Choices In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck was the 1962 Nobel Prize Winner and in his speech he had many connections to one of his famous books, Of Mice and Men. He talked about the hard times that humanity had faced such as the Great Depression, World War 2, Korean war, and Civil Rights movements. In these times humans started to do non human like things to survive. Steinbeck has lived through both the highs and lows of humanity, and the time between the publishment of the book Of Mice and Men to the acceptance of his Nobel Prize, was a miserable and despairing time. His book had many similar themes and connections to what the outside world was like. In both Of Mice and Men and his Nobel Prize Speech, Steinbeck describes how life is full of difficult choices and the
Difficult choices are just obstacles in life and everyone has to make some, but the harder the decision the more likely chance of worse the consequence. In Of Mice and Men towards the ending of the book, George had to make a crucial decision whether to run away with his best friend Lennie from a angry mob for a second time, but he just decided to end it all and Steinbeck described Lennie's depressing final moments as, “He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand and he lay without quivering. George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from him…,” (Steinbeck 106). George was miserable but he knew that he had to do it. This shows that there always pros and cons of decisions and in this case he lost his best friend but he ended up saving Lennie from being tortured or saved another person that Lennie could have eventually hurt like he has done before. Steinbeck described many aspects of humanity and the world itself; it was stated in his Nobel Prize speech when talking about the lows of humanity that, “dreadful burden of choice,” (Steinbeck). During the Cuban missile crisis many people were in fear because one imperious person had control over millions of people's lives. He could have made one decision and that one decision could
In Of Mice and Men there were multiple characters who were not given equal respect because they were seen as different and unable to complete tasks. Steinbeck had one chapter devoted to the outcast and they are Lennie, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. Lennie, Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Candy were seen as lower class people. Lennie is specially needed, Crooks is an African American, Curley’s wife was a woman, and Candy was old man without a hand. In the old days all of these people would be considered as unequal or not as good as. As Lennie tries to go in Crooks room, Crooks defends his privacy by stating, “Well, I got a right to have a light. You go on get outta my room. I ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse, and you ain’t wanted in my room ,” ( Steinbeck 68 ). Crooks showed indignation about how he is no ever allowed to go in town or be near the others. At this point Crooks is used to not getting respect, so he tries to avert the others at all times and now he lives his life lonely and sad. In Steinbeck's speech he described how everyone is defenseless because anyone could strike anyone at anytime, and he explained it as, “The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man,”(Steinbeck). Danger are the social classes because anything