Common Themes in Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath

1078 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary analysis of mice and men

Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath, written by John Steinbeck, the winner of 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature, both depict the harsh living conditions and challenging hardships migrant farm workers had to face during the period of Great Depression. In the novella Of Mice and Men, two men with the names George and Lennie travel to hunt ranch jobs in California, in the hopes of having a farm of their own one day. However, Lennie is mentally retarded and always stirs up trouble, eventually leading to George’s mercy killing of Lennie, an action that terminates the pursuit of their American Dream. In the latter novel, the Joad family, like many other poor tenant farmers from Oklahoma, is forced off from its land and into the journey to California, seeking for jobs, land, dignity, and a better future. Although the family works assiduously, its dreams are crushed by the cruel reality, including the separation and death of family members, the thin chance of employment, and the ill treatments from the rich Californian farm owners. Some of the recurring themes, shared by both novels, are humans’ inhumanity towards others, the powerful nature of relationships and the impossibility of the American Dream. In both novels, humans display inhumanity towards each other, even though some of them are the victims of this predatory nature. The author assumes the voice of a used-car salesman, “God, if I could only get a hundred jalopies. I don't care if they run or not.”(Chapter 7 GOW) When the farmers are struggling, the crooked car salesmen are cheating on their urgencies of purchasing cars, taking advantages of the weak and showing the inhumanity among human beings. This inhumanity is also shown through selfishness and the animosity towards... ... middle of paper ... ...to change their lives in some positive ways. George and Lennie want to own a farm. Curley’s wife wants to be a movie star. Curley want the love from his wife. Crooks wants to be treated equally. However, in the end of the book, none of them achieve their dreams, a confirmation of the phrase - The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. (To a Mouse) As the three recurring themes of the books become clear, so does our understanding of the ideas embedded in the lines of the books. Even with all the difficulties presented by the themes of both books, I think Steinbeck still wishes us to view these challenges as valuable experiences and richest opportunities to eventually achieve the seemingly impossible American Dream. In a smaller context, what the two books taught me are : Be kind. Be optimistic. Be yourself. These words are grossly clichéd but totally true.

Show More
Related

  • Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis

    477 Words  | 1 Pages

    Many characters have hopes and dreams which they wish to accomplish. Of Mice and Men has two main characters that go through obstacles to get what they want. In the beginning it is George and Lennie running away trying to get a job. Once both George and Lennie have a job they try to accomplish their dreams. Unfortunately they both can't get their dreams to come true since lennie does the worst and George has to shoot Lennie. Steinbeck uses characterization, foreshadowing, and symbol as rhetorical strategies to make George's actions justified.

    Read More

  • The Blindness on John Stienbeck´s Of Mice and Men

    545 Words  | 2 Pages

    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about loneliness and the American Dream. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It was very difficult for people to survive during this time period. A lot of people hardly survived let alone had the necessities they needed to keep relationships healthy. Of Mice of Men has a common theme of disappointment. All the characters struggle with their unaccomplished dreams. The migrant workers, stable buck, swamper, and the other men on the ranch had an unsettled disappointment of where they were at in their lives. George and Lennie, two newcomers to the ranch, aren’t like the other guys. They have each other and they are the not loneliest people in the world. Lennie has a dream though he wants to own a farm with plenty of crops and animals one day. The only problem is his blind curiosity of people and things around him. George wasn’t justified for killing Lennie because Lennie was innocent and never got the chance to find out what he did wrong.

    Read More

  • Themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

    Read More

  • Common People in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men

    1235 Words  | 3 Pages

    John Steinbeck’s novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men reveal and confront the struggles of common individuals in their day-to-day lives. The Grapes of Wrath creates a greater verisimilitude than Of Mice and Men as it illustrates the lives of Oklahoma farmers driven west during the Dustbowl of the late 1930’s. Of Mice and Men deals with a more personal account of two poor men and the tragic ending of their relationship. Steinbeck expresses his concern for multiple social issues in both The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Tightly-knit relationships appear prominently in both books and provide the majority of the conflicts that occur. The decency of common people is written about to a great extent in The Grapes of Wrath and is also prevalent through numerous examples in Of Mice and Men. As in all effective writing that bares the soul of the author, each novel reveals Steinbeck’s core beliefs.

    Read More

  • How Does Steinbeck Overcome Homelessness In The Grapes Of Wrath

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion the Grapes of Wrath is a literary masterpiece that portrays the struggles of man as he overcomes the adversity of homelessness, death, and the wrath of prejudice. Steinbeck fully explores each faucet coherently within the boundaries of the Joad family’s trials and

    Read More

  • The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul

    2393 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath: No One Man, But One Common Soul. & nbsp; & nbsp;           Many writers in American literature try to instill philosophy of their choosing into their reader.  This is often a philosophy derived at from their own personal experiences.  John Steinbeck is no exception to this.  When traveling through his native California in the mid-1930s. Steinbeck witnessed people living in appalling conditions of extreme poverty due to the Great Depression and the agricultural disaster known as the Dust Bowl.  He noticed that these people received no aid whatsoever. from neither the state of California nor the federal government.  The rage. he experienced from seeing such treatment fueled his novel The Grapes of Wrath.  Steinbeck sought to change the suffering plight of these farmers. who had migrated from the Midwest to California.  Also, and more.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Grapes Of Wrath By John Steinbeck

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath is a novel written by John Steinbeck, which focuses on an Oklahoman family that is evicted from their farm during an era of depression caused by the Dust Bowl. The Joad family alongside thousands of other refugees (also affected by the dirty thirties) migrates west towards California seeking employment and a new home. John Steinbeck’s purpose for writing this novel was to inform his audience of how many of their fellow Americans were being mistreated and of the tribulations they faced in order to attain regain what they once had. As a result, The Grapes of Wrath triggered its audience’s sympathy for the plight of the Dust Bowl farmers and their families.

