Steinbeck Essay

The Tragedies of Life

No matter how hard one might try, one's dreams may never become a reality. That is something that young people may find hard to believe, but it is something that many people have had to learn to accept. In his poem, "To a Mouse," eighteenth century Scottish poet Robert Burns expressed a tragic view of life in words that would later become famous: "... The best laid schemes of mice and men go oft astray, and leave us naught but pain and sorrow for promised joy." Twentieth century author John Steinbeck used the phrase "of mice and men" as the title for his book in which characters and events serve to illustrate the tragic dimensions of human life that many people experience. This essay will present examples of terrible misfortune and cruel twists of fate from the experiences of real people, and the two main characters in John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men

The two main characters are, George, a poor hard-working fellow, and Lennie, the mentally retarded man for whom George is responsible. They travel around working as low-paid laborers on various ranches and farms in 1930s California. Their dream was to own a plot of land that they could call their own, "we'd jus' live there. We'd belong..". The joy George sought through his dreams, was to be able to be independent, to grow his own vegetables, to raise cows, and sell chicken eggs. Being his own boss, he wouldn't have to worry about getting hired and fired. Lennie wanted to take care of rabbits on the farm. This would make him happy. Sadly, these dreams and hopes are cruelly crushed and never find fulfillment. First, a confused and panicking Lennie happens to fatally break a woman's neck, when the woman reacts negatively to him touching her soft hair. Then, a vengeful mob goes after Lennie determined to kill him for his crime. Finally, George decides he has to kill Lennie himself (by gunshot to the back of the head) as a form of mercy killing. This horrible series of events destroys any hopes that George had for his future, and with his spirit broken; his life has, in affect, ended as well. Then there's the example of the young woman whom Lennie accidentally killed.

This girl is another person whose life is wracked by tragedy. Her dream was to become a movie actress and obtain all the wonderful things that go with fame, and fortune, "coulda' been in the movies, an' had nice clothes--all them nice clothes like they wear". Her mother was against this dream and tried to keep her from pursuing it. The woman decided to marry a would-be boxer, and bully named Curlie. She thought this would get her away from her mother and free her to become an actress. Unfortunately, this marriage of convenience ended with her tragic death at the hands of a confused retarded man who had merely wanted to touch her soft, curled hair. Unexpected death is the ultimate destroyer of dreams. Yet another character in Steinbeck's book whose life shows how plans can go awry, bringing pain and suffering instead of the hoped-for happiness, was a man named Candy.

Candy was a janitor or maintenance man on a ranch. His dream was to one day co-own a ranch with George and Lenny. His "promised joy" was to have a nice place to live out the rest of his days, some place he'll be "let to hoe in the garden even after he ain't no good at it". He had gotten excited about the prospect of owning a ranch with George and Lenny. He thought through where the money would come from to buy a plot of land with a small house on it. But, his dreams and hopes also came to an abrupt end on account of the horrible events described above involving Lennie and George. The rippling waves of a tragic event can cause still more tragedy to occur. Although the Steinbeck book may be a work of fiction, the types of things that happen in it reflect what can and does happen in real life.

Great literature reflects life, and life is reflected in great literature. Take for example, Al Gore, he was a career politician from Tennessee who had dreams of one day becoming the president of the United States of America. For eight years he served dutifully and honorably as the vice president during President Clinton's two terms in office. It looked like Al Gore was almost "destined" to be the next president. He had a vision for America's future in the world. He wanted to improve and protect was the environment, and strengthen peace among nations by making the United Nations a better and stronger organization. But history did not unfold the way Mr. Gore and many others hoped and expected it would. First, there was the unfortunate sexual scandal involving President Clinton and a White House intern named Monica Lewinski. This damaged President Clinton's reputation, and made Mr. Gore's campaign to become the next president much harder, because he was Mr. Clinton's vice president and friend. Second, the vote for the next president was very close. For a while it looked as though Mr. Gore would become the next president because he had received most of the popular votes. Then, there was a big controversy over whether Mr. Gore or Mr. Bush had won the decisive state of Florida. The Supreme Court decided that Mr. Bush won. Mr. Bush became president even though Mr. Gore got more popular votes overall. Mr. Gore's hopes and dreams were dashed. He is not running for president in 2004. He may never get another shot at becoming president. Another tragic