Symbolism in Of Mice and Men - Book Report/Review Example

Symbolism in Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck, a Californian, set much of his writing in the Salinas Valley near San Francisco. He blends realism with a sort of romanticism that extols virtue in poor farmers. His fiction Of Mice and Men bears out the powerlessness of such people, who usually are the first to suffer during periods of political unrest and economic upheaval. Of Mice and Men is a story of George and Lennie, two ranch hands, who wish to flee the ranch in search of some place they could call their own, a place where they could live an idyllic existence. George watches out for the incomplex Lennie, a childish man, who is clueless about his own strength and cuddles mice and puppies to death. Their dreams are shattered when Lennie accidentally murders the ranch owner's wife and George shoots Lennie himself to avoid a furious mob from ruthlessly killing him. In the story, characters are presented through action: symbolism intensifies character and action. Steinbeck relies heavily on metaphorical language to convey personal and dream-like states of consciousness. Steinbeck once referred to his Of Mice and Men as “a study of the dreams and pleasures of everyone in the world.” For Steinbeck, the setting and landscape constitutes a vital aspect of the story. Landscape plays a defining role in the story's narrative, its characterization, historical impetus, and symbolism. It is not surprising that nature assumes such an important role in Steinbeck’s work, because the author is a native Californian and his interest in natural sciences was triggered by his close friend, Ed Ricketts, a Californian marine biologist. The most important symbol in the novel is the little clearing by the green river. At the very outset, the author describes this space using images of the pastoral, evoking moments that are peaceful and soothing in order to elicit the dream of his characters, that is, of owning land and their own small farm. To them, this little spot becomes symbolic of a safe haven. George tells Lennie, “if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.” For literary critics, interpretations of the pastoral provided various symbolic possibilities, but one that is most suggestive for Of Mice and Men is as a metaphor for the Garden of Eden, an image that is associated with the setting of the Californian West. Steinbeck's careful choice to situate the story close to Soledad, an authentic Californian town in the Salinas valley, is also symbolic of the central theme in the narrative. The word Soledad means “loneliness” in Spanish. Another important symbol in the novel is rabbits. This symbol serves several purposes. Rabbits are said to be symbolic of childishness or innocence. However, literature is full of examples where rabbits also stand for class tensions, adultery and murder. Lennie, the mentally retarded migrant worker, dreams of owning land with his friend George one day and of raising rabbits there. Throughout the book, Lennie repeatedly asks George to tell him “about the rabbits”, as a way of asking George to daydream aloud about living off of the land and being self-sufficient: “Ever six weeks or so,” George said, “them does would throw a litter so we’d have plenty of rabbits to eat an’ to sell…” Not just a mode of self-reliance, rabbits also happen to symbolize something else for the dim-witted Lennie: something soft to stroke and nurture, something innocent and childish he himself can parent. On being asked, “What makes you so nuts about rabbits?” he responds, “I like to pet nice things.” Unfortunately, the wife invites Lennie to pat her own long hair – thereby symbolically making herself into a rabbit, or prey. She grows angry when he gets rough, struggles to get free, and he inadvertently breaks her neck, a common technique, by the way, for killing rabbits grown for meat or fur. (Davis, Susan E., DeMello, Margo. Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature) Candy’s dog is also an important figure, which is later developed symbolically within the story. It used to be a fine mutt in its youth, but age has crippled it. Carlson, a ranch hand suggests disposing the useless dog. Candy is deeply attached to the dog but no one values his sentiment. Eventually, Carlson offers to kill the dog himself. The implications of Carlson's act, symbolized in the fate of Candy's dog, reflect back on both Candy himself, and one of the main protagonists, Lennie. Candy, like his dog, is old and lame, "no good to himself nor nobody else," and has been reduced to swamping the bunkhouse after having lost his hand in one of the farm machines. As Slim emphasizes, "I wish someone will shoot me when I get old and a cripple." Lennie, meanwhile, is a simpleton who cannot control his brutal strength. He is perpetually embroiled in various conflicts and in the end, like Candy's dog, George, his partner and keeper, must finally kill him. It proves to be the only escape open to Lennie as he is unable to withstand the difficulties his life presents. Perhaps one of the most dramatic issues examined by Steinbeck in Of Mice and Men focuses on the human condition of loneliness and solitude. Steinbeck draws upon the brutal conditions facing the white male migratory worker. Reduced to a life of rootlessness and wandering, the single white male migrant worker has no family or ownership. Literary commentators have interpreted the symbolic nature of the scene as an expression of degeneration, man reduced to an animalistic state. This transformation occurs because the human spirit is crushed by the destructive and cruel nature of society, its mechanization, and its power over individuals. The scene is set in the bunkhouse, a communal space where the workers live. True closeness and intimacy are not possible within this society, and consequently the men cling to their dogs for companionship. This idea is reinforced in the dialogue as one of the men states, "It ain't a guy's dog that matters, it's the way a guy feels about his dog." Carlson, one of the elder ranch hands among the workers, is among the characters portrayed without compassion, insensitive and cruel. Symbolically, he depicts the basic animal-like characteristics inherent in man. As Peter Lisca describes, Of Mice and Men focuses upon a fallen world populated by "sons of Cain." Donald Pizer suggests that the main theme of loneliness "is that men fear loneliness, that they need someone to be with and to talk to who will offer understanding and companionship."" By the end of 1930s, Steinbeck had written about three books which dealt with migrant labor in California. The critics were quick to dismiss his novels as communist or leftist propaganda. Sadly, Steinbeck’s works were not given the literary credit that it so deserved. John Steinbeck is held in higher critical esteem outside America than in it, primarily because he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963 and the international fame it confers. He was a liberal American writer, remarkable for his social criticism. Works Cited Steinbeck, John, Shillinglaw, Susan. Of Mice and Men. Penguin Classics, 1994 Bick, Sally. American Music, Vol.23, No.4 (Winter, 2005), University of Illinois Press, 2005 Davis, Susan E., DeMello, Margo. Stories Rabbits Tell: A Natural and Cultural History of a Misunderstood Creature. Lantern Books, 2003 Lisca, Peter. The Wide World of John Steinbeck. Rutgers University Press, 1958 Read More