The Societal Imbalances in Of Mice and Men Essay Sample

In Mice and Men, John Steinbeck explores isolation and how friendship is necessary in the modern era. In post-World War one America, John Steinbeck tries to navigate what will happen in the world after the great depression. Steinbeck brings a sense of realism to the well-educated audience about the life of migrant workers with George and Lenny. The audience sees these two characters in popular media a lot with these two being opposing forces of brains vs brawns. 

In the barn perfectly example of the isolation “I get lonely, "she said. “You can talk to people, but I can't talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to talk to anyone?” (87)  Curley’s wife is a character that has little substance because of her isolation and lack of communication with men. Her and Lenny talk in the barn and spend time alone together, which instantly alarms Lenny because George said if he talks to her, he will get in trouble. Curly’s wife talks to Lenny about how she could have lived a better life. She trusts Lenny in this scene because she talks about how Curly does not care for her.  Lenny does not know why he is not allowed to talk to her so when he does, he talks to her with confusion. Curly’s wife is isolated from everyone on the ranch because if the men talk to her, they will be punished or fired from the ranch by curly. Also, the fact that she is the only women on the ranch does not help her isolation.  

In the novel the audience feels for both characters in some way in their life. “You said I was your cousin, George. Well, that was a lie. An’ I’m sure glad it was. If I was a relative of your I’d shoot myself.” (24) The feeling of being weighed down or obeying something without a purpose. This can be applied to many walks of life, but I think that Steinbeck applied it to the political climate when he wrote the novel. Americans were fearful of what was to come for the United States. At the end of the great depression citizens had a general distrust in what was to come next, at the time the United States were not a global superpower like it is today, but an experiment gone wrong. This is exemplified in the novel by the strangeness of their jobs. Most people do not dream of getting fired from their job monthly and having a dead weight friend that is necessary to work with on these jobs just to get you fired.  

In Of Mice and Men the undertone of masculinity takes a back seat to other themes like friendship and mercy, but I think it is one that is necessary to the story. The character that exudes this the most is Curly. Curley is physically small which feeds into his inferiority complex. He knows that he appears non-threatening to people, which would be a footprint for his insecurity about his job status. He is known as the boss. “Curley’s like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys.” (26) This quote shows the reason why Curley is the way he is. It is not Curley’s fault he is this way; he was most likely raised on the ranch and being kid on a ranch with mostly immature grown men. He likely developed his aggressive tendencies in his youth to stick up for himself. And now in his adulthood he rejects all social encounters which is likely a result of his paranoia and insecurities. 

In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Is an observation of a small-scale imbalance in a social society leads to destruction. This is not just about how Lenny disturbs the peace, but how there is no peace at all. There is a constant feeling of uneasiness fueled by living in an imbalanced society. This is insinuated by the long-lasting effects of isolation. The small-scale societal issues in the novel were and still are a warning sign of what happens when actions go unanswered.