A Comparison of Migrant Workers in The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men

During the Great Depression, many citizens faced an arduous lifestyle of unemployment. However, many people managed to entertain themselves by reading literature such as The Grapes of Wrath. John Steinbeck witnessed an injustice towards farmers during the Great Depression, and this inspired Steinbeck to present his perspective of the maltreatment to the open through The Grapes of Wrath. The fictional novel describes how unfortunate conditions, during the Great Depression, force an Oklahoma farmer family to travel to California in search for an easy life, job opportunities, and a bright future. John Steinbeck represented and connected his tones through his trope, making it an excellent read. In the novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

“Lennie begged, "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now." "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta." And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.” (Steinbeck ___). At this moment in the book is where George and Lennie’s dream ultimately becomes impossible. Therefore, With Lennie’s death George is now unable to fulfill his dream as Lennie now can never be a part of it.

George is the logical one, always figuring out some way to keep Lennie going. Such as the beginning of the tale when he states the dream to motivate Lennie to talk about something happy. “‘O.K. Someday we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and.’ ‘Live off the fatta the land’ Lennie shouted!”(Page 14) Talking about the dream gives Lennie some “reset” button, which sets his mood back to his cheerful self. Following the short journey of George and Lennie often involves talk about the American Dream, which ends with George losing his temper. Lennie has talked about leaving, but George wants him to stay. The relationship with Lennie is a vital factor for the dream. The significance of this is that Lennie is constantly a burden to the dream and has no way contributed to it. George needed Lennie in the idea but stated that he could make it without Lennie. Nevertheless, everything George does for Lennie is for the sake of this illusion to become a reality, even if George gets no reward. Also, George has shown that trouble follows this idea and can cause an additional problem. Candy is one of the people who has joined George. “They fell silent. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they never really believed in was coming true.” (Page 60). No longer a hallucination, George has inspired Lennie and Candy to the point where they will follow him to the end of the world.

He gets his freedom, and he gets to ruin himself, and own a few acers. Lastly, to Candy, the dream is for him to be able to work the garden, and to live in a relaxed environment because he thinks that soon, the boss will let him go. A quote from the story to show how much Lenny likes hearing their American Dream is , and to show how important the American Dream means to him is “’Tell me like you done before.’ ‘Tell you what?’ ‘About the Rabbits’ George snapped ‘You ain’t gonna put nothing over me.’ Lennie pleaded ‘Come on George. Tell me. Please George. Like you done before’” (pg 13). This quote from the story shows how much Lennie believed in the dream. His mental disability made him act a lot younger than his actual age, he dreams a lot and can easily be tricked by what people say. He is very fragile and short tempered, like a young child can be. But also like a child, he believes in dreams, he still has the innocence and pureness, which causes him to have faith, and trust in the dream. A quote that shows that George is believes in the American Dream is “Maybe you’re gettin’ better. When we get a coupla acres I

For instance, George told Lennie if anything ever happens to meet him at the brush by the river. This shows George’s nurturing instincts toward Lennie. Although the act alone was tough, when someone loves someone so much they often do things to protect them even though it hurts. Critics say that if George loves Lennie as much as he said, he could have avoided killing him. His love for Lennie is evident after he witnesses Candy’s reaction to his dog’s death and Candy’s words “I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn’t ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog”(Steinbeck 61). George takes it upon himself to make sure Lennie dies with happy thoughts. He makes sure Lennie leaves the earth with happy thoughts by telling him about their dream house with animals and farmland. “An we’ll have maybe a pig an’ chickens… an’ down the flat we’ll have a … little piece alfalfa” (Steinbeck 105). People think that George and Lennie could have escaped from the men on the ranch but, even if they did, deep down George knows the American of which they had dreamt would never come true. George knows in his heart he could not let the men on the ranch kill Lennie. He knows this based on Candy’s experience with his dog. George wants to make sure Lennie does not die alone and in

In John Steinbeck 's The Grapes of Wrath, Tom Joad and his family are forced from their home during the 1930’s Oklahoma Dust Bowl and set out for California along with thousands of others in search of jobs, land, and hope for a brighter future. The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck’s way to expound about the injustice and hardship of real migrants during the Depression-era. He utilizes accurate factual information, somber imagery, and creates pathos, allowing readers connections to the Joad’s plight

In Steinbeck’s Of Mice of Men, George is confronted with the troubling conflict of ending his best and only friend’s life. In the depression stricken 1930’s, George Milton and Lennie Smalls are saving money until they can buy their dream homestead. This dream comes to a screeching halt when Lennie kills the boss’s son’s wife. George decides to end Lennie’s life while describing their dream homestead one last time . George should have killed Lennie because Curley would have tortured him, lennie was his responsibility, and he would have continued to do bad things.

