The struggle between social classes is an everyday occurrence. There are constant conflicts between the rich and the poor and among the two classes are the battles that the rich administer and the battles that the poor must govern. This daily struggle will never surpass. Even in novels, it is a common endeavor. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the two main characters, George and Lennie, encounter an incredibly life-changing occurrence when the two step out onto their voyage to seek a place of employment and shelter.
The search for employment is one of the most common journeys a person will make in his or her lifetime. However, during the great depression – the time period in which Of Mice and Men takes place–there was a huge economic downfall …show more content…
If they do not feel as though they have failed, then the bourgeoisie himself has failed. This type of person feels the constant need to be superior over others. In Of Mice and Men, Curley attempts to fight Lennie on the pure curiosity of wondering whether or not he will fight back. Of course Lennie did was his natural instinct told him; he fought back. A Marxist believes that “the workers are to overthrow [a capitalist society] with violence… [by] any permissible means” (Curtis 109). However, in this particular scene, Lennie chooses not to fight back on the caliber in which he is capable despite being ordered to do so by George. Due to the fact that Curley is his superior, Lennie decides to take the beating because he presumes that any action he takes may cause George to lose his dream. Lennie did have the opportunity to take Curley out of the picture, but the risk of losing a good life was too high. So instead of murdering the bourgeoisie, he only decided to break every bone in his hand. The portrayal of simply this scene alone conveys an extent of just how much power the upper class bourgeoisie possessed over his lower class workers who traveled hundreds of miles in order to become a successful man like his …show more content…
According to Louis Owens, Steinbeck “saw no cornucopia of democracy in the retreating frontier, but rather a destructive and fatal illusion barring Americans from the realization of any profound knowledge of the continent they had crossed.” (4) In Of Mice and Men, the dream of independence and self-sufficiency apparently upheld by the vast spaces of the western frontier does indeed turn out to be “destructive and fatal”. What remains unacknowledged, however, in Owens’ analysis, is that the closing of the [west] was a direct consequence of the need for a capitol-based economy to impose order on and control the open spaces … and [was] not … simply the result of population migration (Marsden
The search for employment is one of the most common journeys a person will make in his or her lifetime. However, during the great depression – the time period in which Of Mice and Men takes place–there was a huge economic downfall …show more content…
If they do not feel as though they have failed, then the bourgeoisie himself has failed. This type of person feels the constant need to be superior over others. In Of Mice and Men, Curley attempts to fight Lennie on the pure curiosity of wondering whether or not he will fight back. Of course Lennie did was his natural instinct told him; he fought back. A Marxist believes that “the workers are to overthrow [a capitalist society] with violence… [by] any permissible means” (Curtis 109). However, in this particular scene, Lennie chooses not to fight back on the caliber in which he is capable despite being ordered to do so by George. Due to the fact that Curley is his superior, Lennie decides to take the beating because he presumes that any action he takes may cause George to lose his dream. Lennie did have the opportunity to take Curley out of the picture, but the risk of losing a good life was too high. So instead of murdering the bourgeoisie, he only decided to break every bone in his hand. The portrayal of simply this scene alone conveys an extent of just how much power the upper class bourgeoisie possessed over his lower class workers who traveled hundreds of miles in order to become a successful man like his …show more content…
According to Louis Owens, Steinbeck “saw no cornucopia of democracy in the retreating frontier, but rather a destructive and fatal illusion barring Americans from the realization of any profound knowledge of the continent they had crossed.” (4) In Of Mice and Men, the dream of independence and self-sufficiency apparently upheld by the vast spaces of the western frontier does indeed turn out to be “destructive and fatal”. What remains unacknowledged, however, in Owens’ analysis, is that the closing of the [west] was a direct consequence of the need for a capitol-based economy to impose order on and control the open spaces … and [was] not … simply the result of population migration (Marsden