Of Mice and Men: Dreams, Work and Depression America
Follow the farm dream from shared story to practical plan and final consolation, connecting its changing purpose to insecure work in Depression-era California.
The farm beyond money
Source A
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck
Section 1
[1] “O.K. Someday—we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and——”
[2] “An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted. “An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George.”
[3] “Why’n’t you do it yourself? You know all of it.”
[4] “No . . . you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on . . . George. How I get to tend the rabbits.”
[5] “Well,” said George, “we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work, and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof—Nuts!” He took out his pocket knife. “I ain’t got time for no more.” He drove his knife through the top of one of the bean cans, sawed out the top and passed the can to Lennie. Then he opened a second can. From his side pocket he brought out two spoons and passed one of them to Lennie.
Notes
Paragraph numbers identify this extract only. Sections follow the novella’s six-part sequence.
The numbered source passages reproduce Steinbeck’s words. Episode accounts, tables and worked paragraphs are NovaLearn study notes. Section references follow the novella’s six-part sequence.
At the riverbank in Section 1, George describes a small farm and Lennie joins the familiar recital with “live off the fatta the lan'”. They do not own this place, and no purchase plan is yet secure. Before the farm is property, it is a story they can carry from job to job.
That story answers several pressures in their working lives:
| What the farm promises | What it would change |
|---|---|
| Their own land and home | A boss would no longer control whether they can stay. |
| Food they raise themselves | Work would provide directly for their lives, instead of only producing wages for someone else's ranch. |
| Control over time and tasks | They imagine choosing when and how to work rather than following orders. |
| A settled place shared with others | Movement between temporary jobs would give way to belonging and continuity. |
The dream is therefore larger than getting rich. George and Lennie imagine autonomy: the power to direct their own lives. The farm also works as a portable home in language. Repeating it gives their partnership a future even while they sleep outdoors and travel towards another employer.
One defensible complication is that George also uses the rabbits and the farm to direct Lennie's attention and behaviour. The recital can be loving hope and a means of control at the same time. However, George's detailed interest in the place shows that it is not only Lennie's fantasy.
When hope becomes a plan
Source A
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck
Section 3
[1] George watched him suspiciously. “Well—I could get it for six hundred bucks. The ol’ people that owns it is flat bust an’ the ol’ lady needs an operation. Say—what’s it to you? You got nothing to do with us.”
[2] Candy said, “I ain’t much good with on’y one hand. I lost my hand right here on this ranch. That’s why they give me a job swampin’. An’ they give me two hunderd an’ fifty dollars ’cause I los’ my hand. An’ I got fifty more saved up right in the bank, right now. Tha’s three hunderd, and I got fifty more comin’ the end a the month. Tell you what—” He leaned forward eagerly. “S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hunderd an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?”
[3] George half-closed his eyes. “I gotta think about that. We was always gonna do it by ourselves.”
[4] Candy interrupted him, “I’d make a will an’ leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, ’cause I ain’t got no relatives nor nothing. You guys got any money? Maybe we could do her right now?”
[5] George spat on the floor disgustedly. “We got ten bucks between us.” Then he said thoughtfully, “Look, if me an’ Lennie work a month an’ don’t spen’ nothing, we’ll have a hunderd bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that. Then you an’ Lennie could go get her started an’ I’d get a job an’ make up the res’, an’ you could sell eggs an’ stuff like that.”
[6] They fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true. George said reverently, “Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her.” His eyes were full of wonder. “I bet we could swing her,” he repeated softly.
[7] Candy sat on the edge of his bunk. He scratched the stump of his wrist nervously. “I got hurt four years ago,” he said. “They’ll can me purty soon. Jus’ as soon as I can’t swamp out no bunk houses they’ll put me on the county. Maybe if I give you guys my money, you’ll let me hoe in the garden even after I ain’t no good at it. An’ I’ll wash dishes an’ little chicken stuff like that. But I’ll be on our own place, an’ I’ll be let to work on our own place.” He said miserably, “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs. I’ll have thirty dollars more comin’, time you guys is ready to quit.”
Notes
Paragraph numbers identify this extract only. Sections follow the novella’s six-part sequence.
Section 3 changes the dream's status. After Candy's old dog is killed, Candy hears George and Lennie discussing the farm and asks to join them. His proposed contribution totals **250 compensation for losing his hand, 50 due at the end of the month. George names a 450. He hopes they can start the purchase with that amount and says he will work to make up the rest. Candy’s contribution makes a practical plan possible; it does not establish an agreed $450 price.
The arithmetic matters because it prevents a careless claim that the farm was always an obviously empty fantasy. For a short time, the men have all three elements of a possible purchase:
- a known property and price;
- pooled capital rather than one worker's wages;
- a plan for earning the remaining sum.
The plan is still fragile, but it is now cooperative and materially plausible. Candy's presence also changes what the farm means. George and Lennie's private escape becomes a small community in which money, labour and future care are shared.
Candy's money carries a harsher meaning too. Much of it exists because his body was injured at work. He tries to convert compensation for lost usefulness into protection against the day when the ranch may no longer employ him. The dream briefly offers an alternative to a system in which an ageing worker's home depends on keeping his job.
Work without security
George and Lennie are itinerant workers: they move to obtain temporary ranch work instead of holding secure employment or owning land. During the Great Depression, work was scarce and pay was low, so itinerant labourers might travel long distances to seek the next job. The Boss's first concern is whether George and Lennie can work and whether George may be taking Lennie's pay. Lennie's strength helps them gain employment, while Candy fears what will happen when age and injury make his labour less valuable. The ranch offers wages, but continued shelter and income depend on an employer continuing to find a worker useful.
This is Depression-era California, but accuracy matters. The US National Archives distinguishes long-established, ethnically diverse seasonal labour from the later influx of mostly family migrants labelled "Okies." George and Lennie are single ranch workers associated with California places; the novella does not identify them as Dust Bowl refugees from Oklahoma. "Migrant" describes their movement for work, not an invented backstory.
Steinbeck's knowledge was local as well as literary. The Center for Steinbeck Studies records that he worked around migrants and bindlestiffs on California ranches during his intermittent years at Stanford. This helps explain the novella's attention to hiring, work slips, bunkhouses, injury and movement. It does not make every character a documentary case or prove one political message.
One precise federal fact sharpens Candy's position. The original 1935 Social Security Act left agricultural workers outside its contributory old-age insurance coverage, as this Social Security Administration history explains. That does not mean every farm worker had no legal rights or assistance of any kind. It does mean that a major new federal route to retirement security did not initially cover workers in Candy's occupation.
Now return to the text. Candy's fear of dismissal is not simply personal nervousness: losing work may also mean losing his place to live and his ability to support himself. His $350 is unusual protection, yet it came partly from the injury that makes his future insecure. Joining the farm would turn uncertain savings into land, shared work and a home that does not vanish when a boss decides he is no longer productive.
Continue this lesson.
You’re previewing NovaLearn without an account. Create a free account to read the rest.
Create free account