Isaac+C

The World Festival begins in South Africa I believe World cup will provide lots of surprises because there is no plan in sports! It's time to enjoy it ! I'm ready to enjoy it ~

Response to literature Of Mice and Men John Steninbeck describes hardship during Great Depression in 1930’s through the novel “0f Mice and Men.” The story is developed with two major characters George and Lennie who walk toward their one dream and fight against hardship during the Great Depression. However, the dream is evaporates in the tragic tale. John Steinbeck illustrates social inequality by his use of various characters with different statuses in the novel.

John Steinbeck uses various animal statuses to reflect human social inequality. At the begging of the novel the author describes animal statuses through the time that animals approach a lake to drink water. The author says “the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark” (p.1). This line reflects our daily life through the symbol of weak animal “deer.” Deer cannot drink water during the daytime because weak deer may easily be eaten by strong predators. The only time deer can drink water is when every predators go to sleep. Deer are really similar to workers in the ranch. The workers are always tormented by Curley so they always try to avoid Curley. Therefore, readers can find some similarity between animal’s society and human society.

In addition, John Steinbeck also uses mice to represent workers status. In the novel, mice are appeared lots of time and even in the title of the book. Mice first appear in the way of going to a new ranch, Lennie kills a mouse very easily, “ Uh-uh. Jus’ a dead mouse, George. I didn’t kill it. Honest! I found it dead” (p.5). Through this line, actually, readers can notice that mice are surprisingly similar to the workers in the ranch. Not only mice represent poor workers, but also it can represent the workers who can easily die. What’s more, mice represent the lowest status just like the workers in the ranch.

By using a woman “Curley’s wife”, John Steinbeck describes women’s status during the Great Depression. Curley’s wife has a quite big role in the novel, however, the author has not mentioned her name. Through this point, the readers who don’t know much about the women’s status during the Great Depression can predict that an already married woman has to throw her name away with her individual and only can be a property of a man. To sum up, John Steinbeck well describes social inequality through the various characters. Through his article, readers who do not know about the period of Great Depression can understand the hardship of workers who placed the lowest class in the society and hardship of women who have to give up their individuality.