Old California and the West includes accounts of 18th- and 19th-century travelers to California who dreamed of a better life. The remaining chapters place the works in historical context. The first chapter of this study, a literary analysis, examines key themes common to all three novellas. A social and political commentator, he dramatizes in all three novellas the social issues of the time. Steinbeck shows that the American vision is shaped by the dream of a better life represented in the myth of the West. The purpose of this volume is to explore through analysis and collateral readings the pervasive theme in these novellas: the universality of humankind's often futile struggle for a better existence. Most of these materials are not available in printed form anywhere else. commissions, a comic memoir, and an interview with a Salvation Army general who worked with the downtrodden during the 1930s. Documents include memoirs of mountain men and pioneers, books of travel, sociological studies, a political treatise, a journal, reports of U.S. This interdisciplinary collection of rich collateral materials features a variety of primary documents that shed light on the background of each of these novellas-the pioneer days and life on the Western frontier, the early history of California, the gold rush, the plight of the migrant worker during the Great Depression, the problems of the homeless and the hopeless, and oppression in Mexico in the early 20th century. Studying the historical, social, economic, and regional background of each novella is important to fully understanding each work.

Although John Steinbeck's novellas Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and The Pearl are works of fiction, they provide a window on the history of the times and places they portray.

The pearl and the red pony