The key points about setting to consider in relation to this novel are time and place, both of which are interrelated, given that the novel is set during the Great Depression in the 1930's. At that time, states in the American Plains like Kansas were particularly hard hit. The economic downturn experienced by the nation as a whole was aggravated in this and other prairie states by drought, which prohibited the farmers of the region from putting in and harvesting crops, and thereby earning a living.