Naturalism as a Mirror of the 1930's

Literature is often a reflection of the time period in which it was written or, in the case of historical fiction, of the time period it is focused on. Authors will often find sneaky little ways to demonstrate the dominant characteristics of the time period by blending in details, that, at a closer glance, reveal these hidden themes.

In class, we viewed several videos (in the LitByFleming blog video bar) that gave us a look at some major events and common themes or characteristics of the 1930s. John Steinbeck certainly considered these elements when writing Of Mice and Men. In fact, it might be said, his writing style intentionally made use of naturalism in order to capture and expose some of the attitudes and characteristics of the American 1930s.

Let's see if you can make the connection! Think about some of the naturalistic elements we identified in class (Chapter 1). What aspects or characteristics of the 1930s are being demonstrated to us at those moments in the text? What do you believe John Steinbeck was trying to show us or expose about the way people, life, or society was during this time in American history?



Chapter one '"Of Mice and Men" displays many characteristics of a human. It shows the extents people had to go to get a job. In the beginning of chapter one Lennie and George are walking to get another job and once they stop to rest Lennie and George find a large dirty pool of water, which Lennie carelessly drinks out of. They describe Lennie as becoming animal like in this section."His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse." (3) After this George of course steps in to intervene, worried that Lennie may become sick after in taking the not so fresh water. This showed that Lennie no longer showed human characteristics but in fact animistic traits. At the time there wasn't as much technology as now, obviously. Which made things boring alongside with the small amount of jobs in the 1930 this could have probably brought out the wild side in people.

Steinbeck presents that life back in the 1930 was nothing, but hard. He demonstrates that if you want something you have to take the risk and all the journeys to get what you want in life. He shows that you can never take a short route in this process . If you want something you must put an effort in to get it. 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/great_depression_1930s/index.html