John Steinbeck, author of Of Mice and Men, clearly and sharply creates his characters so that they can be interpreted - without surrendering individuality - as various archetypes. Steinbeck uses archetypes to enhance the fact that these characters do not belong in a normal society. On page 13, George says, “guys like us...are the loneliest guys in the world.” They move from ranch to ranch looking for jobs but never “belong [to] no place.” A normal society contains people engaging with the trends and agreeing with the mainstream; contrarily, these characters are similar to outcasts.
Everyone Gets Stereotyped Stereotyping others can lead to problems in the future and can cause people to become upset. When the characters George and Lennie from the book Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, are first introduced its easy to tell George stereotypes Lennie as stupid. Since Lennie is stereotyped as stupid, he causes problems throughout the book. George is also stereotyped, but as protective of Lennie. Throughout the book George tries to help Lennie as much as he can, even if it leads to a bad situation.
The humanity of the world has a wide variety of lessons and morals. The Book by John Steinbeck Of Mice And Men applies this with two characters Curly and George both demonstrating two very different things about society and humanity through George’s caregiver archetype and Curly’s archetype of the bully. Throughout the story, George the main protagonist cares for Lennie after he promised to look out and care for him through their uncertain adventure they end up at a ranch, and at the ranch, they meet Curly, a steel-headed individual who advocates rude and cruel behavior through yelling, stomping around, and fighting the characters of the book even if Curley is small and lacking compared to the others. In the book Of Mice and Men Steinbeck presents
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world (Harriet Tubman). Throughout the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck displays that having a dream may impact one to make better choices. Steinbeck shows this through the motif of dreams, characterization, and imagery.
The characters in “Of Mice and Men” have memorable personalities that we all can relate to due to their set archetypes. John Steinbeck uses these common and generalized in order to have the readers relate more to his characters. This allows the reader to experience the story and feelings of the characters much better and lets the reader to connect to the character’s feelings, or force the reader to form opinions that aligns with those of the main protagonist(s). In “Of Mice of Men”, readers are initially introduced to Curley’s Wife with words such as “tart”, and having “the eye”. Which, even if readers do not know what that means, it may be inferred through diction that she is overly flirty, or a “tramp”.
In modern society, most men follow the social construct of masculinity. Although men care about other men, social norms force them to repress emotions and feelings. However, in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, the characters George and Lennie defy this stereotype. Despite typical conventions, both men travel together and care for one another. Steinbeck uses the bond between these characters to reveal that true companionship could endure difficulties and hardships.
The novel Of Mice and Men would change drastically if Lennie and George were to change genders. As a women, Curley’s wife didn’t pay much attention to Lennie. She is known as a person who would “feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is.” (Steinbeck, 90)
American statesman and former president of the United States, John Adams questioned if it, “Is the jealousy of power, and the envy of superiority, so strong in all men, that no considerations of public or private utility are sufficient to engage their submission to rules for their own happiness?” But fails to challenge if ambition, thoughts, and the barrier of vulnerability are commonalities that contribute to the constant need for power. Both ideas are prevalent in Of Mice and Men, a story that takes place in the times of the great depression and is ruled by men who are constantly striving to be superior than the rest. Specifically, throughout the book John Steinbeck illustrates how people often use power and predatory instinct to take advantage of others to combat the reality of their own
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck portrays the theme of social injustice throughout the story in the lives of several characters that include Lennie, Curley’s Wife, and the stable buck, Crooks. All of these characters are mistreated in some way, shape or form. The hardships that these characters faced help guide us to see the social injustice that is prevalent in the story. Lennie is a victim of social injustice due to the fact that he is mentally disabled. He is not treated fairly when he was accused of rape.
John Steinbeck was an old school soul who enjoyed personally talking face to face, how does he feel about all these new advances in technology? Steinbeck has been seen to write about how he wishes that he could be like the news reporters who just go up and talk to people. What he never realized is that he already had that personality and can fester up a conversation with anyone. Modern conveniences have extremely decreased face to face interactions in the modern age though it was bad during Steinbeck’s time, it is worse now. Steinbeck saw that convenience was for better but social isolations were a change for the worse.
Does history affect literature? Historical events helped inspire Harper Lee to write To Kill a Mockingbird. In To Kill a Mockingbird a black man goes to trial on the accusation of him raping a young girl. The lawyer that is assigned to him tries his best to help prove the man innocent. The events in the book are based on events that actually happened.
In John Steinbeck’s captivating novel Of Mice and Men, Crooks faces discrimination from the world around him because of his race yet he still believes others should consider him their equal. While everyone on the ranch views Crooks as less important, this does not stop him from standing up to the other workers. In addition, Crooks fights to be respected instead of giving up on his dreams of equality. Finally, Crooks continues to have pride in himself and in his history despite working in a place where people constantly treat him as inferior.
Even though John Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men focuses on loneliness, the book also weaves in much of the racial discrimination around the 1930s. One character, Crooks, was a different race than all the other men, and he was treated very differently because of the fact that he was black. When the white characters talk about Crooks they portray ownership over him. Being black in the 1930s was a difficult time for them to have a decent living. Crooks was not allowed to even live in the same place as the white men.
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
In 1920 when the 19th amendment was passed allowing women to vote, many women thought that Gender Inequality was coming to an end. Soon after, the Great Depression happened, and everyone was focused on that. Life for women was especially hard then because they had to live in a world full of poverty and discrimination. Throughout Of Mice and Men we see this through Curley’s Wife. She just wants to fit in and talk to the men without thinking she wants something, or being called rude names.
