"Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck.

Essay by luvbug3774High School, 12th grade October 2003

download word file, 4 pages 4.9 3 reviews

Downloaded 117 times

What do you learn in "Of Mice and Men" about American Society?

"Of Mice and Men" is set in the Salinas Valley where the author, John Steinbeck, was brought up. The story is about an archetype of lower class people who all have difficult lives due to their position in society, people superior to the working class are never even mentioned. The two main characters, George and Lennie, are typical working class Caucasians who travel around America work on ranches. The only difference with George and Lennie is that they travel around together, as indicated in the book, this is very uncommon. Most men with lives similar to George and Lonnie's have no family and are very much alone with no one looking out for them. Throughout the book, workmates show their jealousy of the strong friendship between George and Lennie. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world," as said by George, illustrates how alone these type of men were.

In the beginning of the book, the bus driver wouldn't even help George and Lennie by taking them to the ranch, "too god damn lazy to pull up". This implies early on in the book, that people only looked out for themselves and didn't often stop to help others.

Through the book many character are met with physical aspects that cause them to be discriminated against by the majority of the society, such as physical disabilities, race or gender. Such characters are Candy, Crooks or Curley's wife. Candy is a very old man who has lost one of his hands. As he is so much older then the rest of the workers at the ranch, he is left out slightly and is not as useful to the ranch as he once...