John Steinbeck was an American author who wrote extensively about the Great Depression and its effects on the working class. His most famous works include 'The Grapes of Wrath' and 'Of Mice and Men'. Two of the characters that appear in his works are hobos and okies. Hobos were homeless people who traveled from place to place looking for work, while okies were people from Oklahoma who had been forced to leave their homes due to the Dust Bowl. Both groups were affected by the economic hardship of the Great Depression and were often portrayed sympathetically in Steinbeck's works.