John Steinbeck's Life In Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck’s Life in Relation to his Literary Works John Steinbeck is a famous writer in the 20th century who has written many great works of realistic fiction. These works were able to capture the tragic lives people lived and raise awareness of these problems. Many people wonder how Steinbeck was able to create such vivid detail of the events that had transpired. This was possible for him because Steinbeck had lived through those events himself and saw firsthand how people were effected by historical events. Therefore, John Steinbeck’s inspiration and influences for his books came from his own life. John Steinbeck was born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California. As a child, Steinbeck lived on a ranch. He lived there until he “finally …show more content…
While he was working as a reporter, Steinbeck met many people who were powerless to control their own future. Steinbeck saw this powerlessness in everyone he encountered during the Great Depression. Powerless immigrants who could not find a job, powerless laborers that could not make their ends meet, and powerless land owners who were struggling to keep their property. Consequently, powerlessness is a recurrent theme in Steinbeck’s life and his literary works. In his Of Mice and Men each character had some flaw that made them powerless against society. For example, George was a migrant worker, who would not be considered for a job unless no one else wanted the job; Lennie was a migrant worker with a mental disability that prevented him from taking care of himself and protecting himself from society; Curley’s wife was a woman, so society prevented her from making decisions on her own and leaving Curley; Crooks was an African American and a cripple, causing society to treat him as an inferior and a liability; Candy had a disability from the loss of a limb, which rendered him useless for any ranch work. Additionally, the theme of powerless in prevalent in Steinbeck’s To God Unknown. The novel is about a man who is involved with a pagan cult. The man feels powerless in a severe drought so he begins to feel compelled to sacrifice his own life for the cult. Isolation is another theme found in Steinbeck’s life. After believing that he was “pretty much depleted as a novelist, … [he] set of from his home… to drive cross-country” (Mcgrath 1). Steinbeck isolated himself from society for a ___ to travel across America. Just as Steinbeck isolated himself from society, he isolated characters in his novels. Crooks in Of Mice and Men was also isolated from the other farm workers because of his race. “‘I [Crooks] ain’t wanted in the bunk house…’ ‘Why ain’t you wanted,’ Lennie asked. ‘’Cause I’m black. They play