“I saw men picking for meat scraps in the Garbage cans of the cities of New York and Chicago” (1932, Oscar Ameringer)
The New York post reported an even bleaker picture in the American countryside. One article even described in graphic detail how victims of the drought struggled to survive. The descriptions of malnourished children were particularly disturbing:
“Two babies, neither a year old, lay on the floor sucking the dry teats of a mongrel bitch” (1935, New York Post)
The migrant worker became understandably common in the thirties, but they were not welcomed whole heartedly by the Californians. Migrant workers would often suffer from loneliness, having sacrificed friends and family to survive but, unlike the average migrant worker, George a Lennie have each other.
“We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us” (pg103)
They share a special friendship, something other ranch workers struggle to understand. However, like those ranch hands they also needed money to survive. This would have not always been the case. It is unlikely that George and Lennie were always poor; like many at the time, they have lost what they once had. George has a humble dream, shared by many, to have “a little place an’ live off the fatta the lan’”. However, the place he imagines is a mirror image of a farm that once belonged to his grandfather. Unfortunately, George’s dream is snatched away from him by the death of Curley’s wife as it becomes almost tangible. Their dream, the American dream, is never fulfilled. America breaks its promise to George and Lennie, just as it did to so many other people in the nineteen thirties.
America also breaks its promise to Crooks, a black man who is stripped of his “unalienable rights” to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness” which is stated in the American Declaration of Independence. The reality of Crooks’ life is that he is a black man living in a white, racist world, where he is the victim of prejudice. Crooks is an educated man who breaks the stereotype of the racist. Alone on the ranch howver, he is a vulnerable target. The threat issued by Curley’s Wife holds weight and “reduces Crooks to nothing”. He knows that the word of a white woman would be believed over that of a black man. He knows that she could get him hanged. The activity of the Ku Klux Klan and the mass racism of the nineteen thirties have stripped away Crooks’ rights. The racism was so bad; that the term “nigger” is commonly used as a name for Crooks, even by ranch hands who admit to liking him.
Much like the migrant worker, Crooks suffers from loneliness and keeps adult magazines as a substitute for a whore, as he is unable to have sex with a white prostitute due to segregation. Crooks tries to explain his loneliness to Lennie,
“S’pose you didn’t have nobody, s’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house”(pg72)
He wants to be equal; he is a proud man and wants Lennie to know he “ain’t no southern negro”. He uses the dream as a comforter and, just like the migrant workers, remembers better times of when he was young on his “old man’s chicken ranch”. At one time in the book Crooks almost regains his past with Lennie and Candy, but it is snatched away as it comes into reach by the brutal attack of Curley’s Wife. Black Americans had been hanged and burned without trial on the accusation of a white woman. Curley might not be a Klan member, but he would not hesitate on whether or not he should attack Crooks. His fear is understandable.
Curley’s Wife continues to dream of a better life right up to her death. She believes she “Coulda been in the movies”, a dream many had in the nineteen thirties and continue to have today. Just like Whit, who takes pride in the fact he knows somebody who wrote a letter to a magazine, people in the nineteen thirties were desperate to be somebody. Curley’s Wife would have dreamed of being Merlene Dretrich or Clara Bow and envied the life style she read about in the celebrity magazines. In the nineteen thirties a large number of people went to the “Picture Palace” in order to escape their dismal lives. We assume that Curley’s Wife is one of them. Your ticket cost you 25cents, during the depression this less than a loaf of bread. However, your 25 cents would allow you to escape into a world of romance and glamour. For two hours at least, you would be able to forget all your problems.
Curely’s Wife’s situation however, is worse than that of the migrant workers as she is the only female on the ranch. Like Crooks she is a potential outcast, and is only able to confide in Lennie. Curley’s Wife seems to crave attention and often acts as a “tart” in the eyes of the ranch hands in order to get it. She seems stuck in a bad relationship whilst trapped in a sexist community. Curley has no affection for his wife; even when she lies dead on the barn floor he fails to tend to her but manages to mention his own broken hand. Steinbeck makes us feel very sympathetic for Curley’s Wife and gives her a “quiet”, “peaceful” death.
“And the meanness and the planning’s and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face.”(pg 91)
Her dream of becoming a movie star may not have been fulfilled, but in the end she finds peace, and the kind of death an actress might have been proud of. Steinbeck describes her as beautiful.
To summarise, “Of Mice and Men” represents all that was wrong in America during the nineteen thirties. The life of the migrant worker is portrayed through George and Lennie. Crooks represents black America and Curley’s Wife, women. Not only are these people’s lives explained, but their dreams and ambitions are also revealed. America promised a lot to many people during the depression. Poverty, loneliness, racism and sexism were all widespread in these harsh times, which only added to the severity of the situation. Ultimately these potential outcasts find sanctuary with each other; Curley’s Wife and Crooks bond, however briefly, with Lennie, while George and Lennie always have each other. We cannot help but wonder if they have been chasing the right dream. They already had what everybody else really wanted; companionship.
WORD COUNT: 1248
