Publisher's Synopsis
Published in the aftermath of the Great Depression of 1937 and dramatized for the stage in that same year, John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men" is a tale of the American dream gone awry. The import of that failed dream - embodied in the lives of struggling migrant farmworkers - for the individual soul and for the country as a whole is examined in this study. Hadella informs her literary analysis of Steinbeck's novel with background on the history of Californian agribusiness and on Steinbeck's activity on behalf of migrant workers. She also discusses the stage and film versions of the work.