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Essay / Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 1005
Of Mice and Men by John SteinbeckSteinbeck's career spans from novelist to journalist to playwright. He has won acclaim for novels such as Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath. In novels like these, some aspects of Steinbeck's life story are evident. We also see that most of his novels focus around the same central theme “the relationship between man and his environment” (Draper 3373). The theme described is also demonstrated in the novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck's past relationships and personal life have a great influence on his work. Digging through Steinbeck's biographies and literary criticism, a mixture of his life and sympathy for American society was discovered in the novel Of Mice and Men (Draper 3373). John Steinbeck, born February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, worked primarily as a field worker, developing many of his characters from the people he worked with (Rylant et al. 70). His hometown of Salinas is of major importance in many of his novels. When used as a setting, it tends to give more importance to the theme of "the relationship between man and his environment". (Draper 3373). Steinbeck also continued to work as a laboratory assistant and field clerk in order to pay his tuition at Stanford University for six years, which proved unsuccessful as he never aspired to obtain a degree ("Steinbeck, John Ernst"). His first novel was Cup of Gold (1929), which was a failure, but soon after he returned with the novel Tortilla Flat (1935), which led to success. Shortly after, in 1937, his novels Of Mice and Men and The Red Pony were created and through these books his writings gained recognition (Rylant et al. 70-1). Steinbeck, in his fiction, manifests contradictory feelings. He clearly shows his sympathy for American society, but also his dissatisfaction with it (Draper 3373). The first time Steinbeck wrote for newspaper publication was when he wrote for William Randolph Hearst's morning newspaper called the American in 1925 (French 13). He got his start in journalism during World War II when he began writing about the war and additionally wrote articles about the war for the government (Rylant et al. 71). Steinbeck was always pro-American and continually supported American causes. An example of this is the Great Depression (“Steinbeck, John Ernst").