Just a hint on your first question.

As Steinback  noted in an interview, he was a [bindle-stiff][1] himself in real life. An old term used to refer migrant workers: 

> ***I was a bindle-stiff myself for quite a spell,” the author told The New York Times in 1937, employing the now archaic nickname for migrant workers.***  “I worked in the same country that the story is laid in.” With Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck wanted to tell the story of a community largely unheralded in literature and high culture. (MentalFloss.com)

The Green’s Dictionary of Slang dates this connotation of stiff to the late 1800s:

***[stiff][2]***:

> (a) [late 19C+] (US) a penniless man, a wastrel, a tramp, ***a migratory or unskilled worker.***


  [1]: http://mentalfloss.com/article/64095/15-things-you-might-not-know-about-mice-and-men
  [2]: https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/ixrquni