In his fresh ‘Of Mice and Men ‘ Steinbeck creates for us a universe of false hopes thwarted desires and broken dreams. All the characters suffer ; he explores the rough worlds of the 1930s. Explain what you have learnt from this novel and why it still endures today. For me, Carlson, Slim and Crooks are the most of import characters in ‘Of Mice & A ; Men ‘ as they are inspirational by giving the characters George and Lennie advice. They show us that you do n’t necessitate to be forceful to derive regard most particularly Slim. Crooks is enlightening in the context of racism in that clip period. Steinbeck gave Crooks his ain chapter to inform us of the racism. Carlson shows us that in rough times you ca n’t be nice all the clip. The rough times I mentioned is the Great Depression which had gone down in history as the worst economical catastrophe the universe has of all time seen. What made it even worse was that a conditions system known as the “ Dust Bowl ” . This meant harvest could non be grown so the husbandmans could non do money.

The narrative was set in a distant Californian town called Soledad which is Spanish for solitariness. The name of the town symbolises the “ anchor ” of the narrative as each character is lonely. California was known at the clip as the “ Salad Bowl of America ” . This was because about every fruit or veggie was grown at that place. Men working on spreads at this clip were paid really small for the sum of work they did ( $ 50 per calendar month ) and work was limited as there was merely a certain sum of harvest to pick or harvest.

The scene symbolises the Garden of Eden because of the sum of agribusiness in the country. The darkness at the beginning of the novel tells us that something sinister may go on ( Symbolizing the serpent in the Garden of Eden ) . Steinbeck saw the Holy Grail which links in with The American Dream, as symbolic of a life end. He was fascinated by California and saw it as the Garden of Eden which in Genesis in the Bible, is described as a lost Eden. The American Dream is a life mark that everyone had but they could non accomplish. Steinbeck ‘s narratives were really realistic sing he used to work on spreads in California and he grew up at that place. This meant he had a existent penetration into the lives of ordinary people as he was one. The characters in Of Mice and Men ‘ were ordinary persons. All his narratives were drawn from personal experience ; he was upset with what he was seeing in the California around him. Of Mice and Men is set in 1936 and in 1962, he received a Nobel Prize for literature.

During the Great Depression, households were split up as there was no money and the work forces needed to go for work. This is emphasised greatly in Steinbeck ‘s novel The Grapes of Wrath. This novel is about a big household who travel from Oklahoma to California in the hope of happening work. Back in world, friends that people met on their travels became like household. The thought of America standing together as one large household was non a world. Steinbeck was born into a in-between category household who were working hard for a better life. This was their version of the American Dream.

Before the Great Depression, it was the Jazz Age ; this was the clip of merriment. Women began to have on short skirts but it was merely in 1920 adult females get the right to vote. This would non hold happened if the Suffragettes had non put force per unit area on the U.S. Government beforehand. As of this twelvemonth, out of the entire 100 senators in the U.S. Senate merely 17 of them were Women. Prior to 2001, numerically talking, the most common manner for a adult female to go up to the U.S. Senate was to hold been appointed there following the decease or surrender of a hubby or male parent who antecedently held the place. This is besides evident in the U.K ‘s House of Commons and the House of Lords. The possible hereafter Prime Minister David Cameron is trusting to alter this. President Roosevelt of the U.S.A. was the first president to delegate adult females to authorities occupations. Pay inequality was obvious in industry at that clip as adult females got half of whatever work forces got paid.

In the 1920 ‘s before the Great Depression, it was the clip of optimism as people were borrowing tonss of money. The Bankss merely lent money without make up one’s minding whether the person in inquiry could pay back the money or non. This was a major cause of the Great Depression. Besides, when the Great Depression struck, the Bankss attempted to remember all the loans because the Bankss needed the money but people could non pay back the money so the job worsened. 1-3 million people were affected by the Wall Street Crash. Businessmen and main executives and Wall Street bargainers were perpetrating self-destruction. Peoples had nowhere to populate and began organizing “ Hoovervilles ” on the border of metropoliss so named after President Hoover. President Roosevelt set up “ New Deal ” policies to assist the unemployed.

Since the terminal of civil war in America, the Klu Klux Klan burned round and lynched inkinesss merely because they were non of the same race as the Klu Klux Klan. The first kin was formed by veterans of the Confederate Army. Other groups shortly sprang up across the southern provinces. They besides persecuted homophiles, Jews and any other spiritual belief apart from their ain ( Christian ) . This far right extremist administration is alarmingly still really active today. The chief concentration of rank of the Klu Klux Klan is in the southern provinces for illustration Alabama, Mississippi, although there is some rank in the Midwestern provinces. The southern provinces would hold represented the Confederacy during the civil war. Up until the mid 1960ss members may hold been functionaries such as Judgess or police officers. I use the term police officers because typically members are males. This could intend inkinesss could be easy accused of offenses they did n’t perpetrate and be prosecuted of them. It is unknown to this twenty-four hours whether there are still functionaries that are members of this administration. They campaigned to halt black people from voting. Blacks and Whites were separated in public topographic points for illustration they had separated lavatories, separate eating countries and separated countries on coachs. Rosa Parks famously campaigned against segregation of inkinesss on coachs. This is known as the coach boycott. The coach companies were losing out on tonss of money as inkinesss were their chief clients so they had no pick to alter the regulations. So no longer a black individual had to give up their place for a white individual. Roosevelt made attempts to equalize wage. Black work forces were paid less than white adult females and black adult females were paid even less than black work forces, which meant they got paid a one-fourth of whatever white work forces got paid. Roosevelt tried to prohibit favoritism. The federal authorities became the largest employer of inkinesss in the state. In the fresh Crooks knows what his rights are as he owns a transcript of the “ California Civil Code 1905 ” . However, he is denied them because of his race.

