Of Mice and Men: The Great Depression and Lennie and George's Dream The Great Depression was a time of hardship for everybody especially ranch workers. It prevented people from living the life they desired. Many people lived in poverty bartering between jobs. Eventually people, like Lennie and George, began searching for jobs in California, in fact “[t]housands flocked to California”(Fremon 75). People were in search of jobs as migrant workers for fruit and vegetable fields. When there was an opening for one man, there would be at least ten men competing for it. They were willing to work for extremely low wages, even