[Music]
during Steinbeck's childhood an
agricultural shift took place in
California that resulted in the rise of
fruit farms the shift enabled by the
increased use of irrigation transformed
many desert areas into productive
cropland from 1879 to 1928 the value of
fruit farm production rose from 4% of
agricultural output to about 80 percent
besides water the farms also required
more laborers than California could
provide with native Borden residents to
cover the need for labor land owners
hired Mexican and Asian immigrants along
with migrants from other states when
Steinbeck was attending college in the
early 1920s he was able to drop out and
get work doing stuff similar to that
depicted in Of Mice and Men while doing
the work Steinbeck met many of society's
Outsiders including Mexicans African
Americans and the physically and
mentally disabled many of whom are
depicted in the story while talking
about the book
Steinbeck said the characters are
composites Lennie was a real person when
the Great Depression hit many found
themselves out of work things only got
worse with the outcome of the Dust Bowl
in order to find work many of the
migrants in Oklahoma New Mexico and the
rest of the region came to California
where things were not as bad as a result
by the mid 1930s California was overrun
with migrant workers most of them faced
harsh working conditions suggested in Of
Mice and Men and more fully developed in
The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck was
partially motivated to write Of Mice and
Men because of the brutally poor
conditions he and his wife lived in
before the success of his novel tortilla
flat now Steinbeck was self-aware of his
success and made the conscious decision
not to write in a way that was important
but was truthful
Of Mice and Men was the product of this
decision and an attempt for Steinbeck to
remain humble