The Value Of Life In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The Great Depression is a dark period of American history. This period was earmarked by the implosion of a weakened banking system and resulted in the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. The ensuing years saw an incalculable amount of joblessness, extreme poverty and vast financial ruin. No community was hit harder by this period than American minorities. Still struggling from the unhealed wounds of the civil war, the scars of immigration and sexual discrimination; blacks, Latinos and women faced disparities unlike no other.

People who face great odds will hang on to hope, however, many will lose it to the cruel reality they live in. This is the story told in the novel, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck. In this novel, Lennie and George are traveling bindle stiffs who experience the losses that come with the Great Depression, and the hope of others that is dashed by the death of one person. This theme of hope and loss is shown through Curley's wife, Candy, and George.

At the end of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”, George shoots his best friend, Lenny, in the back of the head. He didn’t have very many other options. What he did, though, could be looked as evil.

In 1929, the U.S. was hit with the worst economic crisis in the history of the country, the Great Depression. The Great Depression left millions of people unemployed and cost millions their life's savings. The Depression lasted for ten long years for the American people. Since the Great Depression ended, people have studied it, trying to figure out what happened that started it all. The problem was, in fact, the poor economic habits of the people at the time, such as speculation, income maldistribution, and overproduction. The Great Depression was caused by speculation and installment buying, income maldistribution, and overproduction because each of these factors combined made the economy worse before and after the stock market crash, which led to The Great Depression.

“The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.” ㅡ Azar Nafisi. Many Americans have tried to pursue their dream but have failed in doing so. Of Mice and Men is a book about two people, George and Lennie, trying to pursue their dream in Salinas, California. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the death of the American Dream is exemplified through George and Lennie’s obliviousness.

Survival is often introduced as a concept of endurance, persistence and perseverance, a textbook idea about simply living or dying. At the inception of human life, merely surviving was imperative and existence was something that humans fought for on a daily basis. But, as we flourish independently, as societies and as a race, the concept of survival is warped, and growth as an individual, as well as coping with everyday hardships and not just traditional examples of adversity such as poverty and destitution are prime examples of survival. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the reader is presented with the idea that survival is not synonymous to staying alive, and moreover, that cultural and societal struggles shape self in accordance with the way we face them.

The book Of Mice and Men is full of puzzling examples of the human condition, from Lennie and his mental disability to Curley only caring about his social appearance. With characters like these two, the book exploits the human condition that concerns circumstances life has given you. John Steinbeck brings to life what being a laborer in the American depression meant to the men and one woman who had enough personality to stand out. Steinbeck shows the human condition of men while they survive in the American depression.

The definition of a sympathetic character is one whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, though not necessarily admire. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife, a main character in the book is blatantly portrayed as an unsympathetic character. This is because they only see her through the men's eyes, who only see her as a tiresome object, owned by her husband. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair and misogynistic because he only displays her as unintelligent and promiscuous, never has a character have a turning point where they realize she’s more than an object, and he never reveals her true name.

Anyway, this research will focus only on three aspects - conscience crisis, violence, and fate and destiny. These aspects will be discussed in three separate chapters under the umbrella of the selected novels of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men(1937) , The Grapes of Wrath(1939) , and The Pearl (1947) and Cormac McCarthy ’s Blood Meridian (1985) , No country for old men( 2005) , and The Road (2006) . The investigator has adopted the sociological methodology throughout the thesis. Furthermore , the second chapter - conscience crisis, will be divided into two parts ( man’s inhumanity to man and greed ).

Marco Rubio, a respected politician and the Senator of Florida once said, “The American Dream is a term which is often used but also often misunderstood. It isn’t really about becoming rich or famous. It is about things much simpler and more fundamental than that.” Of Mice and Men revolves around the Great Depression and migrating farmers who are in the search of a better life. Through the use of figurative language, a wide lexical range and varying sentence length, Steinbeck portrays the bunk house as being an allegorical prison and the residents being prisoners because of the harsh realities of the Great Depression and the dying American Dream. His use of these literary devices to portray this idea impels the reader to follow the journey

America was rocked by financial hardship in the wake of the Great Depression. No one was immune to its effects. It was ironic that then President Herbert Hoover had stated “We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.” Hoover could not have predicted the great economic crisis, but it shook America to the core. In October of 1929 the stock market crashed, rocking Americans like an earthquake. The beginning of the Great Depression signaled the end of an era. The expansion of industry that had boomed since the Civil War came to a complete stand still for at least half a generation. Frank Walker, president of the National Emergency Council in 1934 was quoted saying “I saw old friends

Following the end of the First World War, the United States was initially prosperous. In 1929, that prosperous age about-faced into a downward spiral that enveloped the entire country. What was eventually called the Great Depression was essentially caused by four major events. At the start, the stock market was strong and thriving and the population was willing to invest in it. Americans were so confident in the market, in fact, that it was common for them to take out loans to fund their investments. When the stock market crashed many were unable to pay their debts not only to their stock purchases but also to their banks. Without payments to the loans given out, banks began to fail. Additionally, the gap between upper and lower classes greatly widened, which only increased the economic issues. On top of everything occurring, a drought developed in the Great Plains that created the “Dust Bowl” and destroyed the agriculture business. The sources of downfall in the Great Depression can be traced to the stock market failure, bank failure, farm failure, and job market failure.

Is it ever okay for one friend to kill another friend, the only one he has, even if it is for his own good? In the novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie are wands, who only have each other as friends. Lennie need George, and vice versa, even though George does not show it as often. But when Lennie kills Curley’s wife, he becomes the enemy of Curley. Now, instead of being brutally killed at the hands of Curley, George decides to kill him, for him to go peacefully next to his only friend. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George has to kill Lennie, because if he does not, he will die to Curley, even when he is alive, he is a danger to people around him, and because George loves Lennie

What is it like to have a dream that makes you feel alive, that gives you another reason to rise and to strive in morning and throughout the rest of your life? During the 1930’s this was often found within migrant workers who were searching for “The American Dream” of, at this time frame, land, wealth, and liberty. Providing for their families was one more part of “The American Dream.” Sadly most people failed to find “The American Dream” and ended up isolated and empty. Dreams are the reason people chose to suffer this pain. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author, John Steinbeck, has demonstrated the fatal effects of dreams through the themes of false hope, motivation, and the trouble that they cause as well

Drama, fear, love and discrimination are a few of the points that Steinbeck brings to his novella. Innocent murder and rape accusations are the main conflicts in the narrative. The author tries to detail the life of people in that period in the ambition of achieving one simple but far goal, the ‘’American Dream’’. Lennie is child-like, Mrs. Curley is a lonely and unloved wife and Candy is an old ``swamper`` in the bunkhouse, where a long part of the history takes place. In Of Mice and Men three characters make the point of the novella very clear: Lennie, Curley’s wife and Candy. The novella takes place in the 1930’s during the great depression.