Name: Evita

NIM: 183211034
Class: 6A

Historical and Biographical Criticism of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937. John
Steinbeck, whose full name is John Ernst Steinbeck, was born on February 27, 1902, Salinas,
Valley, California, United States and died at the age of 66 on December 20, 1986, New York,
United States. He is a writer and one of the most famous American writers of the 20th
century and his most famous work is of Mice and Men. While writing, he worked as a laborer
so that his experience made the depiction of workers in his writing very authentic. He spent
most of his life in Monterey County, California.
This novel tells about the journey of two travelers, George and Lenny. George was short and
Lennie was big and a little bit dumb. They have nothing but themselves and their dreams.
Their dream is to own a piece of land so they can have a peaceful life, this is illustrated in
George and Lennie's dialogue when they were spending the night by the river, George said,
“we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the
winter, we'll just say the hell with goin 'to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set
around it an 'listen to the rain comin' down on the roof -Nuts!”
The novel can be analyzed using biographical and historical criticism. But before that, it is
necessary to know that biographical criticism is analyzing an author’s biography to showcase
similarities between that author’s life and his or her literary work. While, historical criticism
is defining a literal meaning of a text, as well as its original meaning. Biographical and
historical criticism build off each other. Historical criticism works by looking into a literary
works background, it is cultural and social context, as well as the authors biography.
Biographical criticism works by considering the author and the fact-based knowledge of his
life which accompanies him.
“Lennie!” George said sharply. “Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much.” Lennie
continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder.
“Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night.”
It seems that John Steinbeck is very good at portraying the characters in his novel. In his
novel, he seems to be more concerned with showing something than telling it. From the
excerpt from the novel above, we know how the characters of George and Lennie are.
Without John Steinbeck telling you that Lennie is a ridiculous character in the novel. This
reflects that John Steinbeck's writing style is very unique and characterizes him.
When viewed from the year of publication, namely 1930, it can be concluded that this novel
has a social setting during the Great Depression era in the United States. From 1929 to 1939
America experienced the worst economic depression in history. Economic depression is a
situation where when a country has experienced a recession and does not immediately rise
up, it can lead to the worst economic conditions.
There is a dialogue in which George says that people like them, who work on farms, are the
loneliest people on earth. They had no future and no dreams, but then George said that he and
Lennie were not among such people even though they also wanted to work on the farm. He
said that they would collect money while working and then buy him a piece of land when the
money was collected. It's shown in the footage, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the
loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a
ranch an 'work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing
you know they're poundin 'their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead
to.”
But then he continued, George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got
somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’
our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot
for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.” George indicated that he and Lennie had a dream,
this was related to the American ethos, the American Dream.
The American Dream is a belief, which is believed by many people in the United States.
They believe, through hard work, sacrifice, and determination, regardless of social status, a
person can have a better life. This is an ethos or characteristic of the American nation in
which in freedom there is the hope of prosperity and success. The American Dream was first
stated by James Truslow Adams in 1931, that every citizen of all caste levels felt that they
could have a better, more secure, and happier life.
In this case, the strong relationship between George and Lennie is increasingly visible. Not
only is the bond between George and Lennie, but the rest of the story shows the relationship
between Candy and his old dog, Candy only has one arm and the dog she owns is old.
Carlson told him to shoot the dog, because he thought the dog was very old and the smell
indicated that the dog was very useless and should be taken away. Like the metaphor of
humans trapped in industrial labor and will, where after they are useless, they will be fired
and replaced by younger and fresher workers. Candy has a lot of sympathy for the dog,
because it reminds her of his own fate. Candy, the old and crippled sweeper, when his
strength was exhausted and useless, was just waiting to be thrown away like the dog she kept.
Live alone. Dying leaving nothing, the work of a lifetime seems pointless.
Then in the case of the American Dream, there is a black person named Crooks who seems
very lonely, he cannot sleep in the bunker with other workers but he has his own room that no
one can enter except himself. This is proven when in the excerpt in the novel, Crooks said
sharply, “You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got any right
in here but me.”
Coming back to George and Lennie's case, Lennie really likes petting soft things like mice,
rabbit, women's dresses and also women's hair. This is what makes George and Lennie get
into a lot of trouble. Once at that time Lennie was given mice by his aunt and he always made
the mice die because he stroked it too hard, then once while in town Lennie saw a red dress
worn by a woman. The dress looked so soft that it made Lennie really want to caress it. This
made the girl scream in fear and several residents went after Lennie because they thought
Lennie raped the girl in the red dress. It also got George into trouble. The conflict occurs
when Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife.
Tragically, the ending of this story is when after accidentally killing Curley's wife, Lennie
goes to the brush where he has promised George that if he causes trouble then he will go
there. There, George also walked over to him and Lennie immediately apologized and felt
very guilty about what had just happened. Lennie was ready to accept George's punishment
as before. However, George didn't do it and he discussed the dream of the two of them
owning a plot of land and letting Lennie talk about what he likes about raising rabbits. After
Lennie talked about the rabbit, George tragically shot Lennie in the head. Deeply emotional,
George wanted Lennie to die remembering something that made him happy, not something
that made him feel afraid and guilty.
Biographically, the contents of this novel were originally set in Soledad, California. We know
that John Steinbeck spent most of his life in California. His work, entitled of Mice and Men,
also tells about labor work and in John Steinbeck's life he had worked as a laborer after his
studies at Stanford University were interrupted in 1920 and 1926.
If viewed from a historical perspective, the historical setting when this novel was written was
during the economic depression in the United States or what is known throughout history is
The Great Depression in 1929 to 1939. There are many unemployed people who have no
future and have no dreams. Even those who have permanent jobs do not have dreams,
because they only spend their lives working and then after getting their salary they will spend
it in the city, and so on.
George has something in common with Candy. Candy had once regretted saying that she
should have killed her own dog, not anyone else. So George killed his friend Lennie, he didn't
want to let Curley shoot his friend. The second similarity is that George and Candy both
cannot realize their dream of owning their own land. Next, maybe Candy is a picture of
George as an old man, just living his life as a laborer and expecting to own a piece of land.
The conclusion is to respect and continue to provide understanding to others without
considering physical conditions or other conditions. And in essence, John Steinbeck wrote his
story very epic
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Kompasiana.com. (2019, January 21). “Review Of Mice and Men”, Manusia dan Mimpinya.
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mice-and-men-manusia-dan-mimpinya?page=3
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https://glints.com/id/lowongan/depresi-ekonomi/#.YDtkvGhKjIV
Makna dari American Dream. (2010, July 26). Welcome to My World.
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