Addison Schwarz
Mr. Hochschild
English 1H
9 October 2014
The Great Depression was an era full of the cruel reality full of the cruel reality that dreams and aspirations were often doomed to die. Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is a novel about two men, one of whom seems to have autism, who travel to a farm during the Great Depression hoping to earn enough money to buy their own farm. In the novel, those main characters team up with another man to help pay for the farm; however, they encounter many roadblocks along the way, and ultimately their hopes and dreams crumble. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck employs symbolism, characterization, and irony to convey that we cannot always achieve everything that we would like to.
Frustration is a recurring theme throughout Of Mice and Men. There are many situations in which the characters, while living on a ranch during the Great Depression, feel as if everything that they are trying to achieve …show more content…
Steinbeck characterizes Candy, Curley’s wife, George, and Lennie as people who have immensely large dreams, however, these dreams never seem to be realized. Lennie is the dimwitted companion to George who dreams they are making the effort to achieve their goals, but continuously encounter roadblocks that preclude this dream, causing them inevitably to abandon it. In the end, money is a symbol of something they cannot achieve, and Curley’s wife is characterized as someone with self-obsession and misconception. Of Mice and Men is a story about two men’s adventure on a farm during the Great Depression, and what these men learn and what other characters they meet learn as well, is that everything they aspire to attain and achieve is not always obtainable. Steinbeck’s world of the the Great Depression is a stark, harsh, and frustrating world of disappointment and