John Steinbeck
John SteinbeckAuthor: John Steinbeck was born in California, in 1902. In California he lived the most of his life. He always had jobs on farms during his high school years, or, as he was very much interested in science, helped out in local laboratories. After school he went to college at Stanford University, but he dropped out without a degree to enter journalism in NY. He returned to California to become a novel-writer after he had worked as a reporter, bricklayer and a jack-of-all-trades. Of Mice and Men was the first novel that got recognition, first published in 1937. In 1962 John Steinbeck got the Nobel Prize for literature... He died in 1968.
Main Characters:
Steinbeck describes people as if they were living their lives at the same level of existence as animals. His characters do have their dignity and face life without flinching. They have ideals and that separates them from the animals, they dream of their own promised land, but the dreams are always too far away and cannot come true in real life. George and Lennie dream of his own little farm, Curley�s wife of a happy marriage to a devoted husband. Crook on the other hand of a place where he will be equal to white men.
Steinbeck seems to be uninterested in creating individuals, but makes them into representatives of the species by their primitivism. The result is that the reader does not get a clear picture of one of them, except for Lennie. But still Lennie's mind is as a closed book to us, and only in the final chapter Steinbeck attempts to describe Lennie and his hallucinations, but the result is very poor.
Theme: Without a doubt it is companionship. The friendship between George and Lennie is so close that George takes it up for his feeble-minded friend and protects him above all, even his own interests. It is like a sacred bond, and this makes them different from people who are just on their own. Seeking friendship is also to be seen in Candy, Curley's wife and Crooks.
Characteristics: The story is set in California, and that is what Steinbeck is good at, he loves it and knows it very well. The construction is somewhat weird, Steinbeck tried to make it a novel that could be acted or a play that could be read as a novel as well. He did not quite succeed, it was merely an experiment. It does explain the succession of dramatic scenes, with a lot of dialogue in it to keep the action going. There is symbolism in the book. George and Lennie each represent a different part of every man. Lennie is the primitive savage that lives in each one of us, but in the mean time there is no place for him in our civilized society. He represents, as Steinbeck said it himself, "not insanity at all but the inarticulate and powerful yearnings of all men". The title originates from a poem by Robert...
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