Set in the Great Depression this classic novella by John Steinbeck tells the story of two men, George Milton a short, intelligent man who is protective of his friend, Lennie Small a large, uneducated, intellectually challenged man, who travel together through California working odd jobs as farm workers with a dream of gathering enough money to buy a small plot where they can live in peace “off the fat of the land.” Themes of friendship, loneliness, social injustice and the conflict between dreams and reality i.e. “..the best laid plans of mice and men”