Term Paper on "Steinbeck's of Mice and Men: Influences"

Term Paper 7 pages (2243 words) Sources: 7 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men: Influences And Motivations

The novel of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is one of the most iconic and most famous novels of American literature that has been ever written. The novel presents the reader with a slice of life of the struggles of two forgotten people during the Great Depression in America. These two individuals are migrant ranch workers who travel around the country looking for work: George Milton and Lennie Small. George is smart but has a somewhat serrated personality and is uneducated, and Lennie is a more hulking man, who experiences some sort of mental condition that makes him learning disabled or simply mentally very limited. Among this hardship and struggle, is the fact that these two individuals have always dreamed of having their own piece of land to farm and raise livestock on.

This is perhaps one of the more overt reasons as to why this novel has been such a tremendous part of American literature and such required reading in high schools for so long: in spite of the enormous hardship that George and Lennie have to continually confront and the difficulty the experience simply surviving, they still have a dream -- a vision of the future being better -- that they continually draw upon. Steinbeck is a writer who doesn't draw upon a lot of flowery language and generally keeps a great deal of his chosen language as simple and powerful.

This stylistic choice is in many ways a complete necessity because "Of Mice and Men explores a lot of fundamental issues that were prevalent during the early years of the twentieth century: discrimination, the roles of women in society, the dangers and consequences of being injured on the job, the unsophisticated judicial system, the lack of opportunity for upward mobility, and the cruel hardships of farm life. Above all, Steinbeck tackles the never-ending universal issue of human rights" (Weisberg). By keeping his sentences terse and bare, there's generally no way to conceal the issues at hand: they take center stage. "In writing, Steinbeck was committed to engaging his characters. By selecting the proper plot, emotion, character, and tempo, he enabled readers to become part of the story. He once wrote, 'I want the participation of my reader. I want him to be so involved that it will be his story'" (Schultz, viii).

This sentiment demonstrates a great deal about what the act of writing and what literature as a whole meant to Steinbeck. Literature was something which had the ability to transport, and which meant that the reader could indulge in as a means of both escaping their current reality and having a new authentic experience. This is truly a tremendous gift and shows that Steinbeck was in fact a generous writer.

Interestingly enough, it may have been a childhood experience that influenced the title of the book. "Steinbeck was sensitive about his appearance. His sisters nicknamed his mouse because of his large ears and nose. He was also sensitive about his reputation. Although he continued to write into the 1960s, he felt critics only praised his books from the 1930s" (Williams, 4). However, this is not the only influence for the title. The title came directly from a quote by the Scottish poet Robert Burns, from the poem, "To a Mouse" which has a line "the best laid plans o' mice an' men" (Williams, 9). Burns was aware of the uncertainties and difficulties of life as a farmer and this poem talks about the fallibility of making plans and of perhaps, life in general. This is in keeping with the experience of Steinbeck's life; throughout his early adulthood he encountered the struggles and uncertainties of other ranch hands, encountering men travelling with bundles on their backs, going from one ranch to another, looking for work (Williams, 7).

However, as is the case with most writers, writers often write what they know. This is just as true here in this novel with Steinbeck: his life experiences undoubtedly shaped the writing and the decision to write this novel. Steinbeck's "…experiences of life in the 1920s and 30s also influenced his work. Among other jobs, Steinbeck was a journalist before becoming a well-known novelist. He also spent some time working on ranches in order to better understand the lives of the migrant workers" (Kew). However, before one begins by looking at Steinbeck's life and life choices and how those influenced the events of the novel, one also needs to examine the backdrop of the novel.

Many of Steinbeck's novels are set in the west, with California being a place of specific interest and pull. "The dream of California motivates many of Steinbeck's characters. California is known as the Golden State. Its climate is sunny and its soil is fertile" (Williams, 4). Back then and even now, there is a great deal about California that is simply comfortable and more comfortable than other places in the nation, as California has warm beaches, sunny weather, majestic mountains, along with orchards and farm land that are capable of growing a wealth of wonderful fruits and vegetables. However, in the mid 19th century the biggest pull for people to come to California was the desire to participate in the gold rush and to find some immediate wealth for oneself.

Much of what influenced Steinbeck's stories were the events in the nation that Steinbeck lived through himself (Meltzer, 73). For example, the 1920s was the decade when Steinbeck was fresh out of college and was the time when the economic boom caused banks and individuals to over-lend and overspend. This could only be sustainable for a finite period of time and "The Wall Street crash of 1929 marked the start of the Depression. Businesses closed, workers lost their jobs, and farm prices tumbled. Environmental disaster made things worse for farmers hit by the Depression. Between 1935 and 1938, fierce storms hit the parched prairie grasslands of the Midwest, which was overused for grazing cattle and growing wheat. The winds whipped off thin, parched soil in clouds of dust, creating the Dust Bowl" (Williams, 7). Thus the economic conditions and the environmental conditions of this decade created a distinctive backdrop in Steinbeck's life, one which influenced him without a doubt, and which created a tremendous imprint in his memory.

This was what Steinbeck knew and experienced -- a dusty land of seeming desolation and a lack of economic opportunity along with a lack of fertility in the soil. The windswept quality of the landscape was almost a physical manifestation of how the people too felt windswept, forgotten and unstable.

Thus, the struggle that many of the characters of Steinbeck's novels face, particularly Lennie and George in of Mice and Men, is a struggle that Steinbeck knew if perhaps not as acutely. it's also worth noting that during childhood, Steinbeck was a big fan of the King Arthur stories and that the morality present in many of those stories no doubt influenced him and the notions of good and evil that appear in of Mice and Men and other tales written by Steinbeck. "Writing about people struggling through the Depression, he tried to work in themes from the King Arthur stories he loved. His first success, Tortilla Flat, is about a group of 'down and outs' living together in Monterey. Steinbeck likened them to King Arthur's knights because they stick together" (Williams, 7). This theme was not unique to Tortilla Flat, but something that one could argue essentially appear in all of Steinbeck's novels, particularly of Mice and Men. The friendship between Lennie and George is so strong, that one can easily forget that they're not related and infer that they're brothers, when in fact they're not.

Thus far, it's clear how the life experiences and historical backdrop of Steinbeck's life and times have had a strong influence on his writing. However, what we've yet to examine is the morality of Steinbeck's work and his personal motivations as a writer, along with the experience that he desires to give to readers. For example, we've already established that Steinbeck wishes to transport his readers: he wants to give them a ride unlike anything they've ever experienced, allowing them to escape their own reality. At the same time, Steinbeck wants to use his writing to act as a mirror to hold up to the rest of the world.

For instance, when Steinbeck accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature, in his acceptance speech he said, "The ancient commission of the writer has not changed. He is charged with exposing many of our grievious faults and failures, with dreding up to the light our dark and dangerous dreams for the purpose of improvement" (George, 83). Thus, one could argue that at heart, Steinbeck had a truly noble task that was close to his heart. He was trying to make the world better and make people better, by holding up an honest mirror of their flaws and shortcomings. By unflinchingly portraying the… READ MORE

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