Female Oppression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In addition to the use of diction to inform about female oppression, Steinbeck also uses repetition in order to suggest that women doing mundane and easy tasks are a waste of time and energy. The men from the meat company have come to the house to talk to Henry. Elisa is a working in her garden a few yards away : “She was cutting down the old year’s chrysanthemums stalks with a pair of short and powerful scissors. She looked down toward the men by the tractor-shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, and over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy”(449). The words “powerful” and “eager” are repeated in the text to pervade that women have so much potential to do use their strength and determination do something worthwhile instead of being held back by society’s and men's judgment.

Elisa keeps looking back to men because she is jealous of them. Elisa repeatedly looks down at the men to reiterate what she wants. The thought of her talents being wasted is eating at her and she wants more. She wants to be making the money and conducting business; So her vigor is not wasted. The men in the beginning of the story are from the meat company which is very masculine. Steinbeck transcends the thought that no women should be working in or with the meat company because women are not supposed to eat meat, only small and petite foods such as salads. Elisa kept on looking “down toward the men by the tractor-shed now and then”(). Elisa is by the garden, secluded from the men and their work by the tractor shed. The separate work areas implies that a woman's work and a man's work should be separate because the women do not have the strength to do a man's