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Existentialism In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The philosophy known as existentialism is known to embrace a lot of hopeless and prohibited elements into its belief structure, and many of the favorite existential writers - John Steinbeck, for example - often incorporate may of those recusant images into their stories. In his tremendously successful, award-winning novel, Of Mice & Men, worrisome themes like the meaninglessness of life, the loneliness of being a “thinking” individual, and the received futility of existence are all artfully employed by Steinbeck in order to illustrate the brittleness of the human condition. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck introduces an absolute parade of desperate, defective, and defeated characters to promote several of the dominant catastrophic concepts connected to existentialism. Similarly, the movie of the same name - released in 1992, and starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich - employs all of those same characters, and many of the same dark themes, to encourage the philosophy of existentialism, yet three stand out most prominently: the absurdity of life, the dizziness of freedom known as …show more content…

In his tremendously successful, award-winning novel, Of Mice & Men, worrisome themes like the meaninglessness of life, the loneliness of being a “thinking” individual, and the received futility of existence are all artfully employed by Steinbeck in order to illustrate the brittleness of the human condition. Throughout the novel, Steinbeck introduces an absolute parade of desperate, defective, and defeated characters to promote several of the dominant catastrophic concepts connected to existentialism. Similarly, the movie of the same name - released in 1992, and starring Gary Sinise and John Malkovich - employs all of those same characters, and many of the same dark themes, to encourage the philosophy of existentialism, yet three stand out most prominently: the absurdity of life, the dizziness of freedom known as anxiety, the idea of

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Chapter Five Constructed Response John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” was inspired by Robert Burn ’s poem “To a Mouse.” This means his novel has a similar meaning to Burn’s poem: animals have no dreams, but still experience melancholic feelings along with the human dreamers. The title “Of Mice and Men” is also a quote straight out of “To a Mouse.”

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John Steinbeck in his novella, Of Mice and Men, utilizes multiple writing strategies to develop his central idea. Numerous different main concepts can be taken from the novella. One that is extremely prominent is the perception of the “american dream,” working diligently to achieve one’s goals and objectives. Steinbeck reinforces this central idea by applying imagery, figurative language, strongly into the entirety of the novella, but especially applying it in the first chapter.

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The novella Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck about two migrant farmers in Salinas,California working on a ranch during the Great Depression era. In the novel Steinbeck explores and conveys many themes such as loneliness and the idea of achieving the American dream. He does this through the use of allusion to further develop the meaning of the text in Of Mice and Men. By using these allusions Steinbeck is also able to enhance the characters and their actions in the novel. Steinbeck makes several allusions to the biblical stories Garden of Eden,The Story of Cain and Abel,and The Fall of Man to develop the meaning Of Mice and Men.

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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.

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The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, represents many things but the sacrifices the characters make are some of the most important things that happen in this novel. When people make sacrifice of things in their lives they begin to sometimes feel loneliness and/or regret for their actions or decisions. Also because they are lonely their actions become different from that of other people who don’t have large amounts of loneliness and/or regret in their lives because we must sacrifice some things in life. To begin with, when we sacrifice things in our lives, it creates the potential for loneliness. For instance when the men in the bunkhouse pressure Candy into getting rid of his dog when he finally says “”Awright-take ‘im.”

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We all may have had the feeling of loneliness and isolation, wanting companionship feeling abandonment. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, there are men living on a ranch having their own reasons for loneliness or being isolated. The three characters Crooks, George, and Lennie crusade dealing with own ways of loneliness and isolation. Crooks has no one that likes him because he’s black, Lennie struggles mentally and George struggles with always having to care for him. They all can’t decide whether it is that they want to be alone or not.

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Desmond Tutu, a South - African social activist and retired Anglican priest once said “ Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness”. Of Mice and Men is a novel which revolves around the lives of struggling farmers and how they still maintain hope despite their hardships. The symbolic representation of light embodies the hopes and the American Dream, whereas the dark epitomizes the harsh realities and truths of their lives. Steinbeck uses light and dark to foreshadow the upcoming events in the forlorn lives of the migrant workers. He also combines aspects such as the setting and characters with light and dark to paint a vivid picture in the reader’s mind as to how the world of the migrant workers looks like.

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John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men is inspired by Robert Burns’s poem “To a Mouse.” Additionally, both writings contain a similar theme: the dreams that people dream often cause “grief and pain” instead of joy. The poem starts off with a mouse in “panic” since its home is disturbed. The man suggests to the mouse not to fear him, saying he will not hurt it.

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In John Steinbeck’s rather infamous novel, there was a heavy handed message that classism creates problems and a false consciousness caused by the American Dream, that one can eventually achieve success with sheer determination and hard work, does more harm than good. This is due to the fact that it leads to competition between citizens in the same class (mostly proletariat) who all want to climb to the top of the metaphorical food chain. Some attempt to achieve their goal through shady means, like commodification- or some may try to go at it alone, believing in the ideology of rugged individualism, thinking that they can reach their goal without any help. This impacts society by enforcing the idea that we’ll stay in the class system that we were born into unless we’re willing to sacrifice our morals and the things we care about.

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Loneliness is debatably one of the most horrible feelings existent within society. It strikes every living soul at one point or another, as it takes an immensely deep emotional toll. A profound part of what contributes to the feeling of loneliness is isolation. During the great depression in the 1930’s many people suffered from imaginable loss including loneliness and separation from others. Of mice and men is a novel written by John Steinbeck, the novel follows a group of individuals during this time period of depression, and their daily adversities and interactions with others.

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Loneliness and isolation is an ongoing theme throughout the novel Of Mice and Men, experienced by several characters to different degrees. Some characters are more isolated and lonely than others, yet every character in the story goes through this theme during one point in the story. There are various reasons why each character is lonely or isolated. In general, all the ranch workers feel some sort of loneliness because they move alone from ranch to ranch and do not have real connections with others, Curley’s wife experiences this theme because she is the only woman on the ranch and nobody wants to interact with her because Curley is very protective and hostile of her. Thirdly, Candy struggles through being lonely and isolated after Carlson shot his dog and because Candy does not work with the others since he is a swamper.

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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.

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