“‘Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em.’ ‘Le’s do it now. Let’s get that place now’” (106). These are the last words that filled the air between George and Lennie, their last exchange preceding a pivotal moment in both of their lives. They conversation calms and soothes Lennie, who hopes to finally get the farm that he and George dreamed about for so many years. Yet unbeknownst to him, Lennie would soon be set free from his earthly bonds by his long-time friend; a bullet, shot from the barrel of George’s gun, would enter Lennie’s head and kill him instantly. That bullet was not one of self-gain and moral disrepute, but one of freedom and liberation from worldly restraints. While this remains a hotly contested topic in classrooms reading Of Mice and Men, George’s intentions in killing Lennie were overwhelmingly good-natured.

John Steinbeck was born and raised in Salinas, California, a town well known for farming and being poor. Its thought that his many conversations with the migrant workers of the area inspired a lot of his work, such as “Of Mice and Men”, a

The 1930’s were a decade of great change politically, economically, and socially. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl wore raw the nerves of the people, and our true strength was shown. From it arose John Steinbeck, a storyteller of the Okies and their hardships. His books, especially The Grapes of Wrath, are reflections of what really went on in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck did not write about what he had previously read, he instead wrote what he experienced through his travels with the migrant workers. “His method was not to present himself notebook in hand and interview people. Instead he worked and traveled with the migrants as one of them, living as they did and arousing no suspicion from employers militantly alert against

In the book, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck two migrant workers, Lennie Small and George Milton, walk to a nearby ranch to start working so they can save up for their own land one day. George has always taken care of Lennie since his Aunt Clara died. When they arrive at the new ranch they meet Slim in the bunkhouse and join his team. Slim is a skillful “jerkline skinner, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders” (33). He is an understanding, generous, confident man.

In The Grapes of Wrath written by John Steinbeck, the author captures the life of migrants, particularly the Joads, who were banished by the landowners and forced to migrate to California under the illusion that California was prosperous. The book captured the innate greediness and selfishness of men, particularly the upper classes, who under complete self-interest drove thousands of poor farmers and their families out of their own land, the land with the people “being born on it, working it, dying on it.” (Steinbeck 45). The land meant a love one to the farmers, and snatching the land showed the cruelty of the business men and the agrarian system.

The 1930s were a time of hardship for many across the United States. Not only was the Great Depression making it difficult for families to eat every day, but the Dust Bowl swept through the plains states making it nearly impossible to farm the land in which they relied. John Steinbeck saw how the Dust Bowl affected farmers, primarily the tenant farmers, and journeyed to California after droves of families. These families were dispossessed from the farms they had worked for years, if not generations (Mills 388). Steinbeck was guided by Tom Collins, the real-life model for the Weedpatch camp’s manager Jim Rawley, through one of the federal migrant worker camps. He was able to see for himself,

In The Grapes of Wrath, the speaker is author of the novel. It respects the author within the novel and there's no specific narrator. The book was written after the dust bowl. That was interesting when I read the book. I didn't even know that. The novel was taken place in Oklahoma and to California when the Joad's were migrated to California. The reason why the author wrote about relying on the migration because a guy that was a manager of a migration camp. The audience would be those who want to know what it is like to have to start over and move from a different stand point. The purpose was that the author(John Steinback) was trying to climax the main point of the migrants. Steinback's tone in the novel was passionate throughout The Grapes

California has a rich and vibrant history concerning a variety of people from around the world. While not all of California’s history is negative, many of California’s historical events had tragic implications for many impacted communities. This was the case during the Dust Bowl Migration, during which thousands of displaced midwestern Americans fled to California in search of a better life. However, California was not the paradise portrayed by handbills received by migrants who needed work. Hopeful farmers and their families arriving in California were met with public distaste by all of society. John Steinbeck’s The Harvest Gypsies, a collection of articles that played a large role in publicizing the brutal conditions that migrants faced, as well as the film The Grapes of Wrath, delved into why migrants left for California, the social conditions of the squatters’ camps, and how they were treated by society.