What is the “American Dream”? Is it being a billionaire and owning your own mansion? Or is it having a spouse, kids, and a roof to live under? In Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men, the characters all have a different meaning attached to the words American Dream.
Outliers in Of Mice and Men Imagine living in a place where you are different from everybody else. How would you feel? Wouldn't you feel lonely, different, unwanted? This is exactly how the two characters, Crooks and Curley’s wife feel in the outstanding novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men tells a tale about laborers in Salinas, California in the dusty vegetables fields and river valleys.
John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, takes place during the Great Depression in the 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley, California. It establishes the prospect of the American Dream, discrimination,loneliness, and disenfranchisement through its characters. George and Lennie provided the value of the American Dream, to which the leading female role, Curley’s wife, represents how women are exempt from the American Dream, and appeared as less than equal to men. She developed a form of loneliness throughout the course of the novel. The novella seeks to demonstrate the way of which life was like for the characters of all different statuses and backgrounds.
After the Great Depression in 1929, America’s economy was devastated. The increase of farming across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode, turning the once fertile grassland to a desert like Dust Bowl. Hundreds of farmers and workers migrated to California in search of jobs aiming for the American Dream. The American Dream is the hopes and the goals of the characters in which they can obtain a better life through their hard work. In Of Mice and Men, the American Dream is portrayed to be extremely vital for the men as it serves as their motivation, yet ultimately proves to be unattainable through the memorable characters of Lennie, George and Curley’s wife.
The eternal quest of the individual human being is to shatter his loneliness. Of Mice and Men is a novella written by the author John Steinbeck. It tells a story of George Milton and Lennie Small; two displaced ranch workers, who are constantly searching for a new job during The Great Depression in California. John Steinbeck displays loneliness from the standpoint of average men living and working on a farm searching for friendship to escape their loneliness. In Of Mice and Men, other than the friendship, the story portrays people who are isolated and lonely like George, who has the responsibility of taking care of Lennie and keeping him out of trouble, Lennie, who is mentally disabled, and lastly, Curley’s wife, who desperately seeks for the
Sexism Kills the American Dream In the novella Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck, creates the character of Curley’s Wife, a strongly objectified 1930’s farmers wife in California. He molds her character to show her seemingly ‘natural’, yet terrible, struggles. By demonstrating the crushing blows of sexism on Curley’s Wife, Steinbeck exemplifies how a woman of the rough times, and hardships of the Great Depression in the 1930’s stood no chance to obtain the American Dream.
Curleys wife struggles with feelings of neglect and seclusion. Not only is she the only girl on the ranch but she is seen as a cheap possession, curleys very own 'toy ' that he gets to control. The other men view her as a tramp since she 's always flirting by "giving the eye" to multiple guys. As well She spends much of her time "looking" for Curley although she is really looking for someone to talk to and to listen to her ; since her very own husband neglects her. The truth is though that she is just incredibly lonely.
Curley’s wife is disliked by many because she is the Boss’ son’s wife. They are scared of the trouble that they can get into for even talking to her so they avoid her at all costs. Throughout the whole book everybody avoids her and she can’t find any friends.
Of Mice and Men Literary Analysis: Issues of Attachment It is said that it takes two months to get attached to a someone. In Of Mice and Men, characters spend well over two months with each other. Attachment is a prevalent theme throughout the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Steinbeck encompasses elements of day to day struggles in the 1930’s through relationships and minor characters through the attachment they have.
The Great Depression brought hardships to families across America. People battled these hardships in many ways, but John Steinbeck’s weapon of choice was something that would live on forever: his words. Throughout his career Steinbeck wrote over 31 books. His classic novel, Of Mice and Men, portrays a heart wrenching story of two men that are beaten into the ground of the Great Depression. While Steinbeck shows that dreams and planning can create hope and aspiration, friendship is shown to be the deciding factor between a content life and the search for more, that can ultimately lead to less.