Biography Of John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Author of ClassicNote and Sources Jeremy Ross, author of ClassicNote. Completed on March 15, 2000, copyright held by GradeSaver. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Covici Friede, 1937 Biography of John Steinbeck (1902-1968) [pic] John Steinbeck John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902. He attended Stanford University intermittently between 1920 and 1926. Steinbeck did not graduate from Stanford, but instead chose to support himself through manual labor while writing. His experiences among the working classes in California lent authenticity to his depiction of the lives of the workers who remain the central characters of his most important novels. Steinbeck spent much of his life in Monterey County, the…show more content…
It is only when Steinbeck introduces the wife that Curley's bravado becomes understandable. She is an obvious tramp, likely having an affair only weeks into her marriage. When she meets George and Lennie, she shamelessly flirts with them, comically thrusting out her breasts. There is more than a trace of sexism in this character. She is the only female character and also the only character not given a name. She is a farm femme fatale that will certainly prove dangerous for Lennie, out of place among the rough working men. Her rouge, painted fingernails dress are ostentatious, meant to attract the attention of the workers. She will prove equally dangerous to George and Lennie as her husband. Lennie's previous problem with a woman at Weed and Curley's wife's aggressive manner combined with Curley's paranoid bravado and immediate dislike for Lenny make a conflict concerning the three characters inevitable. When George lies to the boss by telling him that he is Lennie's cousin, he reinforces the suspicion that there is something suspect about their friendship. The boss cannot understand that two men would have any concern for each other unless they were bound by familial connections, and George's lie demonstrates that this view is widespread. George, in particular, has cares that occur beyond a narrow scope of self-interest, a view that clashes with the widespread individualist mindset. He is in some ways comparable to Candy, whose care for a decrepit old dog marks him as a weak and sentimental

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