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John Steinbeck was a writer who used naturalism in his works to to bring awareness about problems in society that he dealt with in his own life. He frequently dealt with the economic and social problems of migrant workers in California and how they dealt with everyday life. He wrote through his fiction about what he knew and what affected him personally. Specifically, he wrote a novella entitled, Of Mice and Men, about two California migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who are trying desperately to earn enough money to buy a couple of acres of their own so that they won? t have to keep running from there problems all the time. Naturalism was a literary movement throughout the U.
S. and Europe in the late 19 th century to the early 20 th century. Naturalism writers had a strong belief in the natural sciences, and used the ideas of Darwin? s theory of evolution to show how humans are animals that are changed by external factors, forced to adapt to the conditions surrounding them (GRO 1). Naturalists often looked at the other side of life, such as promiscuity, alcoholism, drug use and so on. They saw human beings as creatures who are controlled by influences beyond their control and therefore, being denied free will and moral choice.
This often made gave them the reputation of being pessimistic, for there stories were far from fantasy and the? high life? (GRO 1). Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California, where he was born on Feb. 27, 1902. Salinas was a quiet agricultural center close to the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel and King City. During high school he worked on nearby farms and ranches. When he graduated from Salinas High School in 1919, he went on to Stanford University where he studied intermittently there, never receiving a degree.
While at Stanford he submitted many manuscripts to publishing companies but they were constantly rejected. He began taking jobs at factories for manual labor (LIS 7). He worked as a bench- chemist at Spreckels beet factory and at the Willoughby Ranch south of Salinas as a ranch hand (MCC 6 - 10). In 1925, Steinbeck left California for New York, where he worked on the construction of Madison Square Garden. After construction was completed, Steinbeck got a job at the New York American newspaper where he wrote human interest stories. He was fired from this job after a short period of time (LIS 7).
In 1936, Of Mice and Men reached Steinbeck? s agents and it was published in January of 1937. It was Steinbeck? s first successful novel. At age 35, because of the success of Of Mice and Men, it was named a Book-of-the-Month Club choice and Steinbeck was named as one of Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Year.
Also, Steinbeck was asked to write articles about migrant workers for magazines and newspapers, bringing further awareness to the hardships of the migrant workers (LIS 7). In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck wrote about two laborers, George Milton and Lennie Small. George is a small, slender and smart man; Lennie is a large, clumsy mentally challenged man who is physically strong. George had promised Lennie? s Aunt Clara that he would take care of Lennie when she died. They have traveled from Weed, California, to work together on a ranch in Soledad.
Lennie and George have fled from Weed because Lennie was accused of trying to assault a girl. He was touching her dress and when he stroked it too hard she screamed and he hung on to her in fear. George and Lennie have a dream, to earn enough money so that they can have a place to call their own. They want to have rabbits? An? live off the fatta the lan? ? (STE 5).
They arrive in Soledad and meet The Boss, and his son Curley. George and Lennie also meet Slim, the ranch hand who seems to have authority in the bunkhouse, Curley? s wife, and Candy, the old swamper. Candy has a dog, it? s very old and dirty, and smells up the bunkhouse; so when Slim?
s dog has puppies, they convince Candy to let them kill the old dog and give him one of the new puppies. The night they kill Candy? s dog, George tells him about the dream that he and Lennie have, and Candy puts his $ 350 dollars into the dream with them. The next Sunday, while in the barn, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy that Slim has given to him when he pets it too hard. Curley?
s wife shows up in the barn and tells him to stroke her hair if he likes soft things. When she screams for him to stop, he grabs her neck in fear and breaks it. Candy finds her in the barn and shows George. When the men come back from playing horseshoes and find Curley? s wife in the barn, they grab their shotguns, but Curley? s is missing.
He assumes that Lennie took it, and they go out to search for him. George finds Lennie near the river bank, right where he told him to go if there was ever any trouble. He talks to to him about their dream, and at the same time puts a gun to his head and fires it. When the rest of the men find him they assume that George found Lennie with the gun and took it away from him and shot him. Steinbeck? s motivation to write this novel came from the anger he felt about the conditions of workers he saw and interacted with in California.
His work on the Willoughby ranch inspired the setting for Of Mice and Men. Many of his stories came from the places he was familiar with in California. When Steinbeck was young, he would drive in the family car and take in the scenery. He would also hike in the Galiban Mountains (MCC 6). Steinbeck later reflected on this to create the settings for his books. Soledad, a small town below Salinas, is the town that Of Mice and Men is set in.
The beginning of the novel starts on the banks of the Salinas River, a region he was very familiar with from his youth (MCC 6). The descriptions of the region that Steinbeck gives in the novel shows his familiarity with the area. In the beginning of Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck gives this beautiful description of the Salinas River valley, south of Soledad: On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Galiban mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter? s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool (STE 1). Steinbeck wrote many novels that were based in California in the Long Valley, Of Mice and Men was one of the most well received (MCC 6). By reading this novel, one can get in touch with the plight of the migrant workers during the Depression through a work of fiction.
Naturalism literature is one of the better ways writers can express themselves to the greater public, and Steinbeck has done just that with Of Mice and Men. He showed no indication of believing in a perfect man, that would be inconsistent with naturalist thinking that humans are? conditional and controlled by environment, heredity, instinct or chance? (BLO 77). Also, Steinbeck shows that in life, nature takes control, as Darwin explained. Lennie was eliminated from a society where he was not considered normal, he was weak, and he did not fit with the society (BLO 113). Steinbeck wrote about what he knew and what he believed, and he raised issues that he felt were important and told stories of the life that he knew.
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