To what extent is Of Mice and Men a pessimistic novel?
English Assignment
To what extent is Of Mice and Men a pessimistic novel?
By Sion Brooks 11N
To what extent is Of Mice and Men a pessimistic novel?
Of Mice and Men is set during the depression of the 1930's in California in a place called Soledad. Men travelled around looking for any work they could find usually on ranches, they had to leave families and homes just to make money. Even firms and companies went bankrupt, these were depressing and desperate times with no hope and no future for the ranch workers at all. But does Of Mice and Men reflect these times? Does it offer a depressing, bleak outline on life and say that there's no future or hope for any of us? In other words is it a pessimistic novel? Or is Of Mice and Men just a sad and tragic tale of two friends having their hopes and dreams tarnished in the blink of an eye, similar in vain to Romeo and Juliet? At this point in time I would have to say yes, it is a pessimistic novel, well mostly anyway, but read on and see what you think.
Lets look at the characters, George is not a strong man physically, but what he is lacking physically he makes up for in his mentality. Although his abundance of mental strength does not become apparent until later in the story, it is fairly obvious from the beginning that his physical strength is lacking. Lennie, on the other hand, is physically "strong as a bull", according to George, but mentally is a weak as George is physically. Together, as they travel from place to place looking for their chance at making their dream a reality, they use each other's strong points to help them complete the task. Lennie would never be able to survive on his own because of his mental disabilities and George would almost certainly not be aiming to reach his dream were he not travelling around with Lennie. George has plenty of brainpower while Lennie has plenty of strength, what one is lacking the other has an ample amount of. George and Lennie are the perfect example of how opposites attract "Cause I got you and you got me". The two of them have spent the majority of their adult lives together and know each other better than they know anybody else in the entire world. They share their hard times and the good, their victories and their defeats.
The first chapter in the novel is quite pessimistic what with the bus driver who's too lazy to drive George and Lennie all the way to the ranch. This presents quite a negative view of people in general, it says to me that this man couldn't care less about his fellow man, he didn't care whether George or Lennie suffered at all because of his actions, he's just too selfish to care. It's a pretty grim view of people who just don't care about anyone else. Later on in the chapter, when George is sitting by Lennie next to the river George explains how ranch workers like themselves haven't got any future to look forward to and how they just drift from ranch to ranch looking for work, George sighs "Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world" which is quite a glum and depressing look on life and doesn't fill you with hope and joy at all. He then says how he wishes he were like all the other ranch hands going nowhere in life:
"When the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town...Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool"
In other words George would be no different to any of the other ranch hands, doing the same thing over and over every month. But then the pessimism ends when Lennie reminds George of the dream they both share together, and this is what distinguishes them both from all the other ranch hands. George explains the complete opposite of what he just said about ...
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"When the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town...Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool"
In other words George would be no different to any of the other ranch hands, doing the same thing over and over every month. But then the pessimism ends when Lennie reminds George of the dream they both share together, and this is what distinguishes them both from all the other ranch hands. George explains the complete opposite of what he just said about them having no future and talks about their dream they both share and will eventually fulfil. That dream is of having "a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs an "live off the fatta the lan", where Lennie can take care of the rabbits just as George has been taking care of him over the years. This is very uplifting and a very positive attitude towards life and a belief that things will eventually get better. I think without Lennie constantly reminding George about this dream, George would forget about it because of the many other distractions in his life and turnout with the same attitude towards life and other people as the other ranch hands. The dream keeps George and Lennie's relationship full of hope and humanity.
Upon arriving at the ranch though these positive feelings towards life are soon shattered by people such as Carlson and Curley. Curley is always trying to gain authority by terrorising others especially "Big Guys" like Lennie as he's intimidated by his size "He hates big guys...he's one of them guys who's always scrappy". His attitude towards Lennie is antagonistic and this appears as a bad omen. The message the novel is putting across is no matter how nice a person you are and even if you've done nothing wrong, there's always someone who'll oppose and hate you like Curley. So basically may as well lay low and not respect everyone because its obvious most other people won't respect you, this is a very negative and pessimistic view. Later on in the novel Curley even attacks Lennie for only smiling while he thought of his dream:
"Curley's eyes slipped on past on landed on Lennie: and Lennie was still smiling with delight at the memory of the ranch...Curley then slashed down at Lennie with his left"
This just makes you think what is the point in believing your going to achieve something when if you do your just going to get hurt, it makes you think what's the point in having a dream? But Curley's not the only inhumane character in Of Mice and Men. Carlson takes away single most important thing in Candy's life in a single bullet, his dog. Candy has lived a long and hard life on the ranch and has nothing to show for it. During his time on the ranch he has lost his hand, grown old, and feels that he has become worthless all he has is his dog. Funnily enough thinking of the word you think of "candy" brings up images of happy children eating it while running around in a yard having a good time without a care in the world, which is the exact opposite of what the character in the novel is. The restless demon of age has caught up with him and he is not able to move as fast as he once did; even his dog is unable to ward off the negative effects of time and this is quite depressing thinking he's worked almost all his life and has this at the end of the day to show for it. Candy loves his dog with all of his heart; it has been his best friend for years. He appreciates all of the joy and loyalty that his once great dog has brought to him during his life and is ready to let his friend now live out the rest of his natural life. Unfortunately for Candy, that is not the way that some of the other people in the bunkhouse see it, Carlson says:
"This ol' dog jus' suffers hisself all the time. If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head... right there, why he'd never know what hit him".
Carlson even offers to give him a new dog to replace the one that he is about to destroy. The way that Candy sees it is that he is not hurting anyone and that there is no reason to have to end his life prematurely. But no one else in the bunkhouse agrees, Candy makes some desperate attempts at saving his dog but is unsuccessful, it seems that an old man has no chance of standing up to the younger men in this modern world and so the dog is shot.