    Read More

  • John Steinbeck's Influence On Of Mice And Men

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    Then Curley wanted to be a professional boxer but the dream never happened and he became a farmer then got his hand broken for trying to be tough. George and Lennie were going to buy a farm to live off the fat of the land then Lennie had to get in trouble and George had to give up the dream and kill Lennie for what he had done. What the world can learn by reading of Mice and Men about life is that everything that you do doesn't have a positive outcome which can lead to even more horrible things. In general this novel will help you with how hard you may have to work to get the things that you will cherish the most in your life and sow what might happen with a bad decision that can hurt you throughout your career and your life as a human

    Read More

  • Historical Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath

    1207 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ity of painful experiences endured by our American ancestors, shattering a student’s perception of the struggles he himself is spared. Through the author’s use of symbols, a particular writing style, and the presence of a mental attitude, he convinces readers of the immense struggles of the migrants, effectively educating all who read his message. All of these writing tools add more depth to the overall understanding of the events and attitudes occurring at the time. The Grapes of Wrath inherently defines the true meaning of the American Dream. This once was an evil concept in the 30s that created hope where there was none and naturally left a scar in America's history across the government and it's people. Instead, the American dream is a dream of unity, hope, perseverance, equality, and kindness among all humans that was realized only in the darkest of times.

    Read More

  • The Powerful Ending of The Grapes of Wrath

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but its jus' in their head.” (Steinbeck) The Grapes of Wrath is most often categorized as an American Realist novel. It was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. As a result of this novel, Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and prominently cited the novel when he won the Nobel Prize a little over twenty years after the text’s publication. This text follows the Joad family through the Great Depression. It begins in Oklahoma, watching as the family is driven from their home by drought and economic changes. Within the introduction of the novel the living conditions is described, “Every moving thing lifted the dust into the air: The walking man lifted a thin layer as high as his waist, and a wagon lifted the dust as high as the fence tops and an automobile boiled a cloud behind it.” (Grapes, 1) This novel is and will remain one of the most significant novels of the Great Depression. Despite its controversial nature it is timeless. In fact, the ending of this text is one of the most controversial pieces of literature written during the time period, and has never accurately made its way into film. The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath is the most significant portion of the novel due to its historical accuracy as well as its message about the American spirit.

    Read More

  • The American Dream in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    To paraphrase Robert Burns-"The best laid plans of mice and men go awry". This is a bleak statement and it is at the centre of the novel's action. George and Lennie have the dream of owning their own ranch and living a free independent life; they would be self-reliant and most of all they would be safe from a harsh and hostile world. Other characters in the book also try to buy into their dream ie, Candy and Crooks. Ultimately, the dream unravels and like a Greek Tragedy, the ending is terrible but also predictable.

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting the Novel and Movie Version of The Grapes of Wrath

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Steinbeck wrote the The Grapes of Wrath in 1939 to rouse its readers against those who were responsible for keeping the American people in poverty. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Joad family, migrant farmers from Oklahoma traveling to California in search of an illusion of prosperity. The novel's strong stance stirred up much controversy, as it was often called Communist propaganda, and banned from schools due to its vulgar language. However, Steinbeck's novel is considered to be his greatest work. It won the Pulitzer Prize, and later became an Academy Award winning movie in 1940. The novel and the movie are both considered to be wonderful masterpieces, epitomizing the art of filmmaking and novel-writing.

    Read More

  • Steinbeck's Social Commentary in The Grapes of Wrath

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is a realistic novel that mimics life and offers social commentary too. It offers many windows on real life in midwest America in the 1930s. But it also offers a powerful social commentary, directly in the intercalary chapters and indirectly in the places and people it portrays. Typical of very many, the Joads are driven off the land by far away banks and set out on a journey to California to find a better life. However the journey breaks up the family, their dreams are not realized and their fortunes disappear. What promised to be the land of milk and honey turns to sour grapes. The hopes and dreams of a generation turned to wrath. Steinbeck opens up this catastrophe for public scrutiny.

    Read More

  • The Theme of Man vs. Environment in The Grapes of Wrath

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grapes of Wrath is a novel by John Steinbeck that exposes the desperate conditions under which the migratory farm families of America during the 1930's live under.   The novel tells of one families migration west to California through the great economic depression of the 1930's.  The Joad family had to abandon their home and their livelihoods.  They had to uproot and set adrift because tractors were rapidly industrializing their farms.  The bank took possession of their land because the owners could not pay off their loan.  The novel shows how the Joad family deals with moving to California. How they survive the cruelty of the land owners that take advantage of them, their poverty and willingness to work.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Of Mice And Men

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck. This book is an analogy about what it means to be a human. George and Lennie share the ambition to own their own ranch, but they encounter obstacles that stand in the way. Ironically, Lennie will become the greatest obstacle in them achieving their dream. This novel was first published in 1937, which is one of the most important aspects of the book. The reason why it is one of the most important aspects of the book is because one result of the Great Depression was a lack of steady jobs, which increased the amount of nomadic workers. When Steinbeck wrote this novel, ranch hands were beginning to be replaced by machinery and their way of life was disappearing fast.

    Read More

More about Common Themes in Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath

Open Document