A Comparison of The Harvest Gypsies and Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck does not portray migrant farm worker life accurately in Of Mice and Men. Housing, daily wages, and social interaction were very different in reality. This paper will demonstrate those differences by comparing the fictional work of Steinbeck to his non-fictional account of the time, The Harvest Gypsies. The first area that will be compared is housing. In Of Mice and Men the housing is described by the following passage: "The bunk house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing burlap ticking..." (17) This passage implies that George and Lennie, the fictional characters of Steinbeck's novel, lived in relative comfort as they worked the farm. If one compares this to a similar passage from The Harvest Gypsies: "The house is 10 feet by 10 feet, and it is built completely of corrugated paper. The roof is peaked, the walls are tacked to a wooden frame. The dirt floor is swept clean, and along the irrigation ditch or in the muddy river...." " ...and the family possesses three old quilts and soggy, lumpy mattress. With the first rain the carefully built house will slop down into a brown, pulpy mush." (27-28) It is easily seen that the housing of the actual migrant workers varied greatly from the characters in Of Mice and Men. Finding that the housing for the workers differed, it leads one to believe that other differences existed as well. Another area that Steinb... ... middle of paper ... ... However, these three do show the literary freedom taken by Steinbeck as we follow his characters George and Lennie. Although George and Lennie didn't live the high life compared to most readers, they would have lived the high life compared to actual migrant farm workers. This supports the notion that Of Mice and Men does not accurately portray the lives of migrant farm workers. Steinbeck improved their lives so vastly that reading The Harvest Gypsies was a total shock and difficult to imagine that conditions were as bad as they were. Works Cited Davis, Robert Murray. Steinbeck: A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1972. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Viking, 1998. ---. The Harvest Gypsies: On the Road to the Grapes of Wrath. Charles Wollenberg, ed. Berkeley: Heyday Books, 1988.
Kittelson effectively composed the book and created the biography to be an interesting look into the life of Martin Luther. His successful usage of primary source documents and information compounded with his personal literary explanation of Luther’s journey toward reformation and peace with God. Kittelson’s book is not without humor either, he includes direct quotes and dialogue between Luther and Zwingli debating the Lord’s Supper. The insults and demonstrative behavior show Luther as he was, a reformer, who wished to convince others of the power of the gospel. This engaging study is both informative and engaging. Luther the Reformer is a good biography for anyone interested in Martin Luther’s life and interested in learning more about why his journey impacted not only the Roman church then, but the entirety of the Christian Church to this
Imagine being discriminated against because of your ethnicity; or being the only woman on a ranch, stuck in a loveless marriage, when all you really want is someone to talk to. What about having to kill that friend, and bury all chances of breaking free from the life of the average migrant worker? How would you feel? These scenarios in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men illustrate the need and desire for companionship in life. There's Crooks, the negro stable buck; Curley's wife, whose marriage to Curley hasn't exactly been lively; and George and Lennie, whose friendship is strong enough to get them to a better life and out of the negetive cycle that the average migrant worker became trapped in during the Great Depression.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Luther's Catechisms. A.D. 1529 01/04/2003 September 27, 2004 < http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.viii.iv.html >
It was humble enough--a small white house, story-and-a-half structure, with a wing, set in the midst of a few locust trees; a small drab-colored barn, with a sagging ridge pole; a barnyard full of mud, in which a few cows were standing, fighting the flies and waiting to be milked. (par. 74)
Luther, Martin. Luther's Commentary on Galatians, Fourth Edition. Trans. Theodore Graebner, D. D. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, (No copyright date).
Luther, Martin. The Large Catechism, in The Book of Concord. Edited by Robert Kolb and
Firstly, John Steinbeck represents the lives of migrant workers in his novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’. The lives of migrant workers were hard, challenging and unrewarding. Migrant workers suffered from poverty because they were low-wage workers performing manual labour in the agricultural field. They were forced to travel between American states in search of seasonal work .In the novel, John Steinbeck shows the harsh realit...
