He wrote many other novels concerning the poor and oppressed, whom he found heroic and strong, even as they are defeated by the reality of their surroundings. Steinbeck eventually won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, although many question whether he truly deserved it or not. Whatever your opinion, Steinbeck was one of the last writers to dream of writing the "Great American Novel".
Of Mice and Men concerns itself with the story of Lennie Small and George Milton, two poor workers in the Salinas River Valley. The main theme of the book is the fear of loneliness and the need to dream that all men innately have. It is very similar to the bond which the Joad family has in The Grapes of Wrath. However, the Joads are a family of evicted sharecroppers traveling to California to become migrant workers, and that sets them apart from Lennie and George in many ways. As a family, it is a natural fact of life that they have each other, while Lennie and George are often seen to be something special by the outside characters in their story. Also, in The Grapes of Wrath has alternative chapters expressing personal commentary on the general state of America and gives in The Grapes of Wrath a much more encompassing feel; rather than just an isolated view of a Californian work camp, it shows a mass migration of Okies as well as the people who despise them.
The issue of the Great Depression relates to both of these two works by Steinbeck. In Of Mice and Men, the economical climate seems less harsh, although that is simply relative to the plight of the Joads. The ranch where they work is not exactly luxury, but it is described in a comfortable manner. The Weedpatches where the Joads traveled to seemed unsanitary and inhospitable, but at least they came from a place where they had a house, unlike Lennie and George, who could only dream of one. The alternate paragraphs in The Grapes of Wrath serve to illustrate the overall context of the Depression, while in Of Mice and Men, there is only a personal and close-up view of migrant workers.
