ipl-logo

Places In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

423 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: John steinbeck writing features

The novel Of Mice and Men is set during the great depression in Soledad, California, which was seen as the Promised Land to many Americans. Instead, Soledad (Spanish for lonely) was a home for discrimination, danger and death. This essay explores the ways Steinbeck presents places in Of Mice and Men. The 4 main places I will centre my essay on consist of the Salinas River, bunkhouse, Crook’s room and the dream farm. The harsh reality of a migrant worker’s life is a huge contrast to the tranquil Salinas River that the story begins and ends with. Straight away the River seems to be blissful and inviting, much like a rural paradise. Likewise, the sibilance in the phrase ‘slopes curved up to the strong’ creates a soothing tone. Colours such as ‘green’ and ‘golden’ suggest life and hope, which are major themes in the novel. A ‘heron’, ‘rabbits’ and a ‘water snake’ also display the simplicity of life. The ‘twinkling... yellow sands’ could represent the wealth George and Lennie wish to acquire, however the ‘twinkling’ suggests that the dream is childish and similar to a mirage. In the same way, the ‘ash pile’ and ‘worn... limb’ indicate that the path followed by George and Lennie has been travelled upon by many other itinerant workers and ‘tramps’. This belittles the dream making it seem unachievable. Additionally, ‘tramps’ embody loneliness and …show more content…

This shows that the workers are considered to be the same, making them easily replaceable. They sleep on uncomfortable ‘burlap’ mattresses and keep their few belongings in an ‘apple box’ that is ‘nailed’ to the wall. The bleak conditions the men stay in make the reader realise that a migrant workers life is considered worthless. However, Steinbeck allows the reader to feel optimistic for the men by incorporating metaphors about hope. The ‘sun threw a bright dust-laden bar’ could mean that the light is overpowering the darkness in their lives, but even here the light is tainted by

Show More
Related
1151 Words | 5 Pages

George and Lennie are migrant workers, which mean they go from town to town looking for any work they can get frequently. This book had its tragic at parts and it showed how dreams can be crushed very easily. John Steinbeck in his book, Of Mice and Men,

Read More
596 Words | 3 Pages

This chapter takes place in a dry, desolate land in the midst of drought, Steinbeck describes the terrain as "gray mountains and brown mountains, dry and rocky, rising toward each other until they caught the yellow daylight" (Steinbeck, 2006, p. 325). Using diction Steinbeck creates a tone of despair by describing the uninhabitable terrain and conditions that the migrant workers must endure in order to survive. Steinbeck builds onto

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

What is literature if not an author’s imaginative response to what occurs around them? John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a prime example of just that. His experiences living during the Great Depression in America is reflected through the geography in his book and the meanings behind it. The perceived geography of the novel; the river, the barn, and Crooks’s room; is so simplistic to allow the reader to see the effect of more discrete aspects of the setting. As Thomas Foster says in How to Read Literature like a Professor, “Geography is setting, but it’s also (or can be) psychology, attitudes, finance, industry- anything that place can forge in the people who live there.”

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

Of Mice and Men, set in California’s Salinas Valley, depicts the world of the migrant worker, a world in which Steinbeck himself had lived, and the workers’ search for independence. Steinbeck was critical of what he perceived as the United States’ materialism, and his work echoes his convictions about the land and its people. Like the characters in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Of Mice and Men’s George and Lennie dream of a piece of land to call their

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a well known classic that depicts the life of migrant workers''' during the great depression. As this book may seem uninteresting, it actually has been shown immense respect in the literature world. It has stood the test of time and is a primary book being taught in schools today. The theme played a big role in making this happen. Without realization kids are able to relate to the reason that it depicts loneliness and betrayal.

Read More
1378 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
715 Words | 3 Pages

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.

Read More
745 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More
833 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
578 Words | 3 Pages

Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted”(Steinbeck, 18). This simple and mundane description shows how austere life was. It also shows the hopelessness of George and Lennie with blank walls meaning an empty life. The dismal qualities of the landscape surrounding George and Lennie points out the hopelessness of man and their inability to change

Read More
818 Words | 4 Pages

On August 29, 2005, 6:10 am, there was a horrible disaster that broke everyone 's heart. It was a Hurricane in New Orleans that also went past Mississippi and many more places. Hurricane Katrina. There were approximately 1,833 deaths. It was a tropical depression that formed in 2 hours in the Bahamas.

Read More
129 Words | 1 Pages

The setting mainly took place in south of Soledad, California, near the Salinas Valley, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. Salinas Valley had many substantial farms during the Depression. This was essential because colossal farms employed a massive number of workers, often up to hundreds. Since farm workers with no steady employment, would often head to these communities, it was logical that Salinas Valley was George and Lennie’s destination. Migrant farm workers were perfect examples, to highlight the solitude and loneliness engendered by the Depression. These men had no place to call home, and had only a few belongings to call their own.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
722 Words | 3 Pages

Though the poet tries to create a happy mood at the beginning through her use of rhyme: “fell through the fields” and “the turn of the wheels” as well as reference to the “mother singing”, all is not happy. The word "fell" in the gives a sense of something sad and uncomfortable happening. This sense of sadness is heightened by one of the brothers “bawling Home, Home” and another crying. There is the use of personification in describing the journey: “the miles rushed back to the city” which expresses poet's own desire to go back, and the clever use of a list which takes us back to the place she has just left: “the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms where we didn’t live

Read More
605 Words | 3 Pages

George and Lennie, prominent characters in the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, are migrant workers—men who move from place to place to do seasonal work— who end up in California and are faced with numerous problems. Set in the era of the great depression, the story of Lennie and George, two very different men who have formed a family-like union, takes place on a farm where Lennie struggles to stay out of trouble. Having committed an unintentional, harmful act, Lennie is faces severe consequences; and George must decide to make a necessary decision which changes the mood of the entire novel. By the comparison and contrast of George and Lennie, unique characters who are very different from each other, the reader can better acquaint himself

Read More

More about Places In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Related Topics

Open Document