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Symbolism in of mice and men essay
Of mice and men and the depression era
Symbolism in of mice and men essay
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Introduction.
'Of Mice and Men' is written by John Steinbeck, published in 1937. The
novel is set in the 1930s during the great depression in California.
The two prominent characters, George and Lennie are farm workers who
have a dream of one-day owning their own ranch. They find work in a
ranch near Soledad, after escaping from Weed because of George's
incident. They are met by different characters on the farm that all
have a dream. Lots of farm workers would share the dream of all one
day owning some land of their own. This dream became very popular and
was named the 'American Dream.' Its people came from every country and
background with the one belief that America would bring them wealth
and happiness. For very many others, America offered escape from
poverty and starvation. It was a new country, an undiscovered one. In
Europe land had always been the key to money and status. Only in
America could the poor of Europe hope to own their own land. The
country became more and more heavily populated as the word got around
of gold mines, and new homes and villages developed creating
communities. At its simplest the American Dream was the popular idea
that America was a country that allowed men and women to make a clean
start. Like all dreams the reality did not always match the dream.
However the destruction of the Indians, the American civil war and the
creation of city slums were all growing pains of a great country. Yet
the dream survived. That is this dream survived until the late 1920s.
By then there was no more land to be claimed and America had built up
its own rules and laws. This marked the start of the great depression.
Farming was badly effected, as over farming had caused huge areas of
land to just dry up. This was the creation of the famous 'dust bowl.'
Poor crops meant that many of the farmers were unable to pay back the
debts they had taken out in the first place to buy the land.
The land of the Native Indians had been encroached upon by American settlers. By the
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that everyone else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom.
To take these lands, American settlers physically invaded the lands to claim as their own, however, they also petitioned the Federal Government to remove the Indians from their native lands. By doing this, they gained the support of the government’s resources and influence, especially President Jackson’s. Using both political and military attacks, the settlers quickly gained the upper hand over the Indians.
Man needs companionship and has difficulty maintaining it because no humans think the exact same or have the exact same beliefs. To maintain a companion you must have things in common, you must be able to disagree with a sort of respectful understanding, and finally you must care legitimately about that person. These three requirements to preserve a companionship are at times arduous to keep true. Some people do not have the time, concern, or the ability to sustain a veritable friendship with a companion or companions.
America was expanding at such a rapid pace that those who were in America before us had no time to anticipate what was happening. This change in lifestyle affected not only Americans, but everyone who lived in the land. Changing traditions, the get rich quick idea and other things were the leading causes of westward expansion. But whatever happened to those who were caught in the middle, those who were here before us? One of those many who roamed the land before Americans decided that they owned it were the Native Americans.
The early 1800’s was a very important time for America. The small country was quickly expanding. With the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, America almost tripled in size by 1853. However, even with the amount of land growing, not everyone was welcomed with open arms. With the expansion of the country, the white Americans decided that they needed the Natives out.
Tragedy in life can be used to demonstrate the ultimate display of compassion and love, which truly demonstrates the qualities of men. In life people create attachments and bonds, craving companionship over isolated individualism. There is a endless cycle and chain of events that cause the annihilation of bounds which leads to tragedies bringing sadness. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck focuses the reader 's attention on the bond between two individuals George and Lennie, who are running from past experiences trying to start anew chasing their American Dream unaware of what 's lurking ahead. Through craftsmanship, nature, transnational connections, evocative imagery, and symbolism, Steinbeck exhibits the cyclic journey in life, in which Lennie
has the mental age of a child and does not see the reason why George
.The novel Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck. In Soledad, California during the Great Depression in the 1930's two men of the one named George and the other named Lennie were men who travel around working at ranches. George is the small, quick-witted one, and Lennie is the big, slow, dumb and extremely strong one. They have a dream, to have a little place all to themselves, without anyone bothering them. Their dreams are shattered though, when Lennie, who doesn't know his own strength, gets in trouble. In the pursuit of love, happiness and the American dream, man becomes a victim of his own circumstances and discovers that the good life becomes impossible for humanity to obtain and contains many flaws. Lennie and George represents Cain and Able a biblical story who were two brothers searching for their elusive dream. In the story of Cane and Abel ,Cane was to take care of Able .Both brothers were to prepare and offering to God to receive His blessing. When God came to look upon that offering God asked Cane were is Abel .In curiosity and furiousness Cane asked God" Am I my brothers keeper?" Just like in the story of Cane and Abel ,George is Lennies keeper ,George is consistently watching over Lennie no matter where they go .In the story of Cane and Abel,Cane was furious with God because God had asked of his brother .Cane prepared his offering just for the fact of the knowledge that he was to receive blessings in return.Those who are more able should take care of those who are not able to complete tasks in life.But in order in being capabable of doing that one must have patience and faith in that matters and struggles that a person has to go throught with one other.In similarity Geor...
Many causes fueling America's need to expand and acquire new lands existed. One of the reasons was Americans were experiencing "a large birthrate increase due to immigration. And because agriculture provided the primary economic structure, large f...
The book that I have read that has really stayed with me is Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
Many Americans believed that they were entitled to the vast land that their government had just purchased and even more land to the west of it. One reason was the incredible sense of superiority that the Americans felt in their own virtue and their superior form of government. Another reason was that the Americans thought that the native Americans didn't appreciate the land that they occupied and that the Americans should liberate it, making the land more useful and productive. These reasons were all based in the ideolog...
It was not very easy for the United States to expand like they had in mind. The division of land had been a rising problem since the Revolutionary war. Two of the main issues during the time of the Articles of Confederation were the pricing and land measurement (Potter and Schamel 1). Throughout the course of over fifty years, the government had tried many different attempts to get people to want to expand to the west. They just didn’t really know the right way of how to go about it. Trying to sell the acres did not go over well, considering the price seemed outrageous for what they were getting. Untouched soil was very hard to start on and be successful from the beginning, which caused some problems with people not wanting to buy the land (Weiser 1). So again, a different political group tried a different approach.
They needed to take care of the other group of people sharing the same pieces of land they lived on, the natives, and they needed to do so without causing costs for war. Negotiations between people were made in order to secure safe and guaranteed land for the Natives, which included the promise of “...boundary protection by federal troops against land-seeking settlers.” (Roark 226) In return for this the Creeks made a promise of their own “..to accept the United States alone as its trading partner, shutting out Spain.” (Roark 226) These promises were broken by both parties involved and new approaches had to be made, and America as a young nation continued to struggle with this issue and the correct way in dealing with it. However, American 's did not only have to worry about social and political issues with the Natives who shared their lands but also with other nations, France and Britain, who America wanted to work well with but were always at war it seemed. This issue with the two other countries constantly at War made work with either side very difficult for America and the American people had split opinions on how to deal with the situation, and split opinions on what country they should work with and support over the other. This disagreement among the American people on how to deal with the situation and what sides to take lead to many mistakes in dealing with both sides over