This GCSE English Literature quiz will challenge you on context in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
Context means the environment in which a text is written. This makes context in many ways very similar to setting. You might like to think of context as the author’s setting. Social issues, geographical location and political events together create the context of any particular text. Sometime issues and events from the author’s recent past have as much effect on a text as those which occurred nearer to the time of writing. Context also includes any personal beliefs of the author which help to shape the work.
Understanding the context of a fictional work is important because of the effects which this has on the meaning of text. The relationship between text and context is not always straightforward, however.