John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men follows two migrant farmers and their experiences working towards their dream. The story takes place in the Salinas Valley during both the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, when jobs were few and far between. George and Lennie have a dream of owning land, which is inhibited by these conditions. On the farm they come to work on, they meet the sultry wife of the Curly, the boss’ son. She was deprived of achieving her dream or stardom, and is left constantly craving attention in any way she can get it.
The Great Depression was an era of hardship for many, and kept several people from accomplishing even the most basic goals and dreams. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck tells a story of two friends, George Milton and Lennie Small, and their search for a better life in rural California. George, a smart but small and wiry laborer, and Lennie, a giant man who is mentally challenged, take jobs bucking barley on a large ranch outside of Salinas and try to save money to get a place of their own. On the ranch, they encounter many who have dreams of their own, but Steinbeck manipulates his characters, particularly Lennie, to demonstrate that not everyone get what they want, even if they work hard for it. In the novella Of Mice and Men written
In the 1930s with the Great Depression affecting millions of people in America, it was common to see immigrant’s working on agricultural labor. John Steinbeck, a great writer of the 20s, portrays the suffering of what an immigrant agricultural worker went through better than any other writer of the time. Publish in mid 1930s, Of Mice and Men tells the story of two immigrant workers, Lennie and George, and their experience of working in the fields of Salinas Valley of northern California. Throughout the novel Steinbeck vaguely tells the readers, through the protagonist Lennie and George, an unrealistic American Dream. It comes to the question of how far-fetched was George and Lennie’s American dream?
On February 27, 1902 in Salinas Valley, California John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was born to John Ernst Steinbeck Sr. and Olive Hamilton Steinbeck. He lived a modest childhood, as his father held multiple jobs in order to support the family. For a short time Steinbeck attended Stanford University, but in 1925 he dropped out to pursue his career as a writer. Later that year he went to New York to find inspiration for his first book which he would later name Cup of Gold.
In the novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays the lifestyle of typical working man trying to make a living off of work from a ranch. Much like Steinbeck's life, Lennie and George must work their way up to their dream of having their own farm. The novel goes in depth of the struggles and challenges of migrant workers during the Great Depression era. Despite millions of people being out of work during this time, they had to find jobs that would help them survive as well as their families. George and Lennie were forced to move to find new labor, depicting similar situations in both the novel and real life during the Great Depression.
The writer I chose was John Steinbeck. I will use the internet and library sources to write about how he became famous. John Steinbeck is an amazing writer who wrote many interesting and crazy books, contributing to his widespread fame. His unique storytelling and impactful themes captivated audiences, establishing him as a literary icon. Through his works, Steinbeck navigated complex social issues, leaving a lasting impact on literature and society.
Before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Plessy v. Ferguson. Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education complement each other. The ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson was the reason for the case of Brown v. Board of Education. In the late 1800’s the south was not the ideal place for a person of color. “Official segregation in the South commenced in 1887 when Florida passed a law that required racially separate transportation” (Lively, 98).
To better understand the novella Of Mice and Men, the background of the story must be elaborated. The setting of the story takes place in the Salinas Valley, California during the The Great Depression in the 1930s. John Steinbeck, the author, tells about the protagonist, George, and the antagonist, Lennie, and their journey of constantly finding new work to pursue George’s dream to own his farm and “live off the fatta the
Thaddeus Prelsey Mrs Cox English 09 May 2024 John Steinbeck There are a lot of good authors in the world such as J.K Rowling and Stephen King. These authors are really good, but few have gotten to the fame and success that John Steinbeck has gotten to. John Steinbeck, born in the 1900s, wrote a lot of classics such as “The Pearl” and “Of Mice and Men.” Even though Steinbeck has created a lot of great stories, the greatest story is his rise to fame. Three important aspects of John Steinbeck’s success are his personal life, his career, and his achievements in literature.
Since 1931 when James Truslow Adams first created the phrase “the American Dream”, people believed that America continuously offered everyone an equal opportunity to be successful. John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, was set during the Great Depression. Farms were struck hard during the Depression, and the two main characters George and Lennie were farm hands during this time. They had experienced the misunderstandings of other farm hands in terms of Lennie’s mental disability, but they were trying to earn enough money to buy their own farm. The idea of this farm drove Lennie and George to keep working, and like many others during this time they hoped to achieve this dream.
During the Great Depression, many unemployed workers moved to California to look for work on the ranches. This was because they had a dream to become successful, which is also called “the American dream”. In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie, the two main protagonists, worked on a ranch chasing the american dream just like many other americans who dreamt of becoming successful. They tried to save money to buy their own land and live a life where they were successful. However, they never accomplished that, and like many others, did not realize they would never accomplish it.
John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, is a compelling story that has captured and embodied the struggle and loneliness felt by many during the Great Depression. While desire for the American Dream is prominent in the novel, Steinbeck is able to demonstrate the wants from different social classes through the construction of characters such as George Milton and Curley’s wife. With these characters, Steinbeck successfully displays the difference in ideas, values and attitudes of certain social classes in the 1930’s and the illustrates the rarity of achieving the American Dream. Steinbeck wrote this novel during the Great Depression, when America was suffering greatly by the disastrous crash of the stock market. From this point in time, separation of the different classes became
John Steinbeck • He was born February 27th, 1902 in Salinas, California. • His mother, Olive Hamilton, was a school teacher. • His father, John Ernst Steinbeck, was a manager at a flour mill. • He was the only boy, and had 2 older sisters and 1 younger sister.
Jason Zhang Mrs. De Vries English 9 Honors 28 Nov. 2016 The Impossibility of the American Dream in Of Mice and Men About 13 to 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the country’s banks had failed. Suicide rates, which averaged 12.1 per 100,000 people in the decade prior to the Depression, rose to 18.9 during The Great Depression. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, two protagonists, George and Lennie, are on their way to their new job.
John Steinbeck used his writing to emphasize the importance of the rural and lower classes in the United States, and through doing so he helped shape the future of American literature. Through Steinbeck’s appeal to the lower classes, political influence, purposes for writing, realistic themes, Nobel Peace Prize, and his impact on literature, Steinbeck transformed American literature of the twentieth century. Steinbeck’s background and family led him to strive for political reforms for the working lower classes, and helped shape his legacy. Steinbeck’s Background John’s father was a county treasurer, and his mother was a teacher according to Nobelprize.org.
