The Great Depression In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

1024 Words5 Pages
The difficult life of the Great Depression in the 1930s is portrayed in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. People suffer from economic shortage, they lose trust to each other, bullying is surrounding the society. Steinbeck subtly and indirectly uses allegories to bring out the moral message of the impossibility of the american dream, the fate of the weak, and discrimination and isolation. Steinbeck presents the impossibility of the american dream through George, Lennie, and Candy, reflecting the hopelessness of the people in the Great Depression. In the story, George is allegorized as the average man. He has the american dream, yet the circumstances of the society show him the impossibility to achieve the dream. George’s american dream is to…show more content…
In the story, Candy’s dog, Lennie’s puppy, and Lennie is allegorized as the weak. Steinbeck put them into the same fate, conveying the fate of the weak people in the Great Depression. Candy’s dog is executed because of its weakness.Candy takes care of his dog since it is a pup. The relationship between them is extremely strong, Candy never wants to leave him. However, affection can not change the fate of the weak. Regardless of Candy’s feeling, Carlson shoots Candy’s dog. Plus, here shows the foreshadowing of Lennie’s death. Steinbeck mirror Candy and his dog with George and Lennie, both develop a good relationship. After Candy’s dog die, Candy says he rather shoot it himself, it foreshadows the death of Lennie, and he is going to be killed by Lennie. Lennie kills his puppy without any meanness, reflects on the fate of the weak. Lennie’s pup is weak, which it gets easily killed. Lennie’s pup’s death demonstrates the fate of the weak people in the Great Depression, many people suffer from food shortage, many people are physically weak which they can hardly make ends meet or even can hardly survive. Steinbeck enhances the moral message of the fate of the weak by showing how George executes Lennie, Lennie has mental disability, he depends on George for guidance and protection. It shows the theme of strength versus weak. Since Lennie is weak, he has to listen to everything from George. Thus, it…show more content…
Crooks is isolated from everyone in the ranch due to his skin colour. Crooks is discriminated by everyone in the ranch because of his race. When Lennie visits him, he is glad to have a companion, and shares his tough experiences to Lennie, he feels extremely lonely. As Many people in Great Depression have been suffering from the discrimination, Steinbeck shows Crooks’ perspectives in order to stop the discrimination happening around. Furthermore, it brings out the theme of isolation, Crooks is isolated in a room which nobody goes in except the boss and Slim, the feeling of loneliness is strongly presented. Curley’s wife is the only female in the ranch, strong gender discrimination is shown in the story. Gender discrimination is very common in the 1930s, Steinbeck allegorized Curley’s wife as the female in the 1930s, shows the unfairness and seriousness of gender inequality, thus indirectly says that gender inequality shall be eliminated. Also, treatments to Curley’s wife show the theme of freedom. She does not have any freedom, she can only talk to Curley, it certainly shows her loneliness. Steinbeck characterizes Candy as an old person, showing the isolation towards elderly in the Great Depression. The Discrimination towards elderlies also exists in the Great Depression. In the
Open Document