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Society In Anthem And John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Trying times always push society to its limits and with that, show society’s true nature. This is displayed best in Ayn Rand’s Anthem and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men; one set in a post-apocalyptic age where man struggles to rebuild and the other set during the Great-Depression. By comparing Ayn Rand’s message concerning the individual in society in Anthem to John Steinbeck’s in Of Mice and Men it is clear that one has a main message that society is a burden to the individual, while the other’s message is that society helps out the individual. As we progress further down the road to prosperity there is always a time before or after that knocks us down and shows either the best or the worst of society. With that said society to an …show more content…

Having a society be such a burden on individuals it is hard to see whether society can actually instead of hindering the individual, help those individuals. Society as we’ve seen can be and will be a burden to individuals in order for it to progress farther down the line to prosperity; in times of dire need society instead of being a burden to the individual society actually helps them out as seen in Of Mice and Men. During the Great Depression men, women, and children had to struggle to survive and being helped by society wasn’t an option nor did they want it to be. In Of Mice and Men the main characters struggle to find jobs on farms due to the fact that our struggling individual needs help from society. Society during this time wasn’t always kind to individuals that didn’t benefit society, because they couldn’t help themselves during that time. Society had to stick together during this time or else they would starve and die. Lennie wasn't the only individual that needed help from society, individuals that couldn’t get a job or help themselves were most likely left out of the meat of society. Having people like George in society, helping out the individuals like Lennie helps further advance society out of the Great Depression it was in. George wasn’t the kind of person to leave someone like Lennie to fend for himself, so he traveled with him and helped him get a job. With this society being made up of people like George help the Lennie’s of society

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