Naturalism as a Mirror of the 1930s



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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.

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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? 

Some naturalistic elements include: Characters bing ill-educated and lower class whose lives are governed by hereditary, instinct, and passion; Setting plays a huge part, wheather it is an urban setting or a rural setting; themes: the "beast within, survival, violence, environment vs. heredity, passion, instinct, and taboo.During class we discussed naturalistic elements and how they were related to the text and came up with four for the first chapter. The first example was "Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws." This man is being compared to a bear or has "human beast" characteristics. "Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes." Lennie's hand is being compared to a bear's paw. This is also an example of a "beastly" characteristic. "He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right." This shows that Lennie is ill-educated so he's not sure if he's doing it right so he looks up to George to make sure.
             Anger and frustration is demonstrated throughtout the first chapter. The reader can tell that George is very frustrated on page 11 because he blows up on Lennie when Lennie says he likes ketchup on his beans. I don't necessarily believe George was angry at Lennie because he likes ketchup on his beans; but I think the whole stress of getting to California for a better life is getting to him and he took it out on Lennie. It's understandable for a person in that situation to get angry, because you don't have work and you are trying to get a better life in San Francisco or California but you don't even know if that's going to work out.
             I believe John Steinbeck was trying to show us the true reality of what was actually going on in the Great Depression. The heart-wrenching feeling of being depressed, angry, frustrated all the time because people weren't living the lives they wanted to. Society was suffering from people not having work and work was only being found by California and San Francisco. It was even more depressing to maybe have to leave your family because they weren't able to travel with you all the way to California. John Steinbeck makes it clear that it was a cruel reality people had to live in the 1930s. As a reader, it hurts to think people went through times like these because society should never come to the point where everyone is unhappy and things are just getting worse and worse.