Naturalistic Elements In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The poem “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns clearly reflects the naturalistic themes in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”. A naturalist would state that the “struggle against forces beyond an organism’s control”, “survival of the fittest”, and “nothing ever goes as planned” are some naturalistic elements that can be identified both in the poem and the book. In the book, the clash of Lennie's physical strength and mental weakness was beyond his control. This made him struggle throughout the entire book. His physical strength caused a lot of damage to others, especially Curley's wife. When Curley's wife and Lennie were in the barn, Curley's wife offered Lennie to feel her hair by saying, "Here-feel right here, feel right aroun' there an' see how soft it is"(88). Lennie liked the way her hair felt and soon started pulling her hair because of his uncontrollable physical strength. She cried angrily and said " stop it now, you'll mess it all up"(88). Due to Lennie's inability to understand instructions or commands, his fingers hung on. He started to panic and covered her mouth with his enormous palms. She struggled and tried to jostle around but ended up breaking her neck and finally dying. George killed Lennie at the end because he knew that he was going to get killed by the other ranch men. Lennie's death is a perfect example of the first element of naturalism- struggle against forces beyond human control. Lennie's childlike mind and mental disability led to his death in the end. His imperfections led to his struggle(death) and that struggle was beyond his control. In the poem “To a mouse”, the mouse is faced by struggles that are beyond its control too. …show more content…
The contrast between man’s dominance and a mouse’s weakness is beyond the mouse’s control. The speaker's strength in the poem was the reason as to why the mouse lost its little house. This is certainly true in the poem, as demonstrated in the 2nd verse. “I'm truly sorry Man’s dominion has broken nature’s social union, an’ justifies that ill opinion, which makes thee startle”(verse 2). The speaker says that he is sorry that he destroyed the mouse’s little home. If the mouse was big enough and had more strength, it could have easily defended itself and could keep its house safe.However, the mouse’s physical size and man’s actions are beyond its control that finally led to the struggle of the mouse. This naturalistic element is related to to Lennie and the mouse. Both of these characters have a major weakness that is beyond their control. This makes them struggle a lot and they have no way of fixing it. The second naturalistic element that can be observed in both pieces of writing is the “survival of the fittest” element. In the novel, Candy’s dog is shot because he serves no purpose to society. This can be identified when Carlson tries to convince Candy by saying, “That stink hangs around even after he’s gone; got no teeth; he's all stiff with rheumatism. He ain't no good to you, Candy. An’ he ain't no good to himself. Why’n’t you shoot him, Candy?” (44). Carlson tries to say that there is no reason for the dog to be living as he is useless and isn't fit. This ties back to the naturalistic element that states how only the fittest survive. This element can also be observed in the poem. In this case, it is hard for mice to survive in the winter as they have adequate food and shelter. They aren’t that fit and that’s what makes it hard for them to survive. In the …show more content…
Lennie and George shared a beloved dream throughout the book. George would always say, “We gotta get a big stake together; Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries, apples, peaches, ‘cots, nuts, got a few berries; they’s a place for alfalfa and plenty water to flood it” (55-56). They loved talking about this dream and always imagined what it would be like to live in a farm where they wouldn’t have to work for others. However, the dream Lennie and George shared would never come true because Lennie’s imperfections hindered them