John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, and Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, both have similarities and differences that appear through the history of the United States, prejudice, and also through the themes.
Of Mice and Men and The Crucible, share the similarity of teaching the history of the United States throughout the pieces. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, the reader will be able to learn the history of the United States through the writing style of the author, John Steinbeck. The setting of this novella takes place in Salinas Valley in California during the 1930s, the time of the Great Depression. The Great Depression began when the stock market in the United States dropped rapidly. Thousands of investors lost large sums of money and many were wiped out and lost everything. This period was the longest and worst period of high unemployment and also with low business activity in modern times. Banks, stores, and factories were closed and left millions of Americans jobless, homeless, and penniless. With the economy in ruins, millions were struggling to find a job, and Salinas Valley was one solution. Because Salinas Valley had large farms that employed several workers at a time, many migrant farm workers, such as George and Lennie from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, travelled there in order to find work. During this time of depression, work cards were extremely important in the United States’ history. Without work cards you wouldn’t be able to get the job. When Lennie thinks he lost his work card, “he looked down at the ground in despair” (5) which shows the importance of the card, during the time of the depression.
The play, The Crucible, the reader will also be able to learn about the history of the United States.
The setting of Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, was set during the 17th century, in a theocratic society in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts. The fact that the story takes place during