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Comparing The Great Depression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

866 Words4 Pages

The Great Depression was a period of time where people struggled to survive like they did before the stock market crash. It was a time where some people would do insane things for a cause so little or because they were just that desperate. In John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men , the uses of character plans, character actions, and the events the occur allow for us to see how the Great Depression had an effect on the American Dream.
One way John Steinbeck shows the American Dream is through the plans of his characters. George and Lennie have a plan to live out the American Dream. Their plan is to save up enough money and buy a ranch of their own (Steinbeck 50). It shows us that even during a dark time like the Great Depression, many people …show more content…

This occurs at one point when you learn about Curley's wife's dreams. She tells us that she once met a guy that said she was made for the pictures, but never received a letter back from him which then caused her to dich her dreams and marry Curley (Steinbeck 78). Curley does things that causes the tension between characters to magnify. Due to not being able to find his wife, Curley is angry, therefore he tries to pick a fight and begins yelling at Lennie, "Come on, ya big bastard" (Steinbeck 62). Along with letting us know about Curley's short temper and ability to flight, this event tells us that people will stick up for what they believe in. Sometimes we do things that we really don’t want to do but it seems like it is necessary. At the end of this book George had to make the painfully hard choice to shoot his best friend, and when the other guys found out they helped George by supporting his decision and helping him cope with the grief by telling him that, "A guy got to sometimes" (Steinbeck 106). Then letting us know that in those though times many people had to make choices that had extreme outcomes. It was very crucial to include all the events in this story because they helped show the hold that the American Dream had on

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