Corruption In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Power is constantly dreamed of and strived for, but power causes corruption in society. The Great Depression was a time when only the richest of men had power and many times abused it. Throughout Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck reveals the different ways social power affects and oppresses those around the powerful through imagery and important moments. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie, a physically powerful man with a much less powerful mind, and George, a sharp, independent man who has taken the role of caring for Lennie, arrive at a ranch in Soledad, California during the Great Depression to work on a farm. George and Lennie have a dream to live a life of independence and happiness, but the lack of power and weight of oppression they receive from Curley, the boss’s

Through reading the book and living vicariously through the characters, the reader is revealed the structure of society at the time period and how social hierarchy mainly resides with rich men. The reader comes to realize that the loneliness and isolation character’s such as George, Lennie, Curley’s wife, and Crooks endure are due to the extensive “one-sidedness” of power. Additionally, the author uses imagery to illustrate characters such as Lennie and Crooks to have animal-like features and to be deformed to reflect the oppression they face from the socially powerful. This causes those specific characters to become dehumanized and isolated. By clarifying the power structure in this specific society, the reader grasps the extent to which the social hierarchy present in the story causes the isolation, loneliness, and loss of meaningful relationships of the population disconnected from that power. This compels the reader to address a corrupt power structure in their own society and to begin to repair the extreme “one-sidedness” of social