Now you say it, yeah. Of Mice and Men was basically just this story of a bunch of guys trying to do the best with what they’ve got, earnestly wanting the “American Dream”™ and all getting totally fucked over and ground to dust by richies for it. I think my school spun it more as a “racism bad and y’know life’s just bad in general nobody to blame here”, but it’s clear in retrospect just how explicitly anti-capitalism that was (and also how it doesn’t care to accommodate people of any neurodivergence).