John Steinbeck Essay

Of Mice and Men (to now be referred to as M+M) is adept of human woeful for a number of reasons. The foremost is that Steinbeck wants to paint a picture of the real biography for custody, and women, workings in the unstable surroundings that was 1930s America. His book, although it is fiction, is based upon the humans of bed covering disembodied spirit during the Great Depression. As Steinbeck released M+M in 1937, he would pay off had ample occurrence to base the novella upon truths. The book centres on the real tragedies of real men and the dream that was fantasised about and yet rarely achieved.By using reality as a base for his novella, Steinbeck allows the reader to empathise with the vinegarishness and attention that is represented by farm life. Although some parts of the book face as though the characters have been through unbelievable scenarios, we must concoct that to create the feeling of real human suffering, Steinbeck used a microcosm of all ranch workers . This is so we can see the full extent to which ranch life, the Dust Bowl and 1930s America, actually affected the masses. A main aspect of this suffering is the l aneliness which all of the characters, bar George and Lennie, experience.In M+M Steinbeck has a small, yet effective, cast of characters, all of whom embody suffering in one way or another. The main characters are George and Lennie and Steinbeck uses them to exhibit the longing for freedom. George is a victim of suffering in many ways. He suffers because he is bound to Lennie and must look after him. Although at points in the book, George expresses regret about having Lennie he allow for not let him go for fear of being alone. George would rather look after Lennie than be on his own. Cause I want you to stay with me. George experiences the firing of jobs and therefore the loss of money through the Great Depression and also Lennies naivety, which a good deal causes trouble for the pair, especially when coupled with L ennies strength. Reasons, for which, the pair was forced to blend in away from jobs in Weed. This, in turn, makes their lives harder as they struggle to stay financially stable and to find a place in which to live in relative comfort. George also suffers the loss of a dream. For a time, George has envisioned a house of his own in which he lives with Lennie.It has be amount a reassurance for the men, that everything will turn out right and that they should keep hope. It is the opposite of their suffering. Were gonna have a little house When George shoots Lennie all of this becomes false. There is no long a sanctuary for the men because without Lennie the microcosm, their microcosm, of the American Dream cannot, and will not, come to fruition. This is where George experiences the mental anguish and suffering at losing both his best hotshot and his hopes for the future.Psychologically the suffering overwhelms anything that George has felt before and Steinbeck shows us the fragility of life and the unpredictability of the ranch. For Lennie, the suffering is that of a different kind. Due to his mental disabilities, he isnt affected by a fear of loneliness as the others are. To him, George will always be there. This does not mean that he feels no suffering throughout the story in position he peradventure suffers the most without realising it. Lennie is angry and scared when Crooks suggests that George might not come back.This is where Lennie suffers the most, he is victimised by Crooks and he doesnt know what to do. Crooks chooses Lennie to attack because he cannot do it to anyone else. In this there is a certain irony, as it is Lennies innocence and naivety which lend themselves to Crooks in bullying him. S gift he gets killed or hurt so he cant come back. Lennie shares the same ideals as George, especially that of the dream home they could have. In Lennies case, he is more preoccupied with tending the rabbits than what the benefits of not working could brin g him.How I get to tend the rabbits. Lennie suffers as a chela suffers this is because, mentally, he is a child, despite the fact that he is physically a grown man. We see evidence of this child-like suffering when he blames himself for what has happened to their jobs, when he hallucinates by the brush. You do bad things He suffers from grief when he kills his mouse and his birth by accident and he also suffers at the hands of Curley, although he fights back, he still feels scared and vulnerable, as a child would. George is the one who tells him what he should do.Get im Lennie.. I said get him. It is easy to digest that George uses Lennie for his own ends but, as we see in the story, this is not true. In fact when it comes to the ultimate suffering, Lennies death, George makes it more bearable for Lennie and shoots him with mercy. Steinbeck is trying to show that although ranch life was full of suffering, there were cases where true friendships/relationships might occur. However , Steinbeck also uses Lennies death to mean that hardly anything survived life on the ranch, whether it were friendships or masses themselves.Slim and Carlson do not have their own cases of suffering, instead they play the average ranch workers life. They suffer from low pay, poor quality of life and loneliness. The hardships of the ranches are shown in Carlson especially, as he has no feelings for Candys dog or Candy, only that the dog is making his life worse than it already is. God awmighty, that dog stinks. Although Slim suffers from the same difficulties as Carlson he reacts in a different way. He is calm and considerate, embodying those who were kinder in the harsh life of the ranch.