•  Context of a novel means the circumstances in which somethng is written.
• Focuses on a relatively poor and deprived class of men on whom the US economy depended on.

How dow did Steinbecks life influence his work

• Steinbeck experieced poverty
• His father passed on love to his son, we see this in the first scene with George and Lennie, love of nature.
• His work as a labourer during his vacations, for example frams, came into ordinary contact with working men like Lennie and George. Lennie was actually a real person.

How did Depression, bad farming and the weather help to create the poverty that is a background to the novel.

• Business' went bankrupt.
• Bad farming was occurring as there was a drought
• Land became a dust bowl
• Many farm hands travelled to Califonia looking for work.

What part is played by the american dream in the novel

• Everyone ahs a dream to run their own business.
• In the [play George and Lennie have the american dream of owning their own ranch 

How Rascist and sexest was occuring in 1930 in Califonia

• Steinbeck himself, part Irish, Part german, has been criticsed for not accurately representing  the ethnic diversity of the californian ranch workers.
• This is why Crooks was involved in the novel.
• The fact that Curleys wife is never given a name  is significant, it shows that in the Male world of  a ranch her identity is only seen of her husbands.

How is the novel sexually relevant to modern Britain.

•  Comparisons have been made between the Californian workers of the 1930's and imagrant workers in modern Britain, such as the chinese cockle pickers who died in Morecombe Bay in 2004.
• Many Modern workers are immigrants from developing countries, working illegally in Britain, they are not protected by British employment law.