What issues was John Steinbeck trying to make us think about in "Of Mice and Men"? Do these issues have any relevance today, almost seventy years after the book was first published?

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What issues was John Steinbeck trying to make us think about in

“Of Mice and Men”?

Do these issues have any relevance today, almost seventy years after the book was first published?

 

“Of Mice and Men” is a novella by John Steinbeck, first published in 1937, which tells the tragic story of George and Lennie, two displaced itinerant migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression (1929-1939). The Great Depression was the period of mass unemployment that followed the Wall Street Crash (1929), it forced many on to the streets, so huge numbers headed to the intensely famed areas on the west coast in search of employment. Many of these workers, like George and Lennie, ended up on ranches scraping together what money they to live the “American Dream” but usually many ended up wasting their weeks pay in a “cat house”. The “American Dream” being the achievement of a meaningful, happy and wealthy life, through hard work and honest pay. The story is set on a ranch few miles from Soledad in the Salinas Valley. An area which John Steinbeck is was well acquainted to as he was born in the town of Salinas further north. Also Steinbeck had worked as a ranch-hand and casual labourer, giving him a priceless knowledge of the kind of life lead by George and Lennie at the ranch. The title of the book comes from a popular passage from a poem by Robert Burns. "The best-laid schemes o mice an men, Gang aft agley" (Eng: "Often go awry"). Theoretically, the mouse is Lennie who is lost in the big world in which he has to find a way to survive. The man refers to George who takes the mouse in and shows it the way. The scheme referring to the dream ranch that so many workers have in their mind, and just like the passage explains, this dream of Lennie, George and Candy fails. John Steinbeck does not, in the novella, refer to the two’s past in detail and only the incident in Soledad (Lennie accused of rape), that Lennie was raised by his “aunt Clara” and that George “promised” “aunt Clara” he’d take care of Lennie are the only details given.

There are many different issues raised by John Steinbeck in “Of Mice and Men”, and some of these issues can relate to our modern lifestyles today, almost seventy years on from when the novella was first published. I will examine the different issues and see if they do have any relevance to us today and if parallels can be drawn from the issues that rose in everyday life back then with the issues that rise in our everyday lives today.

Firstly, nature. Nature plays a big part in showing both the physical environment of the ranch area as well as the mental nature of the ranch workers. The novella is started off by a vivid description of the natural world around the ranch and the novella finishes in a very natural environment with more vivid descriptions. Clearly nature is an integral part of the message conveyed by John Steinbeck in the novella with many examples at the heart of the novella.  

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John Steinbeck shows the natural world to be enticingly beautiful and harmonious but threatened by the actions of man; it is a stark contrast to the harshness of the man made environment of the ranch houses etc. The beginning of the novella sets this trend. Steinbeck gives a vivid, detailed description of the natural environment at the pool which is then disturbed abruptly by “two men” (George and Lennie). “The rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover”. The ranch and its buildings, being man-made, are in contrast with the natural world. The bunkhouse, for example, is bare and stark. Even more unnatural ...

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