Of Mice and Men.

English

Of Mice and Men

I am going to write about the way Steinbeck creates and describes outsiders. John Steinbeck writes from own past experience and uses it to inform us, as he worked on ranches and wrote about what he experienced in his time. In 1936 a novella about two migrant farm labourers who represent of a class that desire for a home, of which it seems they perpetually deprived. In order to gain perspective into the lives in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck uses themes and language of the troubling times of the Great Depression in America and Steinbeck’s own past experience.

‘Of Mice and Men’ reflects the time of early experience in ranch life were chronicles a time of social disintegration and a mass of unemployment. Employers continually rewarded the employees with bad pay, insecure work and dangerous working conditions unlike the working society we have today. This was major pressure on Americans at the time and caused depression and isolation, mostly common to blacks, racial prejudice from whites towards black people. Blacks were always being discriminated against in all areas of life and were frequently victims if something was wrong.

The novella ‘Of Mice and Men’, Crooks demonstrates this. Crook’s was employed to be a stable buck (takes care of the horses). He is the only black worker on the ranch; he is a proud and lonely man who has to live apart from the other workers who were white. He shares his lodgings with no one but him self. Crooks is banned from the bank house because he is black. The only relief and comfort he obtains is from competing in the horse shoe game and caring for the horses. Steinbeck introduces Crooks into the novel well, by describing the character with considerable pity and sympathy; this is shown by the continually detailing of Crooks’ crooked back. Steinbeck describes Crooks as an outcast by the colour of his skin. There is no doubt that Crooks would be lynched if Curley’s wife chose to pick on him instead of Lennie. Steinbeck shows us the time at Christmas when Crooks was invited into the bunkhouse, he was constantly picked on for a fight, it was made out that it was normal for Crooks to be picked on. The others saw no reason why Crooks should not be their victim just because he is black, although because of his back injury allowances were made.

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George and Lennie are outcasts and exiles, the reason being that they are itinerant workers and they are always together. Steinbeck plays on George and lennie for that reason, they go everywhere together whereas compare to other people at that moment and time many people worked and went places on their own. Earlier in the novella Slim emphasises that it is unusual for guys to travel around together he said “Ain’t many guys travel round together” this shows us how unique and special George and Lennies’ relationship is and shows that both the characters are outsiders. The ranch workers have noticed that they have come together to the ranch to work and immediately see the two as a pair and therefore they treat them similarly because it is not normal in their point of view for two men to travel together. The scene were George killed Lennie instead of the other ranch workers wanting to kill him for suffocating Curley’s wife, unintentionally, immediately eliminates an immense burden and a threat to Georges life and he may now no longer be classed as an outsider by the ranch workers because he is now alone which is normal according to the workers at that time. His new burden is now hopelessness and loneliness, the life of a homeless ranch worker. Slim’s comfort at the end “You hadda George “indicates the sad truth that you have to surrender your dreams in order to survive, not the easiest of things to do in America.

Curley’s wife, I think is described well by Steinbeck; she also is an outcast which is the main theme that I am writing about. For instances Steinbeck simply names Curley’s wife ‘Curley’s wife’ throughout the story, because her name is not mentioned and she is only identified as ‘Curley’s wife’ is a good way in my opinion to show then character as an outsider because it indicates that she is not a main character and that she is not all that important as she is only referred to as ‘Curley’s wife’, it also shows that no one ever stays long enough to get close enough to her to find out her real name because they will most likely be threatened by Curley who was some control and command over the ranch because his father owns it, so the workers try to stay away from Curley’s wife because they fear they will be canned (dismissed). The ranch workers know full well to stay away from Curley’s wife because it is her who finds them because she is bored and just wants company.

Soon after George and Lennie arrive at the ranch Curley’s wife is there to greet them and she immediately catches Lennie’s eye and Lennie almost falls for her until George explains to him the what would happen if he got involved with her. She appears at the door of the bunkhouse and later Crooks’s room pretending to be looking for him when she is actually looking for company, as if they can afford to care when their jobs and physical well being are at stake, she says “Think I don’t like to talk to somebody ever once in awhile? Think I like to stick in that house alla time?”

Although Curley’s wife likes to flirt, her isolation is genuine; she says “Sat’iday night. Ever’body out doin’ som’pin. Ever’body! An ‘what am I doin ‘? Standin’ here talking to a bunch of bindle stiffs an’ likin’ it because they ain’t no body else” there is no way out of her alienation from the other characters on the ranch, who are all men. When she develops her ill fated relationship with Lennie she tells him she gets awful lonely, and like Crooks, appeals to him to understand how she feels.

To Curley’s wife’s disappointment at not being in the movies, as says she had an opportunity to be in them, she marries Curley and soon regrets it.

This brings my essay to an end as Steinbeck also finds other ways to develop the theme of loneliness and outsiders by the near by town called, Soledad and Crooks’s birthplace, means lonely in Spanish. George can so often be found playing solitaire, a card game for one player is a reminder that George will soon discover we are all alone in the end. In my opinion the main reason for being an outsider is probably because they have not been accepted into the group (ranch workers) and therefore they will feel lonely and an outcast.

Of Mice and Men.

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