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

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The Great Depression had a major impact on the people who suffered through it. John Steinbeck portrays this is in the book, Of Mice and Men. This story is centered around two migrant farm workers named George Milton and Lennie Small. Lennie is a large and mentally disabled man. He enjoys touching soft things and is innocent and pure, but doesn’t know how damaging his strength can be. Lennie is incapable of making his own decisions and relies on George. George is a small, gaunt man who is the complete opposite of Lennie. He acts like a parent to Lennie because of his incapability to live on his own. They have a dream of owning a farm together and living off of it. When George and Lennie get a job on a ranch in Soledad, George warns Lennie that if he ever gets in trouble, he should come back to the river and hide in the brush. …show more content…

Candy is introduced as an old man who lost his hand in a ranch accident. He talks about Curley, the boss’s son, and his wife who he thinks is a “tart.” As they are talking, Curley comes into the bunkhouse and asks George and Lennie some questions about themselves. Curley is a short man who is insecure about his height. Because of this, he picks on big guys like Lennie. When Lennie gets intimidated by Curley, George tells him to stay out of Curley’s way due to his higher position. As time goes on, George and Lennie go through many adventures as they experience their life on the ranch. In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays how challenging life was during the Great Depression through the characters Crooks and

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When Candy is talking to George and Lennie about what he thinks about Curley, “Know what I think... Well I think Curley’s married a Tart”(Steinbeck 47) Candy obtains this view on Curley’s wife because of how she looks. The men on the ranch do not even give her a chance especially George. Right after George and Lennie come across Curley’s wife for the first time George says to Lennie “don’t you even take a look at that bitch.

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Imagine if you were working very hard on a ranch and you only got paid $50 a month. Well, this was the life during the Great Depression. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, George Milton, a ranch worker and one of the main protagonists, is a small, wiry, quick-witted man. He has to take care of his friend Lennie Small, a mentally disabled man who has the perception and social skills of a 5-year-old. However, Lennie is exceptionally strong and he is very hard-working on the ranch.

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666 Words | 3 Pages

The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck is a gripping tale of two men and their lives during the Great Depression. George Milton and Lennie Small are two migrant workers who travel together finding work. They take on a new job “bucking barley” at a ranch in central California for the ranch owner and his son. While working at the ranch they encounter Curley the ranch owner’s son and his wife, a flirtatious woman. The story reaches a climax when Lennie unintentionally kills Curley’s wife and runs back to the Salinas River just as George instructed.

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162 Words | 1 Pages

In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, two men named George and Lennie are migrant workers during The Great Depression. George is a small man that is quick with his mind, whereas Lennie is mentally disabled and has a tremendous physique. George has taken on the role of being Lennie’s caretaker after his Aunt Clara died, and they travel together working from ranch to ranch around the Salinas Valley. After a mishap in Weed involving Lennie, George and him had no choice but to flee south and find work elsewhere. They dream of purchasing a piece of land of their own to raise livestock, cultivate crops and live in a small,nice house where they live by their own terms.

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1457 Words | 6 Pages

While this is happening, Candy overhears and promises his money if they let him work on the farm. Afterward, when Curley searches and can’t find his wife, Lennie makes fun of him, and Curley gets offended and beats him up. Along with George’s blessing, Lennie eventually breaks Curley's hand. In continuation, Lennie visits Crooks who is described as a “black stable buck”(Miller). The description of Crooks isn’t nice.

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1990 Words | 8 Pages

During The Great Depression in the 1930s, a majority of Americans around the United States were faced with poverty, unemployment, and starvation. Men and women were forced to travel in order to find day-to-day work. A popular book entitled Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck tells the story of two men, George and Lennie, who perfectly encompass the struggles faced in The Great Depression. George is an intelligent, young, and independent man. Lennie on the other hand, is mentally handicapped and depends on George to take care of him.

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639 Words | 3 Pages

Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men tells the story of two friends who were doing their best to survive in an economically challenged world. From dealing with mental issues to monetary issues, main characters George and Lennie find themselves in the midst of hopes and far away dreams as they travel to find work and meaning. We first meet George and Lennie in the Western part of the United States, leaving the reader with the impression that this story will consist of cowboy tales and American dreams but, while some Western themes can be spotted in this book, I do not suppose that Steinbeck’s reasoning for writing this book was to tell the story of Westerns dealing with the repercussions of the Great Depression but rather to raise moral questions and

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, had a focus on two characters and their lives during the great depression . Lennie who has a mentality of a five year old, and George Lennie's friend and caretaker. George has been thinking about leaving Lennie. Although Lennie is difficult to take care of George should stay with him. A character named Crooks tells Lennie about what people are going to do to him without George around.

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1444 Words | 6 Pages

In many ways, Lennie is the opposite of George. While George is small of stature, his companion is big. Lennie also has a mental disability, which causes many characters in Of Mice and Men to comment on his childlike actions and chatter - which has gotten him in trouble with the law and coworkers in the past. Throughout the novel, they meet many people on the farm they find work on. Among these people are the son of the

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606 Words | 3 Pages

On the ranch they meet Slim, who is their superior and who has a dog with puppies, so he gives one to Lennie. Very soon comes Curley, son of the Boss, who dislikes Lennie instantly because of his size. Curley is abusive, always jealous to his wife, who likes to talk to the workers, and he’s always looking for opportunity to fight with someone. Once, old man Candy, whose dog ranch people shot, hears about George and Lennie’s plans and dreams and want to join them – he says, that he can help with money, and all three are happy, because their dream seems to come true, but suddenly comes Curley, who can’t find his wife. He becomes furious of

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370 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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435 Words | 2 Pages

The Great Depression was very crucial in history with some of its major events: The Stock Market Crash of 1929, and the Dustbowl of 1934 which caused many droughts and affected farms causing food shortage and major migration. Therefore, it seized about 3.2 million farmers to lose their livelyhoods and become known as migrant workers.. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men it portrays the hardships of the depression and how it affected the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curley’s wife. In this piece, Crooks is darker skinned, so he has to be separated from the others in his own room. Candy is an old man and has lost family, friends(his dog), and is working as a Swamper .

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980 Words | 4 Pages

“Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains” (Karl Marx). Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two farm laborers traveling from farm to farm together during the Great Depression. George and Lennie wish one day to save enough money to buy their own land and to live on their own. Of Mice and Men is a critique of capitalism. The characters of Lennie, Curley, and George show this through symbolism present in their character, especially during the fight between Lennie and Curley.

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1187 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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944 Words | 4 Pages

During the Great Depression, many people were in a severe situation because of an economic crisis worldwide. In North America, California, One of the examples of a migrant worker who suffered from the crisis, George Milton, is a main actor of the story and he works at a ranch. “He is small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features, every part of him was defined: small strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose” (Steinbeck, 1965, p.2). He is completely different from his beloved friend, Lenny Small, in terms of both physical and mental.

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