More handpicked essays just for you.
Character essay on george from of mice and men
John steinbeck's view of the american dream
Explore the character of george in of mice and men
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
"In the novel, how does Steinbeck present the lives of ranch workers at that time?" Firstly, Steinbeck presents the lives of ranch workers as no too bad - they have fairly decent lives. This is present by "These shelves were loaded with little articles, soap and talcum power, razors and those western magazines ranch men love to read". The term "loaded" implies they were full to the brim meaning there isn't much space for anything else. This implies that the ranch men own a lot an therefore there life can't be that bad as they are able to afford many personal items. Furthermore, the "Western magazines" implies the ranch men have leisure time to spend doing things they enjoy. This implies that they get free time and don't spend every hour working - they get time away. The "western magazines" give the men secret satisfaction. It fuels ideas of the American Dream that they may have. The ranch workers hold out hope they won't always live the life they currently do. During the 1930's …show more content…
many workers were worse off then previously due to the great depression. Many were out of work and couldn't afford much. This means the ranch workers didn't have it that bad as they still had jobs to go to and they could afford luxury items such as magazines. Furthermore, the lives of the ranch workers are presented as, while being satisfactory, lonely and miserable.
George says "Guys like us are the loneliest guys in the world". The word "loneliest" is hyperbole. Obviously the ranch workers aren't the loneliest people in the work as they have each other but the use of this hyperbole exaggerates and emphasises how lonely the men feel. This shows the reader how miserable the ranch workers feel as they feel like they feel like they haven't got anyone else to talk to. This presents the lives of the ranch workers as miserable and lonely. During this time unemployment was at an all time high and many companies went bankrupt. This all came after an economic boom in the 1920's and so people were hit hard by the drastic and sudden change. This would have made many of the ranch workers feel miserable as they would have been unlikely to find another job and so would have had to stay on the ranch whether they liked it or not - they had no where else to
go. Finally, the ranch workers are presented as having hope. They all have dreams and wish to have a better future for themselves. This is presented by "Someday we gonna get the jack together". This shows the dream George and Lennie had to get a ranch together. The use of "someday" implies that George isn't sure when the dream will happen but he's holding out hope that one day it will happen. This implies the dream is there but it is not certain which foreshadows the end in which the dream does not come true. It was a pretend future - never the real present. Despite the mean having hope, by the end of the novel the dream is dead. The dream dies as Lennie dies. This is shown by "Hilltops rosy in the sun". This implies a sunset and implies the dreams are being lost, the hope is leaving represented by the sun leaving the sky, This shows that despite the men having dreams, they were never real. They were only ever words - never reality. This presents the lives of ranch workers as normal peoples dreams never come true and so the ranch workers are never going to get the dreams they want. After the great depression of 1929, the American dream was lost. Poverty and starvation had taken over many states in America and people were worse off than they had been in many years. Everyone tried to help them selves and not each other. the rich stayed rich and the poor stayed poor. The American dream was dead - no one was equal and no one was happy.
Steinbeck meets his standard by celebrating the migrant workers’ drive and sense of community in the face of the Great Depression. The Joad family and many others, are dedicated to conquering all odds: “[t]hus they changed their social life–changed as in the whole universe only man can change” (Steinbeck 196). There are no other options available for these tenant families than to take the trek to California in hopes of finding work. The fears they once had about droughts and floods now lingered with
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.
would not like to live there. The hostile ness is built up well in the
by John Steinbeck, there are many characters who are considered to be outcasts. An outcast is a person who does not fit in. Through many differences on the ranch, different people are put into the category of being an outcast. Because of their differences, Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie are all outcasts on the ranch.
John Steinbeck is a brilliant storyteller capable of crafting such vibrant and captivating literary works that one can effortlessly exit their own life and enter another. John Steinbeck has a passion for divulging the flaws of human nature and he is not afraid to write about the raw and tragic misfortune that plagued the lives of people like the Okies in the Grapes of Wrath and residents of Cannery Row. He was also a brilliant commentator who contributed brilliant opinions on the political and social systems in our world. In heart wrenching words he tells us the story of peoples lives, which were full of love, corruption, faith and growth. However in the novels of Cannery Row and The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck specifically attempts to convey the thematic elements of socialism, survival and the role of women to blatantly present the lifestyle of down trodden migrant workers and the diverse ecosystem of prostitutes, marine biologists, store owners and drunks in a way that is unapologetic and mentally stimulating.
John Steinbeck’s use of figurative language and local color in Cannery Row, Sweet Thursday and Of Mice and Men show his growth as a writer and highlight the reoccurring theme of loneliness and ostracism. The time gap in between these books show that Steinbeck grows as he experiences more throughout his life. Steinbeck’s novels are always set in California due to his extensive knowledge of the area since he has lived in the area his entire life. In all of his works the characters use parts of speech and actions that are customary to that area.
