1. Of Mice and Men I. John Steinbeck -born in Salinas, California in 1902 -his most famous books were written in the 1930s and 1940s -they were based in California -they dealt with the lives and problems of working people -many characters were immigrants from Mexico or other parts of the United States who were looking for work or a better life Background Information

2. II. The American Dream -from the 17 th century when settlers first arrived, immigrants dreamed of a better life in America -people came to America to escape persecution or poverty -they wanted to make a new life for themselves or their families -many of those dreams became nightmares with the horrors of slavery, of the American Civil War, the growth of slums as bad as those in Europe, and the corruption of the American political system

3. III. Migrant Farm Workers -huge numbers of men traveled the countryside between the 1880s and the early 1930s harvesting wheat. -they earned $2.50-$3.00 a day -the men would live in bunk houses and receive minimal amounts of food -due to the stock market crash in 1929, unemployment records soared in the United States during what is known as the Great Depression -agencies were set up during the New Deal to send farm workers to where they were needed -George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men use one of these agencies to find work

4. -published in 1937 -set in the farmland of the Salinas valley, where John Steinbeck was born (very familiar to Steinbeck) -the ranch in story is near Soledad, which is south-east of Salinas on the Salinas River IV. Of Mice and Men