Of mice and men (final) Johns Steinbeck’s 1937 masterpiece “of mice and men” gives insight to the lives of ordinary people affected by the great depression in America, during the 1930s. In the novella the themes of loyalty and disloyalty are a key part of the plot. Steinbeck explores the seminal themes of loyalty and disloyalty by careful use of setting, structure and development of complex character constructs. Also the use of language and imagery in the novella depict the reality of the great depression for many people and the challenges they faced everyday. At the beginning of the novella author John Steinbeck opens with a description of the idyllic natural setting, where “the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.
John Steinbeck’s novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ explores the life of itinerant workers during the Great Depression. The realistic plot represents the dreams of many workers during the depression and struggles they faced to achieve them. The text is supported with various literary techniques such as, foreshadowing, animal imagery, symbolism and the intertextual meaning of the title itself. The novel’s success relies heavily on the author’s ability to interweave literary and stylistic devices to stimulate the reader’s interest in the novel. Steinbeck’s writing style in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ draws heavily on light and dark imagery as a literary device.
Of Mice and Men Essay Have you ever wondered what it was like to live in the 1920’s-1930’s during the Great Depression and rebuilding of America? Lennie Smalls and George Milton got the chance to experience that event straight on in the story “Of Mice and Men”. John Steinbeck, the author, includes many types of themes in his book, but I believe his story is trying to portray how the setting was a very difficult time in America with all the problems that sprung up. Problems in America ranged from the late 1920’s- late 1930’s itself, the Great Depression, and the newly upstarted “American Dream”. This time period was one of the toughest periods America has ever experienced.
Throughout Steinbeck’s naturalistic novel, Of Mice and Men, He portrays two distinctively different men struggling to persevere and survive in an otherwise cruel world. Two migrant workers, George and Lennie thrive off the company of one another and the impossible dream that one day, they will acquire land and make a contented life for themselves. Through their friendship and constant hope for a better life, George and Lennie learn how to survive and cling to aspiration during the harsh Depression era. Steinbeck uses symbolism, irony, and characterization in his classic novel to illustrate the undying hope found in a desperate situation. Steinbeck uses symbolism to portray how people find hope in the direst situations.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck portrays a story about two men, George and Lennie, whose dream is to own a farm on their own. However, they never really tried until they found out it was actually possible. Then, Lennie ruins their dream by murdering Curley’s wife. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck’s description of Lennie is filled with different animals and actions of animals. The author utilizes animal imagery to emphasize the protagonist Lennie’s physical and mental characteristics to illustrate his idea that the working class struggles to survive in the harsh economic catastrophe of the Great Depression.
John Steinbeck's ‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novella that discovers the ideas of what makes us human and the desire all have for dignity. It also discusses chasing the impossible dream and the consequences of doing so. These characters are timeless with each having a unique identity. This text was set during the Great Depression and discusses the economic/employment crisis as well as the casual racism of this period. This dehumanises the quality of life of those who don’t fit the status quo of wealth or land.
“Of Mice and Men” is a play written by John Steinbeck during the 1930’s. Likewise, the play is also set during that time. The play, which centers around two farmer hands’ struggle to achieve their ambitious dream of owning a farm of their own despite harsh external conditions, aims to reflect the lives of middle-class Americans during the Great Depression. The play’s main element, in my opinion, is the fact that it was set in a time of struggle for all socioeconomic classes due to the upperclassmen’s financial catastrophe. Steinbeck brilliantly explores individual struggles in different characters in the play and how they are hidden within a much bigger societal problem that is experienced not only nationally but globally as well.
In the novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays the lifestyle of typical working man trying to make a living off of work from a ranch. Much like Steinbeck's life, Lennie and George must work their way up to their dream of having their own farm. The novel goes in depth of the struggles and challenges of migrant workers during the Great Depression era. Despite millions of people being out of work during this time, they had to find jobs that would help them survive as well as their families. George and Lennie were forced to move to find new labor, depicting similar situations in both the novel and real life during the Great Depression.
In Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck describes a world where the American Dream is hard to achieve, many people doubt that you may achieve what you want to accomplish and fill up your mind with all of the negativity. Steinbeck paints a moving portrait of America in the 1930’s. Steinbeck reveals the difficulty of which people had to go through during the Great Depression, making the task look easy but accomplishing it was totally difficult for oneself due to everything going on. During the story Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie run away from Weeds, another town they were working at before trouble came. They go to another ranch in Soledad, California getting their way through by making up lies, risking that they might get caught.
The book Of Mice and Men is full of puzzling examples of the human condition, from Lennie and his mental disability to Curley only caring about his social appearance. With characters like these two, the book exploits the human condition that concerns circumstances life has given you. John Steinbeck brings to life what being a laborer in the American depression meant to the men and one woman who had enough personality to stand out. Steinbeck shows the human condition of men while they survive in the American depression.
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.
John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, is a compelling story that has captured and embodied the struggle and loneliness felt by many during the Great Depression. While desire for the American Dream is prominent in the novel, Steinbeck is able to demonstrate the wants from different social classes through the construction of characters such as George Milton and Curley’s wife. With these characters, Steinbeck successfully displays the difference in ideas, values and attitudes of certain social classes in the 1930’s and the illustrates the rarity of achieving the American Dream. Steinbeck wrote this novel during the Great Depression, when America was suffering greatly by the disastrous crash of the stock market. From this point in time, separation of the different classes became
The political commentary Of Mice and Men, written by the prominent American communist author Steinbeck in 1937, is used to allegorize his views on a capitalist society. Steinbeck’s work follows the protagonists George and Lennie on their challenging journey to make a living and achieve the “American dream” near the town of Soledad. The society Steinbeck has portrayed in his work expresses the futile nature of living in the Great Depression and the reoccurring hardships many characters, including the protagonists, must face. To achieve this, Steinbeck has utilised stylistic features to impart his views within the work. The political undertone that Capitalism is a corrupting force is represented throughout his work through the inclusion of subtle juxtaposition and symbolism, alongside the other prominent socialistic perception of idealizing camaraderie through the context of the setting intertwined with foreshadowing.
In 1937, John Steinbeck wrote the novella Of Mice and Men. In the novella Steinbeck showed the audience how the Great Depression affected people, but in partially two men and the people around them. The Great Depression challenged many families in economic, social, and mental ways. The Depression affected family of all shapes and sizes, the annual yearly income for a family went from being an average 2,300 to being 1,500 yearly. The novella Of Mice and Men, it is about the journey of two men, George and Lennie, and how their lives are affected by the Great Depression.
The novel contains different themes which help to present Steinbeck’s view of social issues during the Great Depression. From idealism to reality, alienation and loneliness, prejudice and discrimination, “meanness” and class conflict, race and racism, “handiness” in violence and sex, women and sexism. However, the American Dream and loneliness are without doubt the main themes in Of Mice and Men, in parallel with social fitness. How can ageing, weak or physically & mentally disabled humans and animals fit into
