When was mice and men written

Both Hollywood and Broadway were quick to see the novel's dramatic possibilities" Hollywood began pressuring Steinbeck for a screenplay and the first stage production of the novel was underway right after the text was published Benson Furthermore, the New Republic states, "[t]he book is well contrived and effectively compressed, driving ahead with straight and rapid movements, as magnificently written as Steinbeck's other four California novels" qtd.

Many reviewers lauded Steinbeck's ability to make such a poignant and important statement about humanity and its persistent struggle to rise above its own shortcomings in so brief a text.

James Brown of the Saturday Review of Literature wrote in , "The story is simple but superb in its understatements, its realisms which are used not to illustrate behavior, but for character and situation" qtd. Tom Cameron of the Los Angeles Times wrote in that Of Mice and Men is a quintessential example of the "vividly striking realities with intellectual patterns" that characterize Steinbeck's best work, which he argues was lost upon Steinbeck's move to New York in qtd.

Why does Lennie have a dead mouse in his pocket? How is Lennie different from the other men? Why do George and Lennie travel together? Why does Curley wear a glove on one hand? What does Slim do at the ranch? To give feedback, contact us at education dp. You can also suggest a primary source set topic or view resources for National History Day. Primary Source Sets. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Show full overview. Leon, Indiana. Subjects American Literature.

He died in New York City in After World War I, economic and ecological forces brought many rural poor and migrant agricultural workers from the Great Plains states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, to California. Following World War I, a recession led to a drop in the market price of farm crops, which meant that farmers were forced to produce more goods in order to earn the same amount of money.

To meet this demand for increased productivity, many farmers bought more land and invested in expensive agricultural equipment, which plunged them into debt. The stock market crash of only made matters worse. Banks were forced to foreclose on mortgages and collect debts.

Unable to pay their creditors, many farmers lost their property and were forced to find other work. The increase in farming activity across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode. This erosion, coupled with a seven-year drought that began in , turned once fertile grasslands into a desertlike region known as the Dust Bowl. Hundreds of thousands of farmers packed up their families and few belongings, and headed for California, which, for numerous reasons, seemed like a promised land.

Migrant workers came to be known as Okies, for although they came from many states across the Great Plains, twenty percent of the farmers were originally from Oklahoma.