Of mice and men

Published in 1937, ‘Of Mice and Men’ is an affectionate novella, set on a ranch in Salinas Valley in California during the 1930’s, a very densely male populated, compact and tenacious structure of setting, revolving around single locations and prolonged timing, makes the novella seem almost as if it were set as a play. This was done purposely to fulfil the perspective of representing each character like a play, introducing their tone, words and actions. The story stipulates the harsh life of two ordinary men, Lennie small and George Milton, who find themselves scouring the country for as little as $50 a month as migrant farm labourers. Based on Steinbeck’s own experiences, he was able to project them in his prize winning novel. Nevertheless established as fictional, the story is delved in its past historical events. Steinbeck reproduces the times of the ‘Great Depression’ rather effectively in his novel, exposing how all men live a peripatetic and nomadic life, invariably searching for work wherever possible in order to survive keep afloat.

Steinbeck introduces the idea of loneliness and men who work on ranches living temporary lives, with no aim in life. Steinbeck uses the setting to convey these ideas and does this in Third-person omniscient view. This deliberate constrain of insider information was possibly a result of Steinbeck’s intention to allow the story to be more of a play than a novella. In plays, the audience have insight on only what the actors are saying and doing – they do not posses access to their thoughts. Foreshadowing that the narrator of this novella is omniscient, but to a rather limited degree. In my opinion Steinbeck illustrates the story in methods from which the narrator enables the reader to access th...

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... Men employs a very particular type of realism called "naturalism," Naturalist novels often explore the world as a place where you have to fight to survive in a life that has no morality. It is not unusual for naturalist novels to end in degradation and despair. In my opinion Curley's wife does deserve a certain amount of sympathy, an unfortunate constricted woman, unable to escape the bounds of her limited options in life and desperately searching for a way out. She has endured absolute depression, being totally alone with no family of any sort except for a husband, and is neglected throughout the story. Summarising all of the above, I believe that Steinbeck wanted to mirror precisely the times he experienced in his time, and some of which was shown through the portrayal of Curley’s Wife, inevitably making the reader feel undeniable sympathy for her character.