Steinbeck's Choice of Language in Of Mice and Men

685 Words2 Pages

Steinbeck's Choice of Language in Of Mice and Men

Introduction

============

The novel was written in 1937 and set during the times of the great

depression. The great depression was in the year of 1929 and had

colossal effects on the whole of America over a quarter of working

people, or 13 million people, were unemployed in 1932 and this was

just the beginning, the depression lasted over a decade, with hundreds

of thousands of Americans losing their jobs, businesses failing, and

financial institutions collapsing. Many men who had lost their job

were forced to work on ranches during this depression just like George

and Lennie in this novel.

During this period there was huge amount of poverty and racism, which

is shown in this novel. Women are also treated very badly during this

time and in this novel you can tell this because curley's wife's name

is not mentioned she is just known as curley's wife.

Section 2

=========

During the great depression people all over the country were looking

for work. They had homes to maintain and families to care for. When

Lennie and George first went looking for work they tried to find

ranches for temporary work. They had to leave the last ranch because

of an spot of bother Lennie managed to get himself into. In the end

they get some work on a small ranch. The boss suspicious that George

will not let Lennie talk for himself. They also make friends with the

boss's son, Curly. At this point in the story very few characters have

been involved and introduced into the story, then one after another in

the second chapter all these characters are added. Curley, Slim and

Curly's wife and the boss. Slim befriends Lennie and George, and makes

them feel welcome. Lennie and George are quite the opposite to the

rest of the characters, as they don't have a family, and they finish

off physically fighting for work, because they need it so badly.

In the second chapter all the other characters sound like commoners

Open Document