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Human Experience In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Man

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A well-written story causes us to think about life increasing our understanding of the world and giving us insight into how people think feel and behave. This insight into life in a novel is done through themes, ideas that recur throughout a text, and comment on such aspects of human experience. Therefore, through our exposure to texts, we learn about human experience using the themes, aided with literary techniques and features, explored within such texts. John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men explores themes which directly relate to the own authors experience during the 1930’s Great Depression where there was mass unemployment and extreme poverty. This led to homelessness which led to ‘every man for himself’. With this idea, Steinbeck …show more content…

Steinbeck comments on discrimination throughout the novella. Racial discrimination was directed towards crooks when he”ain’t wanted in the bunk hous” sexism was directed towards curleys Wife when George describes her as a bitch and hes “seen ‘em poison before, but never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her” ageism was directed to wards candy when hes “gonna get canned” when “he’s no good to himself” and Lennie was discriminated because of his disability when curley picks a fight with him He comments on humans constantly being stereotypical and discriminative and is trying to convey the idea that ‘we need to all be kinder’. He portrays the character of Curley as the antagonist of the novella who is cruel petulant and bullying. Both George and Lennie, as protagonists, express their distaste for this sort of …show more content…

They get wantin’ to fight all the time." However, Steinbeck has also depicted George as lonely at times even though he has Lennie. Although, George and Lennie have a strong friendship, george does get lonely at times as he doesn’t have time to talk to other people since he is constantly looking after Lennie. This displays their unequal friendship.George also constantly mentions how he’s frustrated that he has to think and act for both of themand that “if [he] was alone [he] could live so easy. [He] could go get a job an ' work, an ' no trouble... [He] could take [his] fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever [he] want.” Of the other characters, Crooks and curley 's wife also show signs of desperate loneliness. Since Crooks is black, he is shunned by the other men and so spends his time in his room, alone and bitter and even says that “S’pose you didn 't have nobody. S 'pose you couldn 't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black. How 'd you like that?” curley 's wife also spends her days hounded by her mean-spirited husband with her attempts to reach out to the other men backfiring, ultimately leading to her death when she desperately reaches out to Lennie saying “Why can 't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely." Through symbolism, Steinbeck is conveying that ignorance and isolation can have extreme consequences and we learn that negligence can turn an individual towards the wrong person.By

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