...however, feels that to solve the plight of the Okies, land should be set aside for them to start their own small farms, since farming is all they know. He also suggests that local committees set wages and labor needs before the harvests to protect the rights of the workers and prevent them from being extorted (Pgs 58-59). While Steinbeck’s ideas made sense and had good intent, the grim reality still remained that the corporations controlled the agriculture industry and that they were going to save every nickel and dime they could, even if it meant a lower standard of living for the Okie. Today, we have unions that attempt to prevent things like this from happening again, but the plight of illegal immigrants demonstrates that the reality of this country’s need for cheap labor remains.
Steinbeck depicts the Joads family as migrants who lose their land in Oklahoma. The family is unemployed and homeless. Steinbeck based his story of the Joads' experiences on the real accounts of those living at the Weedpatch camp, built by the federal government as a place of shelter and protection for the desperate migrants who were often unwelcome in California and frequently exploited and abused. The novel succeeds as a gripping story and showing people in the time period. John Steinbeck, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, alternates chapters following the Joads’ saga with poetic interludes detailing the larger forces at work against the migrants. His lack of knowledge and understanding reinforces suspicion and hatred of the migrants, who for their part can’t understand why they’re so vilified. It’s an important lesson on perspective, and a fantastic starting point for discussing political, economic, and social issues still very relevant today.
Through his use of imagery, phrases like “did not try anymore” and words like hard, crust, and pale paints a picture of an open dry unpromising field filled with dying crops. This mental image created by Steinbeck’s words evokes unpleasant emotion: before the audience is even introduced to the main characters John Steinbeck has already made his audience empathize with the character’s situation. “Men stood by their fences and looked at the ruined corn, drying fast now, only a little green showing through the film of dust. The men were silent and they did not move often, And the women came out of the houses to stand beside their men -- to feel whether this time the men would break.” This drought left the farmers with nothing to do but stare at their dying crops, thinking of how their families will make it. Meanwhile, the wives and children were worried about the men in their lives and their lack of resources. “After a while the faces of the
The story is set on a ranch, where the two men eventually find work at
Thousand of families flooded to California just so they could feed their families, but by showing the treatment the landowners show to these families, or lack thereof, Steinbeck points to the fact that they don't even plan on letting them eat, and that money is the only thing they're really worrying about. When explaining to his family that Jim Casy had gone on strike because of the poor wages, Tom says, "Yeah. What we was a-doin' was breakin' strike. They give them fellas two an' a half cents." Pa responds, "You can't eat on that." When their outlook gets so desperate, the first priority is to feed their families and hope for better times. By showing these small, seemingly insignificant, noble acts, Steinbeck shows the determination of these families to press on. The poor wages set by the landowners show that they, the landowners, care nothing for the families even in their destitution. With such low wages set, the landowners are alienating these poor families and giving reason for hostilities. This form of alienation demonstrates that these landowners plan on keeping every penny they possible can. With lower wages paid to more workers, things get done quicker while the rich can keep their pockets lined.
The social setting of the novel is also important, as it could later explain characters attitudes towards other people. It is set in the U.S. in the 1930s; this is the time of the Great Depression. This was a result of the First World War. It affected the rich and poor alike, factory workers and farmers, bankers and stockbrokers. In short, it affected everyone; no one was left untouched. But of all the people hurt, farmers were the worst off. John Steinbeck chose to write about farmers hoping that Americans would recognize their troubles and correct the situation. The great depression is known to be the worst economic disaster in the U.S history. For this reason the depression caused many people to change their ideas about the government and economy.
care how Crooks felt as they only wanted to have fun at the expense of
When George said “ranch workers are the loneliest guys in the world” what he meant was most ranch workers have no family or friends. George and Lennie defy’s that statement because after Lennie’s aunt Clara died they didn’t have no family or somewhere they can actually stay, that’s why they're ranch workers. But at the same time George and Lennie still have each other to turn to, most guys are all alone moving from one ranch to another. The lifestyle of a ranch worker is loneliness and isolated. The living conditions for a ranch worker is very bad “the bed is made of long burlap sacks stuffed with straw”. This obviously mean that the ranch owner don’t really care about the living conditions he make the ranch worker stay in.
Steinbeck got the inspiration to write this book in the summer of 1922 through his experience at Spreckels Sugar Company Ranch. He worked there with Filipino and Mexican labor. The landscape of the book was familiar to where he worked. He worked in an oasis type river and renamed the location to a place called Soledad which meant solitude (Hays)...