Of Mice and Men and Steinbeck’s Life Essay

odd jobs and eventually made his way to California where he met his future wife,

Barbara Sher once said, “‘Isolation is a dream killer’” (qtd. in Wishcraft). In his novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck scrutinizes the effects that alienation can have on society. Many characters experience loneliness throughout the novel. He illustrates the results of individuals becoming isolated from their peers. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays characters alienated from society in order to illustrate the harmful effects of loneliness caused by discrimination.

American Novelists, 1910-1915. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Ed. James J. Martine. Saint Bonaventure University. Gale Research 1981. 413-68

In the short novel Of Mice and Men, there are many lessons that can be learned. These lessons help bring the story to life. The lessons show how the characters react under certain amounts of pressure revealing what kind of person they are. They also bring out some of the character attributes more than others, showing that every person is different. The lessons helped the novel become as great as it is today.

1. “ Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world.

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

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

John Steinbeck's agricultural upbringing in the California area vibrantly shines through in the settings and story lines of the majority of his works. Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, takes place in the Salinas Valley of California. The drama is centered around two itinerant farm workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, with a dream of someday owning a place of their own. Lennie Small is a simple-minded, slow moving, shapeless hulk with pale eyes whose enormous physical strength often causes him to get into trouble. George Milton on the other hand is small in stature, clever, dark of face and eyes, and acts as Lennie's guardian and calming force.

In my opinion Steinbeck drew the subject matter from his own experience of working on ranches, he was interested in special kinds of relationships among men working on

lead him to a life of worry and lack of security, as he is old and a

Steinbeck and Wallsten vi). He stated that he wrote letters because he was unable to trust his verbal communication and having to interact through telephone conversations (v). Steinbeck wrote on anything he could find and his letters were easily recognizable (vi). His penmanship and passion for sharpened pencils helped develop a unique style of writing for Steinbeck that could be identified by those he wrote to (vi). He often self-edited his letter, but often over wrote (viii). With his his fictional writings, his imaginative influence, landscape and literary idealism, are shown (Kordich

Steinbeck has an interesting style of writing that pulls his readers in through confusion and curious desire. He has an intriguing way of transitioning from chapter to chapter because of his tendency to start a new story in the middle of telling another one, leaving questions unanswered and storylines untouched until he is ready to reveal the rest of the original story. Constantly, he invents new misfits and finds ways to torture them with failure, fear, loneliness, poverty, and loss. For example, in

Steinbeck was a prolific author who wrote 27 books, 16 were novels. None of them are “happy” books and all of them user social injustices and real life terrible things to educate his readers. We often forget that he wrote novels that were published at much the same time as the Chronicles of Narnia or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings but his books don’t have any of the joy, fantasy, or happy endings that those author’s books did. Not only was John Steinbeck an author, he had a deep love of books and knowledge. You can see this in the following quote: “A book is somehow sacred.

human. He included life experiences and really fed off of that in many of his writings. Steinbeck was able to experience many struggles in the 1900s such as the great depression and both world wars, all events of which were first hand experiences. Being born in the early 1900’s, Steinbeck revolved around themes relevant to the world and his era. His books/novels fall under these categories: disenfranchisement, integrity vs. corruption, and rebellion are only a few he explored because of his era. Through this he was able to pass the hardships of the early and mid 1900s to future generations using the themes of his books/novels.

John Ernst Steinbeck was born in 1902 the third child of four to John and Olive Steinbeck. John Sr. was an accountant that supported the family and Olive stayed home and took care of the children. The Steinbeck Family lived in the Salinas Valley in Central California near the coast. We can see throughout John’s entire life the roots of his books and philosophy coming from the migrant farming town on the coast of central California(BBC John). John’s mother was very strict and made sure that every kid in the household contributed and could keep the house in good condition. John grew up in neither in wealth or poverty but his mother made sure the house was always in tip top shape. In addition, every child was taught proper etiquette and the rules were always strictly enforced(Snyder). John gained an interest in literature from a young age from his parents always having in depth conversations that would stimulate deeper thought and having discussions were all arguments would be dealt with lists of valid points and proof to back up. At the table Olive would many times play the devil 's advocate so everyone could divulge into what they believed in from simple community issues to more philosophical thinking. At the age of 14, John first decided that he would become an established author and he went after this goal for his entire life. In school, John was not part of the popular cliche and was very stand offish(Harmon). Through highschool he was bullied often and it was because he