Of Mice and Men by John Ernst Steinbeck Essay

Of Mice and Men was written by John Ernst Steinbeck. This book was published in 1937. This is a tale about an extraordinary friendship between two migrant labourers during the Great Depression who shared the same dream of having their own ranch ‘living on their own land’. They moved on to a new job after they ran away from their previous job in a hurry, following an incident involving the larger of the two men. Here they met new people as well as trouble along their job in the ranch with the boss’ son who greatly dislikes big people, and his wife who likes flirting with the boys a lot. In a fight Lennie tried to defend himself against Curley but he still kept punching Lennie, he decided he had enough so he fought back and when he saw the opportunity he grabbed Curley’s hands and crushed it. He also accidentally killed his wife while stroking her hair in the barn which George was really crossed about and decided to kill him for their own good. The Great Depression occurred during the 1930’s (year when this book was published) when the American Stock Market on Wall Street crashed catastrophically and led to a massive economic depression, which greatly affected America and some parts of the world that resulted to workers migrated all over the country to find jobs. Lennie & George were migrant farm worker who moved from one place to another to find work. They became migrant workers because of the trouble that they caused at their old place, which urged them to get on the run and find a new job. George is small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes (might be a bit worried) and having sharp, strong features Lennie is his complete opposite a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders; and walks heavily dragging his feet a little, like the way a bear drags its paws and with arms hanging loosely. This shows us how animal-like Lennie is. Workers in the ranch live in a bunk house ‘a long rectangular, building’ which could accommodate up to 8 people in their own bunks. George’s first thoughts about the bunk house was dirty and unhygienic infested with tiny bugs; which came into his mind when he found a small yellow can on the box shelf which was supposed to kill tiny bugs and insects. The bunk house, which they were living in, was quiet big but without privacy as there were no individual rooms, an infested bunk house with an old dog going in and out which we don’t know what kind of insect it might be carrying. The overall condition in this bunk house depends mainly on its occupiers of being clean and hygienic. Migrant workers like Lennie and George haven’t got stability; they go to the ranch mainly to work and get paid then get on with their lives. Most of their work placement isn’t permanent they haven’t got stability at all, it mainly depends with the contract they have, which often wouldn’t last that long because of different factors that’s why they couldn’t make any long-term plans. Migrant workers are the loneliest guys in the world they’ve got no friends. They have no family and don’t belong to no place. They’ve got no one to talk to, and no one cares about them. It’s difficult for a migrant worker to have friend to accompany each other. ‘Hardly none of the guys ever travel together’ unlike Lennie and George that gives them an extraordinary friendship. Guys in the ranch just come in the bunk, work for a month and go out alone. Lennie and George are different because they got each other to look after themselves that makes them quiet unusual. I would find it rather difficult to make friends if I work as a migrant worker. I would feel uneasy with myself going to a strange place and meeting and befriending new people. As what Slim said ‘it’s a bit odd two people coming together, usually a person come and go with no one to look up to’. Lennie and George shares a common dream the ambition of having a little house and a piece of land of their own ‘an live off the fatta the lan’; they dreamed of having a better life with their land having a garden, a little win’ mill, a rabbit cage, an’ a chicken run. In which they could grow different sorts of crops and raise some farm animals ranging from chickens to cows and specially rabbits that Lennie is so keen about. This dream means a lot to them saving up all their monthly stakes for this to materialise, their dream gives them hope and determination and most importantly this means their future. In the novel not only George and Lennie have dream but also Curley’s wife who regrettably married Curley when she could have gone with someone richer and famous guys. She imagined herself acting and living in luxury if she had run away with the other guys instead of Curley, she ‘coulda been in the movies, and had a nice clothes, with pictures taken of her. She could be sittin’ in them big hotels and it wouldn’t even cost her a cent because she was in the picture. This was her once in a lifetime chance, which she deeply regrets; if only she had run away with the guys she could be rich by now. Everyone in during the depression dreamed of having their own land, thinking that they could live better off with themselves. Most of them shared a common goal the ‘American Dream’. People in the ranch has nowhere to go to so they spend most of their time dreaming of their own place but even if they worked hard enough they won’t be able to save enough to move on in life. Even George was tempted to go with them to the cat-house leaving Lennie behind and spending money on their account. Even if they got their own place they were always doomed to failure of history repeating itself about Lennie, which was their huge pitfall. These people had dreams thinking they could live much better on their own life with no one controlling them. These ambitions are good for them giving them something to look forward to, to give them hope and determination that one day they would be able to achieve their dream. But somehow it would be bad to have these dreams and living on a fantasy world that some how we know, doesn’t exist. Most of the people in the ranch are victims of prejudice because of their incapabilities, race or physical appearance. Prejudice means to ‘pre-judge’ someone, it is an attitude of mind on any topic which encourages us to ‘prejudge’ those who differ from us in some way. Racism, Discrimination, Scapegoating and Stereotyping are some forms of applied prejudice. Candy is the only oldest person in the ranch that’s why he is treated with prejudice adding to the fact to that he had lost his hand, which makes him feel very useless. His dog was shot because he was powerless to stop them because he was just an old man and most of the people wants his dog dead; he was depending on how Slim would react to help him save his dog but Slim turned him down. He was the only chance he had to stop his dog from being executed. He also has the least respected job being the cleaner or â€Å"swamper† as it’s called. Curley’s wife is treated with prejudice from the fact she is the Boss’ daughter-in-law. Her flirtatious attitude contributes to the way she is treated. She not only wants some one to talk to, she wants someone to open-up with to share her loneliness and to express her feelings. Some men have different feelings for her like Whit and Lennie are attracted to her but George and Candy despise her. But she’s well aware of the power she holds over men even though she’d just been there for a few weeks. She doesn’t let anybody step on her and treats her like dust, she annoys them even more if she knows the person doesn’t like her. Crooks is the worst victim of prejudice to the extent that he is treated in a different way being segregated from other guys because he is black. Being a black man he is the subject of verbal and physical degradation. He is sole survivor; he shows us that he is a fighter who doesn’t easily get degraded. Even though he is segregated he has his own room, which not all of them have, and he has the most numerous belongings. Even though he is the victim he also shows us his manipulative way because he knows he could be dominate over Lennie in which he saw h over Lennie but Lennie quickly got off of the bait and showed him that he is still the lowest of all ranks in the ranch. Surely no one would like to be treated in such manner of ‘Prejudging’ others without knowing the reasons behind it. It is usually were evil starts. Most of the time it results to discrimination and racism that, are often accompanied by either physical or verbal aggression; this is a form of prejudice in action. I strongly disagree to someone treating anyone with prejudice. Prejudice is such an evil way of thinking; only people with a clear evil intention and malicious mind would do that. I don’t think their lives are appealing. I don’t want to live like migrant workers moving from one place to another, I would like a permanent job and permanent place where I can have stability. They also have to understand the people around them and adjust to their new environment. They also got to bare the loneliness; people like them got no one to talk to, no families, and no place to live. They have no directions in life; in the ranch people are going nowhere. They come in to work then come out, spend all their monthly stakes and come back to work again. They migrate from their town because there is no work to be found around it. So they spent most of their time migrating depending on their contract.