. In America black people were oppressed and were not allowed to prosper. On the ranch Crooks had his own bunk and kept himself to himself. In the story Crooks is inside his bunk, Lennie and Candy come to visit him because him because the other

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