Born 1902 in California, John Steinbeck grew up in a hard time for America. The Great Depression hit in 1929, leaving thousands of American people jobless, homeless, and poor. Along with this, the Dust Bowl occurred in 1931, which also killed and starved thousands. During this time period, many people did not have a home, and moved from farm to farm in order to feed themselves. John Steinbeck was one of the hundreds of thousands of migrant farm workers during this time. All of Steinbeck’s books are based off of American history, and migrant farm workers in the eyes of the people. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife to contribute to the overall theme of loneliness.
Scarseth argues that “Readers may object to the book’s presentation of low class characters, vulgar language, scenes suggestive of improper sexual conduct, and an implied criticism of the social system. . . Furthermore, these features are necessary in the book.” Scarseth continues to argue that they are “accurate, precise reporting,” because they represented the time, place and environment of the era in which the novella was penned. Written in 1937, Of Mice and Men is the story of two migrant workers who came to California to fulfill their dreams. While the intentions of these two men seemed noble, they were unable to achieve the goal of purchasing land for a myriad of reasons. The first and most difficult challenge they faced was the effect of The Great Depression. Like many of...
Novels that exhibit what the life is like for the people at ranch can help readers reflect on how they might react in comparable situation. George and Lennie who struggle to transcend the plight of inerrant farmworkers are followed by the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck. Readers are positioned to respond to themes through Steinbeck’s use of conventions that are dispirit. Themes such as Freedom and confinement, loneliness, and racism are pivotal in the novel and draw out a range of responses from the readers.
During Luther’s early life he faced a severe inner crisis. When he sinned he looked for comfort in confession and followed the penance, the fasting, prayer and observances that the church directed him. But, he found no peace of mind and worried about his salvation. But reading St. Paul’s letters he came to believe that salvation came though faith in Christ. Faith is a free gift, he discovered, it cannot be earned. His studies led him to a conclusion that, “Christ was the only mediator between God and a man and that forgiveness of sin and salvation are given by god’s grace alone” (Martin Luther, 01). Historians agree that, “this approach to theology led to a clash between Luther and the Church officials, precipitating the dramatic events of Reformation”.
Luther started his education at a Latin school in Mansfield. There he received training in the Latin language and learned about the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer and morning and evening prayers. In 1497 Luther was sent to a school in Magdeburg run by the Brethren of the Common Life, a lay monastic group whose focus on personal piety had a lasting influence on him. In 1501 he enrolled at the University of Erfurt, the best University of the time in Germany. Luther took course in the liberal arts and received the baccalaureate degree in 1502. He obtained his master’s degree three years later. Since Luther graduated from the arts faculty he could chose to pursue graduate work in one of the three disciplines law, medicine, or theology. Due...
Similarly, the furniture in the house is as sullen as the house itself. What little furniture is in the house is beaten-up; this is a symbol of the dark setting. The oak bed is the most important p...
Whitford, David. "Martin Luther (1483—1546)." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 2002. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. .
From an early age Martin Luther was drawn to the ways of monastic life, but Luther’s father had other plans for his son. In 1505, Luther graduated as a young lawyer from the University of Erfurt. Later that year, Luther was trapped in a horrifying thunderstorm in which he was nearly struck by lightning. He viewed this near-death encounter as a divine message from God and on July 15,1505 he entered into the Augustinian Monastery. In 1517, Martin Luther, a then unrecognized monk and scholar, released his “95 Theses”, also known as“Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences”, protesting many of the seemingly corrupt acts practiced by the Catholic Church. Acts such as the selling of indulgences, “holy” priests who possessed concubines, and the idea that people could reach the salvation of God with deeds and not their faith in the Almighty. The word spread quickly throughout Germany and rapidly moved into Rome with the use of the new Gutenberg printing press. It was now extremely easy to have multiple copies made, and thus the Gutenberg press became a key factor in the reformation. Lutheranism and its followers became quite provocative among the common people and throughout the Catholic Church, quoting such things as”why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”(history.com). On April