of mice and men

The novella, “Of Mice and Men”, written in a cyclical structure, focuses on hardships ordinary men faced during the 1930’s Great Depression, using the strong friendship between two ranch workers, George and Lennie. Just from the title of the novel, we can see that the best laid places of Mice and Men often go wrong. We can understand from this, how the fate of man in the novel, is the same as the mice which Lennie pets. They will die and their dreams will result in grief rather than happiness. Steinbeck presents conflict between dreams and reality and other issues, within this dispute, at this time in society such as racism, loneliness and social status within the novel “Of Mice and Men” using the characters to demonstrate how the American dream is futile.
The portrayal of women in this novel is that they are unimportant, and a threat in society. Steinbeck uses the character of Curley’s wife to show us the status of women in society at this time. There are many references to Curley wife and the colour red, “roughed lips...fingernails were red...red cotton dress...red mules...red ostrich feathers”. All these descriptions of her show us the danger of Curley’s wife. Steinbeck uses lighting to demonstrate how she always seems to be blocking light, “the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off”. She is always shown to block the light, always getting in the way of the dream as she is the one who plays a part in destroying Lennie and George’s dream. The fact that she has no name proves to us the low importance of women as they are thought to be possessions of men. Curley has no respect for his wife and she does not like Curley as “he ain’t a nice fella”. She is another example of someone who believes in the dream, but is instead condemned to loneliness as her dream of being in the “movies” was crushed, and after she talks about her dream to Lennie, she dies the same way Lennie thinks about his dream before he dies. In reality, Curley’s wife is unhappy as