Tone In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The long, hard war of human equality in society, has been a war since the beginning of civilization. The Great Depression, a tragic time in America’s history, reflects American determination, but also social inequality. In the fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to address ableism and sexism in society. Steinbeck addresses these flaws in society in an attempt to ultimately bring awareness these riffs before society falls.

In his novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses many characters to show his assertion that man is basically evil. When Curley’s wife confronts Lennie, Crooks, and Candy in Crook’s place, she notes that the others “left all the weak ones here” (77). The “weak” ones that Curley’s wife refer to all attack each other in a vicious circular firing squad. Crooks taunts Lennie about the possibility of George not returning, and takes “pleasure in his torture” as he “[presses] forward for some kind of private victory” (71). Curley’s wife calls Candy and Lennie “a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep” (78) and threatens to get Crooks “strung up on a tree” (81). Meanwhile, all the other characters are the ones that make those Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife feel “weak” because they are disabled mentally, disabled physically, black, and female, respectively. In this way, Steinbeck shows that all men are basically evil as they do not lend a hand to each other and instead simply attack and prey upon each other.

When I was reading this book, I read a lot confident things and too many different confident characters. Confidence is very important in our life. You can not lose your confident. If you have confident, that you can get better. But some people who is having confident. It is not good for them because their confident is bad. They think that they are good, but they are not. I think blue is the best color choice for Steinbeck’s story because blue means confident and they are too many different confident characters.

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.

In John Steinbeck’s novel, of Mice and Men, there are a multitude of motifs that corresponded with the real life problems they were facing in that day. Reoccurring elements in this narrative include the predatory nature of human existence, corruption of women, loneliness and companionship, and the different kinds of strengths and weaknessses.

Biases and inequality towards women have been a problem in society since men foolishly decided to give women the stereotype of being housewives and only good for breeding children. Those who refuse to follow the stereotype are considered promiscuous, or unfaithful towards their significant other. This stereotype was highly expected of women during the early twentieth century, and was also exhibited in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men towards Curley’s wife. Of Mice and Men took place in the 1930s, and the plot follows two best friends trying to achieve their dreams, which lands them in a ranch that will do them nothing but harm. In this ranch, only the strongest may survive, and those who do not follow the usual stereotype were considered weak, and will most likely die. Steinbeck’s theme of death is always feared, but to some it is a way to leave the misery that is the world reveals the social injustices in society causes gender discrimination towards Curley’s wife. The hostility and bitterness towards Curley’s wife did not just lead to her death, but also saved her from the loneliness and isolation she had to go through on the ranch.

The poem “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns clearly reflects the naturalistic themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men because a naturalist would state that elements such as survival of the fittest, the struggle against forces beyond our control and individual lives being governed by impersonal natural laws.

In the book “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck describes a world where the American Dream was all about helping others and keeping others safe. Steinbeck paints a very visual picture of looking out for your family in America in 1930. In the book “Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck reveals a very crucial ending. In the book Steinbeck tells us about Crooks. Crooks is so named because of a crooked back caused by a kick from a horse. Crooks is the stable hand who takes care of the horses and lives by himself because he is the only black man on the ranch. But Crook has been so beaten down by loneliness and prejudicial treatment of that he is now suspicious of any kindness he receives.

How can we justify and condemn George’s actions at the end of the story. In the story of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters George had both condemned and understandable actions at the end of the story. I think George had a hard time shooting Lennie, but at the same time he had a semi-reasonable reason to shoot him. It was hard for him to shoot Lennie because the two of them had traveled everywhere together ever since they were young.

Another way, Steinbeck shows How Gorge is a true friend to lennie is through how reliable he is to Lennie. An example of this is Lennie was left alone with Curley's wife in the barn and accidently killed her, by him doing this it made all the workers want to kill him. But instead of them killing Lennie George went off and “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 lay without Quivering,” (106) This quote shows how Gorge is a true reliable friend because A true friend will do whatever they think is good for you. Just like how George went off and killed lennie, so that way he didn’t have to go through even more hell. This shows readers that

Many will try to say every book is just a story, and nothing else. That what you literally read is literally what the author is trying to get across. John Steinbeck, author of “Of Mice and Men”, shows that this is not true. Many authors use specific stylistic choices when writing to help convey a deeper meaning than what is literally said. These stylistic writing choices help to change the literal and physical meaning of a writer's words, into something not seen or read on the surface, making it not “just a story”.

"5. George is speaking about his and Lennie’s dream. He starts by saying, “’O.K. Someday – we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and -’”. Afterwards, Lennie adds that they also will live off the fat of the land and he can tend the

Lennie paced around the room, pounding his fists on any wall he could find. With a sour face, he checked every nook and cranny between the page and the text for something taking on the form of a door. A way to escape.

Of mice and men talks about Lennie and George which use to work in a town named Weed. They are on a journey to get their own land and ranch, Meanwhile they are working in a different ranch until they can get the money to buy the land. Curley and Lennie did not get along very well which caused lots of tension between Lennie, George, and Curley. In the ranch they worked in, Lennie shook Curley’s wife and had snapped her neck, after Curley found out Curley, Slim, and George decided to kill Lennie.

“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.