This novel is peopled with a landscape of loners and outcasts - Essay Example

Full Of Mice and Men (by John Steinbeck) 06 May (estimated word count = 687) Introduction There are very few authors who tower over their peers and John Steinbeck is one of those authors who continues to influence succeeding generations with his writing and novels. He can be compared favorably with the great figures in literature such as Leo Tolstoy. It is in his portrayals of human nature that grips his readers the most for they often see themselves as being reflected in his literary characters.

The themes he wrote about are universal and can be applicable even today as these themes transcend time, race and geography. John Steinbeck wrote two great novels, which are “The Grapes of Wrath” which had rightfully earned him a Pulitzer Prize and also eventually, the Nobel Prize for Literature while the “Of Mice and Men” is a much shorter work but equally a realistic portrait of the travails of poor, working men who often had to travel to faraway places in search of meaningful work.

In the absence of that, these migrant workers were forced to accept any jobs they can find at any wage that can offer a chance of keeping body and soul together. This novella is peopled with a landscape of loners and outcasts; people who are essentially rejects of society, in a sense, but somehow have to struggle on and exerted their best efforts to attain their dreams. Discussion“Of Mice and Men” was set in the context of the Great Depression during which a lot of people were thrown out of work compounded by the problems of itinerant migrants who in desperate situations have to somehow find a job.

These workers transfer from one ranch or a farm to another ranch or farm doing menial tasks but despite doing backbreaking farm labor, a few of the characters in the novella found it appropriate to dream of finally owning a farm. A poor worker, like an itinerant farm hand, can still attain his dream if he works hard enough and strives to attain his dream, which may seem at first impossible to most people or even impractical to some people. It is the right of anybody to have a dream and the dream was what binds the two protagonists in the novella.

George Milton is a quick-witted worker while Lennie Small is mentally retarded but the two of them surprisingly found good fellowship in each other. George has a good understanding of Lennie and took care of him in a way, out of pity for this mental impairment although ironically, Lennie Small is a big man physically. Most of the characters in the story are loners because they are migrant workers who out of necessity do not have roots in one place but move from one farm to another quite often.

This constant movement causes them to view matters in a mostly temporary perspective and it includes forming personal relationships which are fleeting until they meet again by chance. A majority of these workers are therefore outcasts if viewed from the larger side of the society. They are mere laborers who were paid with bare minimum wages and certainly do not have a bright future ahead of them, unless they plan on saving their monies and buy their own land. The mindless agricultural toil leads to human misery and that was what Karl Marx offered as a possible explanation for loneliness, the division of labor due to capitalism which views labor as a mere factor of production.

This strips human labor of its previous dignity and value. ConclusionThe moral lesson derived from this novella is that many best-laid plans often go awry despite the best efforts, as unforeseen events can supervene. The old adage puts it very well, a slip “betwixt the cup and the lip” which means a drink may spill even in a very short distance (a lot can happen in that short distance), like bringing the cup to the lips. A persons life can be a series of slips or missed opportunities, resulting in his loneliness and pessimism (Bloom 88).

“Of Mice and Men” is relevant in todays bad economy where many people have no jobs. Work CitedBloom, Harold. John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men. New York, NY, USA: Infobase Publishing, 2006. Print.