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Mice and Men essays - John Steinbeck
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Explore the presentation of George and Lennie’s friendship. You mustconsider the context of the novel in your answer.
In the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ Steinbeck stresses the importance and abnormality of
the friendship between George and Lennie by using a variety of techniques. They
are complete opposites, yet share a journey through the struggles of The Great
Depression in the 1930’s as friends and have faith in the same dream which inspires
hope. These two itinerant workers meet many people along their journey, but the
bond between them doesn’t weaken. George and Lennie’s friendship can express
and heighten the loneliness of the other workers. Steinbeck also portrays that their
friendship is based on Geroge’s commitment and is almost like a father figure
towards Lennie.
George and Lennie’s relationship is unusual in this time period. Loneliness is one of
the key themes expressed in Mice of Men. The novella starts with the setting of
‘soldedad’, which translates from Spanish to ‘solitude’, so loneliness is immediately
established as an important theme in Of Mice and Men.George and Lennie stand out
because their friendship means that they are not isolated making some others (like
the Boss) suspicious of them. Steinbeck shows how the lifestyle that the men lead is
very damaging to their relationships, making them lack compassion for others, which
links to the theme of masculine toxicity and violence which results because of it.
George demonstrates their friendship when he says, “Guys like us, that work on
ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no
place... With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that
gives a damn about us.”. George uses the pronouns they and we to emphasise how
different he and Lennie are from other men who work on ranches. During the Great
Depression, there was also the dust bowl, where a drought swept the land and
destroyed the crops. Many farmers migrated to California to look for work, as this
state was perceived to have spare land and a lot of work. However, because so
many people moved to California (an estimated 1.3 million), work was not so easy to
find. Ranch workers like George and Lennie often moved from one place to another
looking for work, as jobs on ranches would be temporary and seasonal. Wages for
men like these were low and jobs were scarce, so the lifestyle that they lived was
very insecure. Without work, people would have no way of supporting themselves.
This is why the dream is so important to George and Lennie: it would give them a
sense of safety and independence. Additionally, another way Steinbeck supports the
idea of the atypical friendship of George and Lennie is when Slim suggest that there
might be a romantic relationship between them as he asserts, “Ain't many guys travel
around together”, emphasising the idiosyncrasy idea of their friendship.
Steinbeck presents George and Lennie’s relationship as well committed which
contrasts with the workers lifestyle as many were only temporary. Some may argue
that their relationship works out well because George is almost a father figure
towards Lennie rather than a friend. However, although their friendship is
unbreakable it could be said that it was also the matter which set them apart. George
and Lennie recognise that they are different because they have each other and
understand that this is very important for them. Lennie repeats , “But not us! An’
why? Because... because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after
you, and that’s why.”. The way that Lennie repeats this sentence to George
demonstrates that he has learnt it through saying it many times, as he cuts George
, off to complete this mantra. Even though George sometimes gets annoyed with
Lennie, their friendship is the most important thing in both of their lives and it means
that they protect each other. George takes this to an extreme length by killing Lennie
at the end of the book in order to shield him from Curley. Perhaps this is commitment
in itself as George killed him quick and painlessly whereas Curley would have
painfully dragged it out and seeked revenge through his pugnacious nature. For
example, lyniching was a very common way of death in the 1930’s. Also, Steinbeck
presents their friendship
abnormality
commitment
power
Show how Curley’s Wife is significant in the novel. You must consider the
context of the novel in your answer.
Shows discrimination \ lonliness and masculine toxilinity / dreams
John Steinbeck’s novella placed in the 1930’s signifies themes and values of life at
that time during the Great Depression which occured in 1929. Steinbeck uses
Curley’s wife as a vessel to portray the significant themes and to teach readers
about history of America. The important themes represented by Curley’s wife is
sexual discrimination, lonliness perhaps due to masculine toxicity and dreams.
Curley’s wife endures endless sexual discrimination throughout the novella. Firstly,
the fact that she doesn’t even own her own name implies she is a possession of
Curley’s and is not her own person suggesting male superiority. Curley’s wife is often
recalled as a ‘tart’ and a ‘rat trap’. Her character demonstrates the misogyny of
women in the 1930’s Women were seen as the property of their husbands and they
had to take care of them and do their bidding. Curley didn't let his wife leave the
farm or talk to the other men working there and she was frustrated with it. Because
she was a woman, she had limited freedoms. When America joined World War II
that not only created jobs for many men but it also broke down the standards of
women. Women started working in factories and other places that were typically a
man's workplace. When the war ended and the soldiers came home, the women
were already working their jobs and from then it was much more acceptable for a
woman to hold a job. John steinbeck uses Curley’s wife to project the discrimination
of the farm by other charachters too which is implied when she says ‘left all the weak
ones here’. As much as she receives mistreatment she doesn’t fail to hand out sly
and cruel comments to those below her on the hierarchical system such as Crooks.
When she says, "I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny.". It
shows the power she holds over Crooks. The sexual discrimination Candy’s wife
undergoes assists other themes explored in the novel such as lonliness because of
the misogyny.
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