Literary Analysis Of Mice and Men

Literary Analysis Of Mice and Men

After the world war2, most of the American novelist wrote about the implausibility of contemporary life through the social and economic challenges faced after the war. One such novelist is John Steinbeck’s who, in his work, highlights his experiences of the social and economic conditions during the great depression period (Jameson). John Steinbeck’s famous novel, ‘Of Mice and Men‘ novella, deals with the reality of migrants in pursuing their dreams in a foreign country question the good and evil in the society (Hart). Steinbeck uses his experience in pursuing his writing dream in highlighting the social and economic challenges faced in the discourse of achieving the goals. Of mice and men deals with the realism of human life interaction in chasing dreams. He uses metaphoric expression, symbolism, and characterization in his novel, allowing the reader to examine and grasp the issues.

John Steinbeck is commonly known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wealth (1939) and ‘of Mice and Me’ (1937). He was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, and died on December 20, 1968. In chasing his dream of a writer, he dropped out of college and worked as a manual laborer. He was the son of John Ernst Steinbeck and a brother to three sisters. His father did various jobs to cater for his family. Was married to Carol Henning in 1930 and divorced in 1942, marrying a second wife Gwendolyn Conger 1943 and divorced in 1948. He married the third wife, Elaine Anderson Scott, whom they stayed together until his death in New York due to heart disease (Biography.com Editors).

The ‘Of Mice and Men’ is used symbolically to highlight relationships in the struggle of mice and the human being. Human beings and mice relate in many ways, including in most of their genetic composition. A mouse in its endeavors to look for food in human territory faces a threat from the humans who hate and despise the mice due to the distraction it causes. Lennie takes the mice as his pet. Lennie is vulnerable to his weakness just as the mice are a victim of their circumstances, which they cannot escape (Kennedy).  However, mice live on hope every day of getting something to the east at the end of the day without being dead. The use of a deceased pet by Lennie shows that hope is merely an unachievable dream. Lennie’s vision is to own a ranch and has a good, but the quest for this dream taunted by the reality of the social and economic difficulties in society (Kennedy). Steinbeck’s characterization revolves around the symbolic use of mice in false hope as the main characters desire to own a ranch. The mice also highlight the morality in society. Mice represent the good in the community while man is used to reflecting on the immorality in society.

Steinbeck’s central theme in the novel revolves around the issues of dreams and reality. The first chapter of the story introduces the story to the symbolic use of words to show how important the Salinas town (Meyer). The warm water represents the sought good life in the city. However, the word of George “Lennie. You are going to be sick like you were last night.”(Steinbeck) Act like a foreshadowing for the problems to face Lennie. They give caution to Lennie to fulfill the dream without getting carried away with the distractions in the world or find himself back dreaming again and in a worse situation than the present one.

Both George and Lennie have a dream of working in a ranch better than their previous one and eventually own their own. George explains the events to get the job on the new farm making them look so easy to get a job. The two portray the realities in life. Through their conversation, it is evident that friends contribute to either our failures or success in life. George asks Lennie to keep quiet or ruin the chance of getting the job while Lennie views George as a person who prevents him from enjoying life when he takes away his dead pet and throws it away (Hart). In life, however, the reality is that nobody cares for the other person. when they go out together to fulfill their passion and dreams of sticking together and helping each other even in time of trouble, they, however, figure out the reality of life. They, however, disagree on many things like the color of the rabbit they dream of having. Lennie, though to maintain the friendship, has to compromise and have different colors as George wants (Steinbeck). While at the job, George blames Lennie for not talking, yet he had instructed him so and blamed him, telling him they could have lost the job because of Lennie keeping quite.

As the novel shows, it is possible to envision a simple and enjoyable life with friends living so perfectly. However, the reality of life is that life is so imperfect and those looked upon leave in time of the problem. George and Lennie dream of a life where they can agree on everything, but they immediately disagree among themselves on little things such as the color of a rabbit. George’s control over Lennie shows the reality of life, where the strong dominate the weak. Lennie is short and with a weak leg while George is strong and taller than him; thus, most of the time, Lennie has to comply with George’s demand out of fear and intimidation (Steinbeck). This shows how society uses power to prevent a person, mostly the poor, from fulfilling their dreams from oppression and control of everything by the rich in politics.

Lennie’s characterization of a weak person with a broken leg represents the poor and the vulnerable in society. His dependence on George on everything shows how society poor depends on the rich people to provide help for their problems. He gets characterized as a humble person who is the position of the poor who are humbled by circumstances surrounding them. Lennie presents the voiceless in society. He keeps quiet even when they go to search for the ranch job and leaves George to do the talking. Lennie is used to showing the importance of speaking what is in mind and not blindly following instructions (Steinbeck). He represents the power in society through speaking out and standing out for their actions.

George Milton is, however, the protagonist in the story who, through his characterization, becomes easily hated by the audience. He has a dynamic character but uses his ability to oppress Lennie. Though George cares for Lennie, he does so in very mysterious ways since most of the time, George wants things to go his way (Hart). He has a responsibility to take care of everyone throughout the story, whereby he not only cares for Lennie but other people in the story. Through George, it is easy to identify the relationship in society between friends (Steinbeck). Usually, a good relationship is where both people treat each other equally, and all benefit from one another. However, in this relationship, George comes out as the master and Lennie as the dog. George words like, “Good boy! That’s fine, Lennie!”  (Steinbeck) He proves his power over Lennie, who seems like a slave following his master. George’s characterization represents the power of the rich in modern society where the poor follow what the rich decide without questioning. The poor mostly praise the rich when a good deed is done to them as the case of Lennie to George, who appreciates him whenever he does a good thing towards him.

Steinbeck’s experience, however, greatly influenced the story and was successful in highlighting the social and economic difficulties that he went through in his life before success. His father, due to hardship of life, undertook various jobs to take care of his family. His life is full of divorces, which highlights probably the reason he portrays the friendship theme in a lot of negativity, whereby he shows that nobody is trustworthy, even your closest friend can lead to your downfall. In society today, most of the people only wish success for themselves. And would make anything possible to make sure that even their friends do not rise above them. The relationship between George and Lennie was a good one before coming to search for the job, but after the job, the relationship somehow weakened (Kennedy). Through this, Steinbeck shows that the economic hard times changed society since everybody was concerned with how to survive and no longer valued the other person. This is true when looked into very critically in today’s society, where it is every man for himself and God for us all. Everybody, even the politicians, is mainly concerned about how to fetch and benefit themselves wealth wise at the expense of the poor person.

Works Cited

Biography.com Editors. “John Steinbeck.” Biography, 2014, https://www.biography.com/writer/john-steinbeck.

Hart, Richard E. “Moral experience in Of Mice and Men: Challenges and reflection.” The Steinbeck Review 1.2 (2004): 31-44.

Jameson, J. Larry. “Of mice and men: the tale of steroidogenic factor-1.” (2004): 5927-5929.

Kennedy, Barbara K. “Similarities and differences between mice and humans revealed | Penn State University”.News.Psu.Edu, 2014, https://news.psu.edu/story/335451/2014/11/19/research/similarities-and-differences-between-mice-and-humans-revealed

Meyer, Michael. J. The Essential Criticism of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Scarecrow Press.2009

Steinbeck, John. OF MICE AND MEN. Viking Penguin, 1937, pp.1-54, https://www.nhc.ac.uk/media/2840/steinbeck-john-of-mice-and-men.pdf