Explain how the choice of setting was important for the author's purpose in "Of Mice and Men". this question is about the novel "of mice and men"

Steinbeck advocated for the little guy. Almost all of his novels focus on the lives of people at the bottom. Migrant workers are and were some of the most disadvantaged people in the country, especially during the Great Depression. Many people during the Great Depression moved West in hope of finding work and employment. Many became migrant workers.

Steinbeck started his career as a journalist. When you read his novels, you can still find the journalist there - recording the details of the world and the struggles of the common man. He actually lived and worked as a migrant worker for a time (even traveling on trains like a hobo). The setting is what he experienced.

On a literary level, the farm really is a microcosm of the country. You are valued for what you can do; you are kept only so long as you can do it. Candy, for instance, is terrified that he will not be able to work and will be kicked off the farm. George dreams of having a place where he is in charge of who stays and who goes, a pace where they all can be safe from the utilitarian ideas of the farm/country.