Of Mice And Men Essay examples -- English Literature

Of Mice And Men The novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ reveal life in the 1930’s. A time very diverse to ours. Steinback, the author of this novel wrote about various issues such as lifestyle of the travelling ranchmen, loneliness, friendship, the American dream, racism and sexism. The book is about two migrant labourers, George Milton and Lennie Small in California. Together they have a dream to save up enough to own a farm where George is his own boss and Lennie can have animal to feed and pet. But the failure of their dream is followed by many ironic twists. In this essay, I will be discussing the main issues Steinback raised through the novel about that lifestyle that revolved around ranchmen in the early 1930’s. The main characters are George Milton and Lennie small. Lennie in the novel is the least dynamic and largely mentally challenged. He has a tendency of petting soft things even dead mice and loves puppies and rabbits. He is enormously strong but emotionally dependant on his companion George who keeps reassuring him about their future. George the other character is Lennie’s best friend. He dreams of owning his own ranch. He is very short tempered but a loving and caring person. The author shows that both the main characters live a very simple life and carry their load in a small bindle which indicates that they did not have much to own. Both the ranchmen are lonely and depend on each other for companionship. When Lennie says â€Å"But not us because...because I got you to look after me and you have got me to look after you and that's why† clearly showing the friendship, strong bond between them and the reliance on each other. Steinback shapes the ranch where George and Lennie worked in as an isolated p... ...imes, the women had very few careers and were often seen as housewives to bear children or sex objects. For example, Curley always had his one hand covered in Vaseline with a glove to keep it soft for his wife when he made love to her. In the novel, Curley’s wife’s name was not mentioned at all. She was known as ‘Curley’s wife’ throughout to emphasis that she was nothing but a possession of Curley. Curley’s wife herself did not think much of her life either because she was brought up around the same narrow minded people. This approach of men towards women was clearly partial. Overall I found the novel quiet depressing and sad. Steinback described the most critical issues of the 20th century in great depth. He’s narrative method was unremarkable but effective in a simple way and was well written by Steinback to show the tough period in American history.