Sherard Kawaley
Of mice and men essay
In ‘Of mice and Men’ several characters dream of a different and better life. Why is it not a surprise that the dreams never come true?
‘Of Mice and Men is a novel written by john Steinbeck that features the hopes and aspirations of ordinary people living very simple lives. It features very strong characters each with their own dreams of a different and better life. But of course such dreams only remain dreams because they never do come true.
The title ‘of mice and men’ is taken from a poem by a famous Scottish poet Robert Burns that quotes.
The beat laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft agley (often go wrong)
And leave us nought but grief and pain
For promised joy!
This basically means that it doesn’t matter how much you plan and dream, things very rarely go according to plan, which leaves us longing for promised dreams.
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. This may have been the reason he decided to set the novel ‘Of mice and men’ in the Salinas valleys. It was hard to live in good conditions around the time the book was set (1930-1940) because of the Wall Street crash and the great Depression that followed. It was extremely hard to get a job and if you did get a job, it would be for minimal pay. During the 1930’s there was very bad unemployment, which meant thousands of people never had a job in the USA, so agencies (like the one that Lennie and George got their work cards from, ‘Murray and Ready’s) were set up to end farm workers to where they were needed. Despite these conditions many people believed in the American dream. The theory of the American dream was taken from the 17th centaury and basically mans that in America, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from anybody can make it big and be satisfied with what they have achieved. A lot of characters in the novel also had dreams of making it big and owning something good that they have worked hard to accomplish.
