After studying additional biographical information about John Steinbeck, I provided instruction on the literary relationship between the American Dream and the biblical Garden of Eden. We then examined passages in the first chapter that explore this connection with snake imagery and the character's dreams of a future of plenty on a farm, life as an Edenic cornucopia .We continued to explore the concept of the American Dream and its achievability today and offered ideas of what Steinbeck might say of America in 2023. Last, I introduced a second theme in the novel-loneliness. I discussed Steinbeck's view expressed in his Naturalist writings that it is class and poverty that isolate and trap people inextricably regardless of their efforts and the constant allure of the American Dream.