Foreshadowing in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men Research Paper

Foreshadowing in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men - Research Paper Example Steinbeck himself cared deeply about the lives of migrant workers as evidenced by his compassionate tone and creation of complex characters struggling in a competitive society. Steinbeck combined styles of modernism and realism to explore the lives of people living in and traveling through Southern California. Steinbeck’s parents, a Monterey treasurer and a school teacher/stay-at-home mom, taught him a love of literature from an early age. Although he did attend Stanford University for three years, he left without completing his degree. These years, as well as his journalism job, provided the formative substance of his writing career for he worked and traveled throughout California as a short-term hired hand at mills, farms, and larger estates. During these years he came face to face with the resilience with which migrant workers faced their destitute, unstable lives. Throughout the rest of Steinbeck’s career he focused Name 2 on the plight of the underdog within an inc reasingly unfair, capitalistic world. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his monumental novel, The Grapes of Wrath, focused on the dreams and tragedy of the Joad family, and for his combined works he was awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize. All of Steinbeck’s characters face issues equally derived from competitive social forces, the economic downfall known as the Great Depression, and the seasonal nature of the farming economy. The 1930s saw vast technological advances in farm machinery that drastically reduced the number of men needed to operate a farm. In 1900, about 125, 000 workers traveled from Minnesota to Washington searching for work, but by the 1930s the numbers of out-of-work men looking for positions had doubled. Farms were becoming corporate industries with the absent owners living in cities hiring managers to run the farms. Migrant workers, nicknamed â€Å"bindle-stiffs† as they packed up and followed the seasonal harvests, were severely underpaid, had no unio n or legal representation, or stable homes. In the later 1930s, violent strikes broke out in several areas leading to some improvements, yet most farm owners continued to treat their migrant workers as disposable. This lifestyle continued until World War II dramatically altered the lives of all Americans as itinerant workers had the option to enlist and the defense industry expanded to insure food rations for citizens and soldiers. Steinbeck’s social experience of living with migrant workers and journalistic knowledge of the economics of itinerant life greatly influenced his novella Of Mice and Men. The very title indicates the central question considering the value of life as it links the smallest burrowing creature’s life to the hopeful pride found in the positive view of Name 3 American manhood. The novella begins with George and Lennie on the run. They are escaping their recent post at a farm called Weeds where Lennie scared a young woman by inappropriately but inn ocently feeling her dress causing her scream as if she were being physically assaulted. This situation introduces readers to the roving nature of their farm work, Lennie’s inability to control his actions, and the tight protective relationship between these two men. These two protagonists create a symbiotic relationship as they feed each other’s dreams of a owning a farm while making their migrant life bearable. â€Å"