What is the setting of the book Of Mice and Men?

There are several important elements to consider when it comes to the work’s setting. First, there is the aspect of time and place – Southern California in the mid 1930s, the time at which the work was written. At that particular time, that part of the world was, like most of the rest of the nation (and indeed the continent), suffering from the effects of extensive heat and drought. It was the so-called “Dirty Thirties”. Land that was once rich in possibility became barren of hope and opportunity. The valley in which the work is set escaped the worst of the drought – witness the fact that there actually jobs to be had for George and Lennie. There was, however, still hardship both in the area and in the rest of the country, with the environmental and/or climatic circumstances of the physical environment echo the emotional circumstances in which Steinbeck’s characters, here and elsewhere in his work, experience.

Another important aspect of the work’s setting is its geographical placement – specifically, the fact that it is set on a ranch, a collection of buildings surrounded by expanses of land. There is an echo here of the experiences of George and, particularly, of Lennie – a collection (pair) of individuals surrounded by what George believes to be expanses of judgmental, potentially harmful people and attitudes.

Finally, there are the individual areas in which many of the work’s particular scenes are set – the clearing by the pond (representative of the beauty, quiet, peace and freedom of the natural life to which George and Lennie seem to aspire) and the bunkhouse (in which human beings are accommodated in situations that leave them little better than animals) . The final notable area in which action takes place is the barn, which houses both new life (the puppies) and death (of both Curley’s wife and the dreams of George, Lennie, and the others who have bought into those dreams).