The Relationship Between Great Depression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men takes place in the United States of America during the Great Depression. Throughout the Great Depression, numerous transients faced internal and external conflicts as they embarked on the search for jobs that could provide stability. For innumerable persons, this necessity took priority and caused other significant aspects of life to be overlooked. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the conflicts experienced by Candy, George (and Lennie), and Curley’s wife, develop the theme that transience can be damaging to one’s relationships with others.

As stated in Robert Burns’s “To a Mouse”, “ The best-laid plans of mice and men often go wrong and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy”. Showing how people with dreams can attempt to achieve that dream but during the Great depression it is almost impossible to achieve any sort of dream. American Novelist, John Steinbeck, in his book, Of Mice and Men, explains the harsh lessons of reality during the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s purpose is to emphasize that the people with the biggest dreams often fall the hardest. He adopts a grim tone in order to convince his readers that dreams were viewed as useless.

The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck begins and ends in 1930’s southern California, during the great depression. This book is centered around two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is a short, quick thinking man, and Lennie is pretty much his opposite: huge, clumsy, and mentally ill. The book starts off with George and Lennie walking to a ranch to get work, which they desperately need. Once they get to the ranch, they meet several other folks, most of which suffer from some sort of oppression. There’s a black, a cripple, a woman, and a whole lot of poverty. In Of Mice and Men, oppression is presented as a major issue, one that affects nearly every character in the book to some degree, whether it be through racism, sexism, or ageism.

The people in the Great Depression were losing all of the money that they had

The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.

Mice and Men is a fantastic novel that shows how hard it was in the times of the Great Depression. The difference between Lennie and George compared to the migrant workers is that they had each other. In the novel, it shows how George takes care of Lennie who has a mental disability. Most of the migrant workers wanted to achieve the success of the American Dream that was different for every American. Lennie and George too wanted to the euphoria of achieving their American Dream. Lennie and George’s dream was to own a ranch and live off the fatta of the land and for Lennie to tend the rabbits.

To illustrate, George had been talking to Lennie about their dream when he said, “An’ live off the fatta the lan’” (Steinbeck 14). George had the original American Dream, to own land, be his own boss and have someone to share it with. Sadly, all efforts and hopes did not work on account of the incident between Curley’s wife and Lennie. When discovering Curley’s wife’s death, George knew that his American Dream also died with her. Not to mention, while being comforted Curley’s wife said, “Coulda been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes-all them nice clothes like they wear” (Steinbeck 89). Curley’s wife opens up about her American Dream to Lennie and explains that she wanted to become famous and be an actress. When her dream fell through she was stuck marrying Curley who she disliked. Foremost, with a sense of hope, “S’pose I went in with you guys…I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and have the garden some. How’d that be?” (Steinbeck 59). After having his dog shot, Candy finds relief in Lennie and George’s American Dream. Candy then knows that this is his chance to have a life after the farm and offers money as well as his share of the land to convince the boys to let him join them. Soon after joining in, like George, his American Dream is crushed with the death of Curley’s wife. In addition, an outside source

Steinbeck described alienation, isolation, and even job loss for the Great Depression is deftly described in the book Of Mice and Men and portrays for how the people at this time would comprehend life choices. Steinbeck, created the book Of Mice and Men to tell a story about two men working and surviving during The Great Depression, George Milton and Lennie Small. In the book Of Mice and Men the main characters; George and Lennie, are on the road heading to their destination the ranch. They planned to take a bus, but they told them to get off and to walk the rest.

Starting in October 1929, the United States was struck by the largest and longest economic downturn ever seen since its conception as a country. As the crisis worked its way through the American economy, most jobs for the middle class, such as factory workers and farmers, were lost. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, two migrant workers, named Lennie and George, travel the countryside in search of a job and a place to live. Both men fight internal and external conflicts which have an affiliation with the overall problems and comforts of society during the Great Depression. Steinbeck’s intricate literary techniques, including foreshadowing, symbolism, and imagery, help bring hope and excitement to a journey through the depressing wasteland

The Great Depression was a very negative event in human history. The economy dropped, lifestyles were being ruined, and on top of that, the Dust Bowl wiped out crops for farmers and dried up everything. Throughout the novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck emphasizes how the Great Depression impacted everyone’s lives through their imagining of the perfect lifestyle, the bringing together of companions, and the struggle for survival. Steinbeck uses the characters’ dreams of the perfect lifestyle as a way to show how the Great Depression impacted their lives. Most people, during the Great Depression, fantasized about the perfect lifestyle and how they would live their life with no trouble.

The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck takes place during the Great Depression in California. At the beginning of the story, the reader is introduced to the two main characters, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is a small, quick man with strong, defined features. Lennie Small was the exact opposite. He was a strong, huge man with a shapeless face and no intelligence. George and Lennie make their way to a new job on ranch, trying to put their past behind them, and their dream is to own their own piece of land and farm. Although Lennie never means any harm, he unintentionally kills a woman, and then he runs away. George finds Lennie, but he is forced to kill him because George would rather have to do it then someone else. Of Mice and

The three men stared at each other and hoped that “this thing they had never believed in was coming true” (60). In John Steinbeck’s book, it was typical for a character to create a dream, but ultimately fail and regret their decisions leading to them not accomplishing that yearning. It was not unusual during the Great Depression for someone to come up with a goal that they believed to be achievable. However, even the best laid out plans were destroyed by the culture that was the Great Depression. Someone whose life was affected by this culture saw their dreams evaporate right before their eyes.

The book Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in the Mid 1930s, and it takes place during the Great Depression. The book is about two migrant workers, named George and Lennie. During the Great depression it was unusual to see two migrant workers together, but they depend on each other and have a brotherly bond that keeps them together. Fear is the cause and the effect of isolation and it leads to vulnerability and hopelessness. Steinbeck develops this theme of isolation through the use of symbols and characters.

‘Of mice and men’ is a tale of loneliness and hardship felt by the people living in America during the 1930 's. Written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, it tells the heartbreaking story of two ranch workers during the depression; George Milton and Lennie Small. At the time America was very poor, with a shortage of jobs so people had to travel in search of new jobs. As many people were constantly moving, lasting friendships or relationships were hard to come across. People became scared to have friendships, scared of each other making them lonely and isolated. Most of the characters lived by ‘every man for himself’; only having to care for themselves, not having to worry about others and therefore

A type of literature which concerns itself with the direct engagement and intervention in the problematic social conditions in the society; social realism was the primary purpose based on Attell’s essay that serves as a central nucleus for Steinbeck’s work as well as his historical background. As reported by Attell, Of Mice and Men takes its subjects and protagonist from the farm laboring class of California during the Great Depression; where the two main characters, George and Lennie, area facing social crisis and looking for a new occupation that needs a specific task to be done. From there, the reader witnesses George and Lennie on the move for