The American Dream is something that many Americans, as well as people from all over the world, strive to achieve. Although it has progressed over time, many people still want to grab it. John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath represent the struggle of migrant workers and the unrealistic concept of the American dream. Steinbeck illustrates the impossibility of the American dream in the 1930s through George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men and through the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath. It connects to the realistic struggles that many individuals endured during the Great Depression and its aftermath. John Steinbeck's books were about the social and economic issues of rural America, particularly the Salinas Valley in California. “It was the valley setting, with the emotionally charged theme of Eden and the complex of symbols it evoked, that provided the terrain for Steinbeck's greatest narrative” (Owens, “The American…Illusion”). During summer vacations, Steinbeck worked as a laborer on a nearby sugar beet farm. As he worked, he noticed the difficult living conditions of his fellow workers. John Steinbeck used the Salinas Valley setting for Of Mice and Men because it dictates that the story will take place in a fallen world and that the pursuit of the illusory American dream will have central thematic significance. The typical American dream of the 1930s was that everyone wanted a house and land to call their own; however, most men ended up living in a room full of men who worked on someone else's ranch. Steinbeck illustrates this dream as impossible due to George and Lennie's failure to realize their dream. Indeed, George admits that their dream was doomed to fail: “I think I know... half the paper...... of the handicapped, African-American stable boy, Crooks, to comment on racial discrimination issues (By.. .Themes). Steinbeck also includes a doc figure in his stories, Slim in Of Mice and Men and Casy in The Grapes of Wrath. This figure is a wise observer of life who embodies the idealized position of the non-teleological thinker. “As a writer of global influence, Steinbeck helped America understand itself by finding universal themes in the experience of men and women” (“John Steinbeck”). Of Mice and Men is the central book in Steinbeck's trilogy about farm work in California. He began the manuscript shortly after completing In Dubious Battle and immediately before The Grapes of Wrath. The trilogy is an epic response to the small problems of agricultural labor in the Salinas Valley, where there was a high demand for seasonal migrant farmers.