In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck presents a totally pessimistic view of life where dreams offer the only escape? Essay

Guys standardised us that work on ranches are the l aceliest guys in the worldwith us it aint like thatbecause I got you to hang after me, and you got me to look after you. Perhaps of Mice and Men apprize be perceived as a totally pessimistic reflection of what life in 1930s America was like, barely through the extraordinary relationship between George and Lennie and the natural dignity of Slim, a balance between the good and the bad, the happy and the disturbed is achieved.The prove-child relationship shared between George and Lennie throughout the new(a) is certainly a good thing. From the start of the novel, we see George as a responsible character, a parent substitute to Lennie, whose loyalty seems more through kindness than a sense of duty. He reminds Lennie that (his) aunt Clara would like (him) running off by (himself) and purge when he is severely provoked by Lennie to speak harshly to him, he soon feels guilty and apologises I been mean, aint I?. Lennie, on the other hand, acts like a child, unaware of the hardships he and George face throughout the novel. He pleads with George to let him keep the rats he finds and needs George to repeat to him words and phrases so that he can remember them Lennieyou remember what I told you? Lennie raised his elbow and his face contorted with thought.Yet although George is Lennies opposite, he continues to care for him throughout the novel, even at the terminus when he chooses to end Lennie life himself rather than watch him suffer under the wrath of Curley Lennie dies at the hand of the man he trusts, soothe believing in his dream, painlessly, happy and free Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering.But perhaps it is this dream that makes this novel seem so pessimistic it is what seemingly keeps them together yet at the end it is shattered, and with it, George and Lennies wizship comes to a shocking end. The dream is of a truly small farm, a little place, w hich they own themselves, a dream of working for themselves and of being the ones in charge If we dont like a guy we can say Get the hell out, and by God hes got to do it. It is powerful enough to draw in glass and, temporally, even the cynical Crooks. Yet although this dream offers an escape from reality and even when the hope of freedom seemed possible, it is shattered and George is left with no other option but to shoot his one and only ally in the struggle against a society which finds it difficult to imagine than one can have a friend to share his fears and sorrows with I never see one guy take so much trouble for anotherPerhaps Lennies death is consume to fate and destiny, the fact that neither he nor George had any control over their lives, as reflected by Slims tender words at the end of the novel, You hadda George. I swear you hadda, or maybe it is in fact down to the rootless American society of the 1930s.So to conclude, although George and Lennies friendship and Slims n atural dignity are two good things, Lennies death and the collapse of the dream he and George believed in at the end of the novel leads one to feel that, during the Depression, freedom and success were perhaps impossible to achieve. The American vision, the key to American psychology, stated that great personal success could be gained by hard work and private success. Yet in truth many were not allowed to achieve this success. Such groups included itinerant workers and Black people who, in this novel, are represented by Crooks, a character openly referred to as nigger, which exemplifies the casual racism directed towards him by the others and although the ranch hands do not set out to insult him deliberately, the use of the term nigger signals to us that black men like Crooks were constantly degraded both verbally and physically by whites.The storys heart-rending conclusion leads one to realise that for most migrant workers, the reality of their social situation means that the Amer ican Dream cannot be realised. This truth is reflected by the famous trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, both Italian immigrants who realised the true force of societys bias in the 1920s. Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of the finish of a paymaster and his guard and the robbery of $15,776 from the Slater and Morrill Shoe factory and were later executed for their crimes.From the evidence and the obvious biased feelings toward immigrants, the case became one where their culture was on trial as opposed to their actions and thus they were bound to be found guilty. Instead of upholding the sacred judicial process cemented in the United States Constitution, the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti resulted from the preconceived idea and discrimination of old-stock Americans in the 1920s. For Sacco and Vanzetti, their time was not an age of reason in American history. As both were guilty and proudly so- of a heathenish crimeMy conviction is that I have suffered for things I am guilty of. I am suffering because I am a radical and then I am a radical I have suffered because I was an Italian, and indeed I am an Italian I have suffered more for my family and for my dear(p) than for myself but I am so convinced to be right that if you could execute me two times, and if I could be reborn two other times, I would live again to do what I have done already.