"The old dog got slowly and stiffly to his feet and followed the gently pulling leash...Candy lay rigidly on his bed staring at the ceiling"
This scene like the fighting scene with Lennie and Curley both conjure up feelings of desperateness and hopelessness and just makes you ask the question, what's the point in living, if I'm living like this?
Not all the characters on the ranch are aggressive like Curly and unfeeling like Carlson; Slim was very humane and very friendly towards George and Lennie and sticks up for Lennie during the fight scene between him and Curley. He is most of all intrigued by George and Lennie's friendship and tries to understand their relationship after all "aint many guys travel round together...maybe everybody in the whole damn world is scared of each other" This really sums up what it was like for the ranch workers, none of them were real good friends with each other, none of them were as close to each other as George and Lennie, who are like brothers. Finding two people who were as close as George and Lennie must've been very rare and highlights how depressing it would've been with hardly anyone liking each other that much. It's very uplifting to think that among all these other ranch workers who were going no where in life were two very good friends who WERE going somewhere in life, they had a future.
This next scene demonstrates how much hope the dream gave to other people not just Lennie and George. The scene is not at all pessimistic, straight after the scene where Candy's dog is shot comes a scene where Candy goes from being distraught and possibly suicidal to a feeling of hope and feeling that there is a meaning to his life. Candy offers money he has saved up to George to help buy the ranch where the three of them could live "off the fat o' the land" and not work for anyone else, just themselves. They'd return to their natural home. "We'd have our own place where we belonged". George, at first hesitates, but then warms to the idea and accepts, they then realise that they are now very close to their dream coming true and so all three of them become very excited by the idea that their future and aim in life is close at hand and more concrete and attainable than ever before. They were finally getting out of the normal routine for ranch workers and they were very excited "They all sat still, bemused by the beauty of the thing". This is not being pessimistic at all and is the complete opposite to the bleak episode, which occurred prior to this scene. This scene is full of hope and excitement and a sense of euphoria.
The beauty of the natural world features strongly in this novel as does the description of sunlight to convey an elevating feeling of happiness. The first two paragraphs of the novel is just a detailed description of the first scene (the brush next to the river). Probably because despite all the inhumane, aggressive things, the humans do, nature is still undisturbed by it all and will always remain beautiful.
George and Lennie have the same relationship that Candy and his dog have shared for so many years. They are as close to each other as they ever have been. As the story closes, George, in a somewhat noble act of kindness, makes the effort to find Lennie before any of the workers from the ranch cane and then when Lennie is looking towards the stream still imagining the dream, George shoots him in the head. Lennie's death is not entirely a pessimistic end though, he died still and believing he was going to pursue the dream and live in eternal happiness with the rabbits. He was also killed by his companion, his friend, not by someone who wanted him dead for the wrong reasons like Curly would've. This is unlike Candy's dog, which was killed by Carlson and not by its owner who was practically the only one who cared for him. George killed him because it was what any good friend would've done, George didn't want Lennie to get caught and be locked up in some terrible prison, so he did what was best for Lennie and killed him. The setting is described as quite tranquil "A water snake glided smoothly up the pool...the sycamore trees turned up their silver side...row on row of tiny wind waves flowed up the pools green surface" not a place where you'd expect a killing to take place. The actual killing itself is not described in a bloodthirsty way either instead it is quite emotional "he bought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head...he pulled the trigger". This scene is not pessimistic because Lennie believed they were still going to live the dream and this is written quite beautifully.
There seems to be a balance between the good and the bad. Whenever there's an act of violence or aggression it is tempered by kindness and understanding in the next scene. Although there was always a feeling in the back of my head that something bad was going to happen later on in the novel, I didn't think for one minute they'd fur fill their dream. There were always suggested comments being made that suggesting that something will happen later on, for example, George tells Lennie to keep well away from the "rat trap" Curley's wife. You can tell after the incident in Weed that something is obviously going to happen between Lennie and Curley's wife. So in conclusion I'd say that Of Mice and Men, for about half or maybe 5/8 the novel has a pessimistic, bleak outlook on life, but the rest of the novel is positive and uplifting.
Evaluation
When looking at the theme of Steinbeck's novel, we should first look at the title, which is an extract from a line of a poem by Robert Burns:
" The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft aglay."
Which translated in to modern English is:
" The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry. "
This statement is the base of the novel and serves as an insight of what is to come, as the novels two main characters do have a future, a specific dream of changing their lives. The tragedy, of course, is that no matter how much George and Lennie plan and regardless of how much they hope and dream, their plans never come true.
This is a story of defeated hope. George and Lennie are poor homeless migrant workers, doomed to a life of wandering and labour. George and Lennie desperately cling to the thought that they are different from other workers who drift from ranch to ranch because, unlike others, they have each other and a future.
But characters like Crooks and Curley's Wife serve as reminders that George and Lennie are no different from anyone else.
By killing Lennie, George eliminates an immense burden and a threat to his own life
(Lennie, of course, never threatened George directly but his actions had put George's life in danger). The tragedy is that George, in effect, is forced to shoot his only companion, who made him different than many other workers, as well his own dream and admit that it has his plans have gone hopelessly wrong.
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.
Sion Brooks 11N
N.B
I don't think I used the fact that Steinbeck describes a lot of the natural world very well in this assignment to create a positive atmosphere very well, please suggest ways I could improve that section.
Also I added the evaluation part at the last minute as I found the meaning of the title at the last minute on the Internet and I didn't have time to rewrite the conclusion with this new information in it, sorry.
