Social Corruption In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men is set in California which seemed to many Americans in the 1930s almost a promised land. It was supposed to be rich in money, work and prospects – a place where you could work hard and fulfil the American dream of personal success. Instead, it was a home to social misery and exclusion, especially for the migrant workers. Steinbeck writes to alert people to their suffering.

Although the novel opens with an idyllic scene, there are suggestions of decay and social corruption even here. The Salinas river is blissful, idyllic and almost dream-like in the ‘golden’ hues of a summer’s evening. The deep water is ‘warm’ having ‘slipped twinkling’ over the shallow sands of the river-bed – a sensual image of light and freedom which creates the sense of a rural paradise. The mountains are ‘strong and rocky’, suggesting permanence and power alongside their peaceful beauty. However, even within the idyll there are suggestions that all may not be as perfect as it first appears. Soledad is mentioned in the first sentence of the book, being Spanish for ‘lonely’, striking a melancholy note into the beauty of the idyllic scene. The ‘sycamores’ with their ‘mottled, white, recumbent limbs’ have …show more content…
The ‘Jackson fork’ is described as ‘four-taloned’ and is ‘suspended’ above the hay. Talons are reminiscent of birds and prey, and suggest the ripping of flesh. The word ‘suspended suggests an impending danger that is about to fall, which is combined with this image of the ‘afternoon sun’ which ‘sliced’ into the barn. In this oxymoron, Steinbeck juxtaposes the pleasant and relaxed image of the sun with the vicious and ominous verb ‘sliced’, which again strikes a sense of foreboding. Steinbeck stresses the softness and size of the ‘little dead puppy’ which Lennie kills. The puppy, a symbol of comfort perhaps represents Lennie’s hope for responsibility, stability and comfort which he tragically will never