Crooks is the black stable vaulting horse. He is the lone lasting employee at the spread, since he injured his dorsum in an accident ; his dorsum gives him changeless hurting. We are told this as Steinbeck tells us in chapter four that he is rubbing embrocation into his dorsum “ Crooks sat on his bunk. His shirt was out of his denims in the dorsum. In one manus he held a bottle of embrocation, and with the other he rubbed his spinal column. Now and so he poured a few beads of the embrocation into his pink-palmed manus and reached up under his shirt to rub once more. He flexed his musculuss against his dorsum ” . Steinbeck reinforces how painful his hurt is by utilizing strong descriptive linguistic communication. He is merely called “ Nigger ” by the other characters as racism is taken for granted. It shows that they are taught racism by watching what was go oning around them instead than being born with it. He is lonely ; Steinbeck besides tells us this in chapter four. “ S’pose you did n’t hold cipher. S’pose you could n’t travel into the bunk house and play drunkard ’cause you were black… A guy needs somebody-to be near him… .I tell ya a guy gets excessively lonely an ‘ he gets ill. ” He tells Lennie this because Crooks knows from personal experience what it is like to be lonely like that because he is Black. The lone clip he is allowed to blend with the other cats is when they play quoitss and he ever wins. The merely other clip we are told of Crooks blending with the other cat is at the beginning of the narrative when Candy introduces himself. “ They let the nigga come in that dark. Done reasonably good, excessively. The cats would n’t allow him utilize his pess, Smitty says he woulda killed the nigga. The cats said on history of the nigga ‘s got a crooked dorsum, Smitty ca n’t utilize his pess. ” This shows inkinesss are treated with small regard and no-one ( white people ) will lodge up for him. He has his ain room near the stallss and has a few ownerships. He has books, which shows he is intelligent and an old transcript of the California Civil Code, which suggests he is concerned about his rights. He says he has seen work forces come and travel all looking for the American dream but is now misanthropic about it as none of them have achieved it. Steinbeck shows us this once more, in chapter 4 “ You ‘re nuts. ” Crooks was contemptuous. “ I seen hunderds of work forces come by on the route an ‘ in the spreads with their bindles on their back an ‘ that same damn thing in their caputs. An ‘ ne’er a God damn one of ’em of all time gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a small piece of local area network ” . They ‘re all the clip talkin ‘ about it, but it ‘s jus ‘ in their caput ” . This is of import because it tells us everyone has a dream. Steinbeck uses this idiom of American English to foster heighten the pragmatism of the narrative as who he is establishing his characters on radius like that at that clip. Crook ‘s dream is for inkinesss to non be segregated, this is really of import to him, he did non gain the segregations when he was a male child on his male parent ‘s spread but now he does. His dream is broken because he is merely known on the spread as “ Nigger ” instead than Crooks which his dent name because of his crooked back ( We are non told his existent name ) . It will ne’er be probably to come true unless all Black people across America are treated as peers.

Slim is the jerkline Skinner ( lead mule-team driver ) at the spread. He is first-class at his occupation and the natural leader at the spread. Everyone respects his positions and looks up to him. He has that sort of presence that speaks authorization without being forceful. “ There was a gravitation in his mode and a quiet so profound that all talked stopped when he spoke. His authorization was so great that his word was taken on any topic, be it politics or love. ” He understands the relationship between George and Lennie. He helps George at the terminal and reassures him that he had done the right thing. We know small else about him, which gives him a somewhat cryptic quality. As we know small about him it is hard to penetrate whether he has a dream or non. It may be that he has tried to accomplish the dream but has failed at it or he may hold already fulfilled his dream. I think Steinbeck has included a character in ‘Of Mice and Men ‘ because he wants this character to be a function theoretical account for the reader. It is besides portrayed that he has a bosom because he tells Carlson to “ take a shovel ” with him when he goes to hit Candy ‘s Canis familiaris.

If you was to take him out and hit him right in the dorsum of the caput ” he leaned over and pointed, “ Right at that place, why he ‘d ne’er cognize what hit him. ” This once more, shows that you ca n’t be nice all the clip in rough times. He is rather annoyed with the odor of the Canis familiaris so he decides to take action. This shows the aged were treated with minimum regard at that clip as Candy is about forced into doing the determination to hold his Canis familiaris shooting by Carlson ‘s continuity. Later, George uses Carlson ‘s gun to hit Lennie. This is of import because it is the same gun that was used to hit Candy ‘s Canis familiaris which meant a batch to Candy and Lennie means a batch to George. Again, really small is known about Carlson. I think Steinbeck has included Carlson because he wanted to “ equilibrate out ” the characters and to do the narrative appear realistic.

We learn by reading about these characters that you ca n’t be nice ever in rough times, you do n’t hold to be forceful to derive regard and merely because you have a different skin coloring material does n’t do you different. I think that Steinbeck does n’t let the characters to accomplish their dreams because he wanted to do the narrative every bit realistic as possible.

I think the novel is so popular today because, particularly within the last twelvemonth, we have all been in an economic catastrophe though non on the graduated table of the Great Depression. It besides relates to the reader because we all have dreams and so make the characters. Besides, even today people are discriminated against with disablements even though assorted employment Torahs aim to set a halt to this. Again, racialist favoritism against inkinesss in the southern provinces of America is still a urgent issue. It is rather sad that certain things such as the above do n’t alter.