The Importance Of Happiness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is set during the Great Depression, whereas the American Dream is a crucial belief that is a part of the itinerant workers’ life. As itinerant workers, people worked from ranch to ranch, hoping to achieve their dream. Besides the hard work, the author Steinbeck reveals the tragic death of Lennie at the end of the story. A number of characters like George, Lennie, Curley and Curley’s wife are all responsible for the death of Lennie at the end of the story, however, George, Lennie himself and Curley’s wife are the most culpable.

Hopes and dreams can be very important for peoples’ needs and survival. In Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, each of the main characters is driven by their hopes and dreams; it provides a sense of motivation and animation to each of their being. From Lennie and George being driven by their hopes and dreams of owning a farm, to Curley’s wife’s dreams of becoming an actress, having dreams plays an essential role in giving hope to the characters of Steinbeck’s story. Although dreams and hopes are essential themes in Steinbeck’s story, in a sense, Steinbeck does seem to emphasize that dreams are not meant to be achieved, and that there are other factors that are essential for survival. I believe Steinbeck included their dreams to give

Of Mice and Men teaches a grim lesson on the difficulties of migrant workers in the era of the Great Depression. Loneliness. Isolation. Hopelessness. Three of the strongest factors Steinbeck explores about the nature of human existence, and the impossibility of the American dream. Steinbeck illustrates the loneliness of migrant workers in the early 1930's and shows how people are eager to try and find friendship in order to escape from their loneliness, and focus on something other than their unrealistic dreams.

Lennie is extremely large and powerful. But he is uncoordinated therefore his strength is not entirely under his control as a result of this he hurts many animals and people, for example the mice that aunty Clara gave him and the mouse in his pocket on the way to the ranch at the beginning of chapter one. Lennie is too powerful for the mice, as he pets them he scares and hurts the mice resulting in the mice biting him which makes him angry and resulting in him killing the mice. Likewise with Slims puppy, After Lennie killed the pup Curly’s wife saw it and asked him what had happened to the dog and he said” he was so little’’ I was jus’ playin’ with him….an’ he made like he was gonna bite

“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world” (Steinbeck 13). This is said by George Milton in the novella Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men takes place in California during the Great Depression. Loneliness reoccurs several times because people do not stay at a work place long enough to make friends and usually travel alone. Loneliness is the main theme of Of Mice and Men because many characters deal with being lonely in different ways. It affects people who are looked down on because of their gender, race, and ability.

It's been four months, the doctors don't know what else they can do. You don't want to accept it but, she tells you to. Your daughter, your own flesh and blood, pride and joy, is begging you to stop the pain and suffering with her big cloudy doll eyes. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George, had come upon an unthinkable situation, where he best friend, Lennie, murders the wife of Curley. George faces the decision to weather let Lennie live, and suffer from Curley's vengeance, or to end Lennie's life permanently, and save him from suffering. The novel makes it clear that mercy killing, the act of putting an animal or human down painlessly without suffering, is a human way to show compassion towards

Have you ever felt compassionate towards someone or something? Maybe even had a dream you strived for? In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck displays compassion through main character, George Milton, by having him take care of Lennie and being kind to him. George has dreams of being independent and having his own farm. George shares this dream with Lennie who is easily excited about the idea of tending the rabbits. George is happy when he can please Lennie and is nice to him rather than being cruel to him. Compassion is being fully present with someone no matter the circumstances of his or her life. George watches over Lennie, always stays with him even if he is slower and gets into trouble, and George takes care of him.

Aspirations of success often drive individuals toward success. However if one only focuses on their dreams and not on working to achieve their goals, they will not be successful. Charles Dickens and John Steinbeck in their respective novels Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men, use their main characters failures in manifesting their aspirations to warn about the dangers of aspiring about the future and not focusing on success in the present.

After the Great Depression, many things changed, different\\ genders and races were all treated differently. Blacks and white women were forced to be outcast in the world, women belonged in the house and blacks did not belong anywhere. In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays perfectly of how blacks and women were separated from everyone else with Curley’s wife and Crooks, the black stable hand. Curley’s wife and Crooks are alike in many ways; in their loneliness, the way they are separated from everyone else and how they get out casted from everything, discriminated against during the time period; which helps show how blacks and women were treated during this time period of life.

.The novel Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck. In Soledad, California during the Great Depression in the 1930's two men of the one named George and the other named Lennie were men who travel around working at ranches. George is the small, quick-witted one, and Lennie is the big, slow, dumb and extremely strong one. They have a dream, to have a little place all to themselves, without anyone bothering them. Their dreams are shattered though, when Lennie, who doesn't know his own strength, gets in trouble. In the pursuit of love, happiness and the American dream, man becomes a victim of his own circumstances and discovers that the good life becomes impossible for humanity to obtain and contains

Lennie is a character that struggles to control his strength this is depicted through some of his actions. On page 10 George said to Lennie, "that mouse aint fresh, Lennie besides you broke it pettin' it." This shows that it's hard for him to control the urge to pet soft things but sense he is so strong he killed the mouse. Another example is that Lennie broke Curly's wife's neck when she offered to let Lennie touch her hair. Again, this shows he struggles to control his immense strength even when it comes to other human being. My last piece of evidence is when he was given a puppy from Carlson. He killed the puppy almost right after he got it because he is so strong. All this evidence really does show that Lennie struggles to control his strength.

'I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you on my

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.

Around 20% of the world's children and adolescents have mental disorders or problems. Back then a lot of people were not aware of the mental illness. They thought those people were just straight up crazy. In the story of mice and men,” Lennie has a mental illness, which leads to many problems in the book. Foreshadowing plays an influential role in of mice and men through, lennie's obsession with soft things, lennie's death, and lennie's strength.

“The greatest writers and the best readers know that literature is not always mere sugar candy;it can sometimes be a strong medicine:sour perhaps-at least to the untrained taste - but necessary for continued health” (1). A statement written by Professor Thomas Scarseth shows how without value in books, a reading life would never reach its intended purpose. By learning to apply knowledge that books provide through characters, we can improve ourselves as individuals. This particular book, Of Mice and Men, has values such as linguistics, sociological value, and historical value. Linguistics are shown through Steinbeck’s use of poetic devices such as imagery and repetition. Sociological value is given through the perspective of Crooks, who shows the struggle of achieving the great American Dream of having a place to call your own. Finally, historical value is provided through racism and how it affected Crooks, or any other black man at the time.