Comparing The Farm In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Steinbeck uses the farm as a symbol of harsh reality. The farm where George and Lennie

start working is a complete contradiction of what they described as their dream farm earlier on.

This sets everything into perspective, the men will never manage to afford their own farm, and

often times plans do not work out as intended to. The farm holds a great amount of hostility and

shows significant issues plaguing that time period. During the Great Depression everyone was

stuck with poverty, racism was an issue never solved, and women were looked down upon. The

farm also houses every factor of society, the mentally challenged, women, blacks, the elderly, the

crippled, showing the harsh truth of reality and making it clear this is not
a perfect, dream world.

The worst parts of human nature are shown at the farm, discrimination against women and

blacks, jealousy shown mainly through Curley, and cruelty from both words and actions of the

characters. The farm is used to show all the problems that afflicted the country at that time, and

was used to symbolize the harsh reality of the time.