Of Mice and Men - American dream

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Mohammed Hussein Ahmed (Asghar Yusuf)

Of Mice and Men

John Ernest Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. From a very small age he loved books, his mother Olive would constantly read fairly tales to him and therefore at the age of five he was a fluent reader. In the later years he studied and also worked in New York and various other places, where he gained his experiences, found ideas etc which resulted in him writing many books and articles such as The Pearl (1947) – in which a poor diver finds a spectacular pearl but it brings only disaster. He died due to heart failure in December 1968 and buried in his home land, Salinas, California and in his lifetime had written eight spectacular books.

Of Mice and Men came about in John Steinbeck’s mind when he was undertaking a series of unskilled jobs, farm labourer, manuals etc. Working in the ranches had given him an idea and a whole new experience and this became the setting of the famous well known novel, it was published in 1937 and was an immediate success. But the original title of the book was not Of Mice and Men but was actually Something that Happened, Steinbeck chose Of Mice and Men from a Scottish poet who in his poem wrote ‘…the best laids plans O’ Mice and Men aft gang agly’ this meant that the best plans often go wrong in Scottish. The book was such a hit that it was re-written for plays, became a film staring famous actors, was also used in an educational technique etc.

The distressing tale is about a fascinating friendship between two rare roaming workers at the time of the great depression in the years of the 1930s. It shows how the great “American dream” is emulsified.

The book is embossed with history, particularly the great depression. Consequently after the fall of the New York Wall Street stock market in 1929, the United States lunged into an economic break down, which meant unemployed people, failed businesses, poverty etc. People / migrants travelled to California to seek jobs in ranches but there was drought and crops died, this meant that people had to work short term, with poorly paid contracts etc. In the story George and Lennie represent the migrant workers, they have dreams as they are in the so called ‘the promise land’, California.

George and Lennie are the two central characters and heart of the tale. They are two different and surprisingly unique friends. George the ideal migrant who is desperately looking to be employed but is dragged down by Lennie who is mentally dim-witted and is very reliant. George also has a very bad temper this is because of all the time Lennie messes up his plans resulting in George having to get him out of trouble and escaping to look for another job, getting them back to square one, an example of this situation would be when they had a job in a ranch in Weed and Lennie was accused of rape. After running from the ranch and finding a safe area outside Weed George looses his temper and states that without Lennie he would be better off, Lennie tries to be clever and uses reverse physiology so that he can be sure that George is only saying this and not meaning it, he also wants to make himself feel wanted. They both hide their need of company and don’t like loneliness as George says to Slim ‘it’s a lot nicer to go around with a guy that you know’. Lennie is a nature lover, as in the book he loves animals even when they are dead. He underestimates his strength resulting in trouble, he personifies a little child stuck in a massive adult body, has a short term memory, he relies on George to tell him what to do and for survival as it quotes in the book ‘Get him Lennie. Don’t let him do it’ this might also mean that sometimes George takes advantage of certain situations and orders Lennie to obey him, good or bad. This friendship exists not because they like each other, but exists upon duty and pity to Lennie’s Aunt Clara and George has taken responsibility. Lennie with his child like mind is hard to please and therefore George has created a dream, this is the factor that makes them different and keeps them going so that they can reach that dream, George knows that this vision will not come true because of the shortage of money, but apart from this he uses this dream to drive them ahead no matter what. Nearing the end of the novel after Lennie has run into problems again, he runs to the only place which he knows for safety, as the mob of people that want to kill Lennie for what he has done get closer to him, the friendship extends in George and he doesn’t want Lennie to suffer and decides to do what is right. This is the heartbreaking moment of the story and shows how the American dream was broken apart until there was no more, but in this case Lennie was the one that caused the problems, he was the reason the dream fell apart and without him the dream might exceed and become a reality as George says that he would be rich and have a stable job if he was alone, he would have no duty or pity to Lennie’s Aunt.

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In the ranch they meet Candy the old alienated man with one hand. His only friend is his old smelly dog, in some ways the dog and himself were similar as when they were young they worked hard and got praise but now that they are old they do not get praised. Other workers on the ranch see them as useless and Candy know this making the thought of the being kicked out his greatest fear, as he states in the book ‘I wont have no place to go, an’ I cant get no more jobs’. Because of this ...

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