摘 要
诺贝尔文学奖得主约翰·斯坦贝克是美国文学史上最具影响力的作家之一。其代表作《人鼠之间》是一部以悲剧为主题的小说，该作品以 20 世纪大萧条时代美国南方大环境为背景，讲述了两个迁移农民兰尼和乔治在农场上打工发生的悲剧。兰尼并不聪明，有点智力残疾，但因为长得很高大，常常让人误解；乔治是个聪明的家伙，他们俩是老朋友，一起梦想着能够拥有自己的一片农场，这个梦想看起来可以实现，但是兰尼却又闯下祸端意外杀死了老板儿子科里的妻子，在最后一次与兰尼关于梦想的讨论中，乔治朝兰尼扣动了扳机，他们的梦想也就此破碎。通过分析兰尼的命运，本论文认为兰尼的悲剧主要体现在人们对兰尼的《人鼠之间》是一部以悲剧为主题的小说，该作品以 20 世纪大萧条时代美国南方大环境为背景，讲述了两个迁移农民兰尼和乔治在农场上打工发生的悲剧。孤立和兰尼梦想破灭两方面。而兰尼个人悲剧主要归结于美国的大萧条，最后本文得出结论认为兰尼的悲剧不是个人的悲剧，而是他那个时代的悲剧。
关键词：《人鼠之间》；兰尼；悲剧
An Analysis of Lennie's Tragedy in Of Mice and Men
ABSTRACT
Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck is acclaimed as one of the most influentialliterary giants in American literature. In his masterpiece Of Mice and Men (1937),John Steinbeck cleverly employs the symbolism to depict the tragedy of the Lennyduring the period of the Great Depression in the early 20th century American South.
Lennie is a big man but very innocent with mental disability and his friend George isbright. They have a dream to own a farm themselves. However, Lennie's accidentalmurder of Curley's wife ruins everything. With forces, George finally makes thedecision to shoot Lennie. This paper analyzes Lennie's tragedy in two aspects: hisisolation by other people and disillusion of his dream. Then this paper, with anattempt to analyze reasons for Lennie's tragedy，holds that it is the Great Depressionthat kill Lennie as a representative of Lennie's times.
Key words: Of Mice and Men; Lennie; tragedy
TABLE OF CONTENTS
摘 要
ABSTRACT
Chapter One Introduction
Chapter Two Manifestation of Lennie's tragedy in OfMice and Men
2.1 Isolated by people around him
2.1.1 Pressed by the upper class
2.1.2 Fellowmen's misunderstanding ofLennie
2.2 Disillusion of Lennie's dream
2.2.1 Lennie's failure to get land
2.2.2 Lennie's failure to seek love
Chapter Three Great Depression - the leading criminalof Lennie's tragedy in Of Mice and Men
3.1 Wider gap between the rich and the poor
3.2 Corruption of social morality
Chapter Four Conclusion
References
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Chapter One Introduction
After the World War I, America became a creditor country. Unlimited expansionof stock speculation and overproduction led to the collapse of New York stock marketwhich resulted in the economic crisis. Unprecedented economic disaster promoted anew awakening of the working class in the United States. John Steinbeck started tofocus on social problems and tried to expose hard situations of the low class in hisworks.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was born in Salinas, California. Influenced by hismother, Steinbeck studied English Literature at Stanford University. Leaving withouta degree in 1925, he started to make a living by doing many different jobs such aspasture worker, road-building team worker, migrant worker, land surveyor andjournalist. These working experiences provided him the chance to get in touch withpeople from the low class and many writing materials. He made up his mind to be awriter when he came to New York in 1926. John Steinbeck achieved his first criticalsuccess with Tortilla Flat (1935), which expressed moral bankruptcy caused bymaterialism. From 1930 to 1936, as a prolific writer, John Steinbeck published nearly15 novels and dozens of short stories, including In Dubious Battle (1936), Of Miceand Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). He also wrote an article seriescalled The Harvest Gypsies (1936) for the San Francisco News about the hardsituation of the migrant worker. Many protagonists in his works are people from thelow class because he is very familiar with them. His works showed kind and rusticcharacteristics of them. John Steinbeck was one of America's most influential writersof the 20th century. He was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Literature for “hisrealistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keensocial perception.” (Mao, 2005: 375)
John Steinbeck got huge success because of Of Mice and Men which can be seenas the foundation of The Grapes of Wrath. It is critically acclaimed and Steinbeck's1962 Nobel Prize citation called it a “little masterpiece”. Of Mice and Men talks aboutdreams of a pair of migrant agricultural laborers Lennie and George in California.
They have a dream of owning their own idyllic farm someday so that they can be freeto live in their own way. George is a smart guy while Lennie is physically strong, yetmentally slow. However, Lennie's accidental murder of Curley's wife destroys theirplan. Finally, George shoots Lennie to death and their dreams come to naught. Somecritics focus on abundant themes and think this novel “covers collapse of theAmerican Dream, human loneliness, common people's powerlessness”（Wang，2006：28）. Others center on Steinbeck's writing techniques especiallyhis clever employment of symbolism that “there are lots of symbolic images in thetitle, the settings, animals, characters in the novel.”(Wang, 2012:1) Although Of Miceand Men narrates a short story in three days, it centers on the tragedy of Lennie withthe purpose to allude to the tragedy of the low class and problems of the social system.
This paper, consequently, aims to probe into social causes of the tragedy in OfMice and Men. Based on a brief introduction of Steinbeck and his Of Mice and Men,the paper illustrates the manifestation of Lennie's Tragedy in Of Mice and Menthrough the isolation between people and the disillusion of his dream. Then the papertries to analyze reasons of Lennie's tragedy with back groundings of the GreatDepression in two aspects. Finally the paper reaches the conclusion that it is the GreatDepression kills Lennie as a representative of Lennie's times.
Chapter Two Manifestation of Lennie's Tragedy in Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, Lennie is described as “a huge man, shapeless of face, withlarge, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging hisfeet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”, (Steinbeck, 1937:2) His tragedy is mainlyreflected in two aspects: people's isolation and his disillusion of dreams.
2.1 Isolated by people around him
Curley's father and Curley envy Lennie's tall height. Their envy graduallybecomes hatred of Lennie. As owners of the farm, they torture Lennie as much as theycould. Also, as a migrant worker, Lennie has characteristics of innocence andchildishness which others do not have. So Lennie is isolated not only by the upperclass but also by his fellowmen.
2.1.1 Pressed by the upper class
Lennie is a migrant worker working for Curley's father. Lennie's tall heightmakes himself an eyesore of Curley and Curley's father. Because of their highersocial status, they press workers such as Lennie both physically and mentally.
Physically, as the owner of the farm, Curley's father endeavors to get maximumbenefit from migrant workers. He is furious at Lennie and George's lateness at thefirst time they come here. It is described as follows:
“The boss was expectin' you last night,” the old man said. “He was sore as hellwhen you wasn't here to go out this morning.” (Steinbeck, 1937:18)The owner does not care about why Lennie and George are being late, but only caresabout how much money he loses because of their lateness. In his heart, once Lennieand George promise to come to work, he will start to calculate their values. He seesLennie and George as working machine but not people.
Mentally, as the upper class, Curley's father and Curley think themselves aredifferent from workers and look down on workers, which is vividly described by whatthey wear as follows:
A little stocky man stood in the open doorway. He wore blue jean trouser, aflannel shirt, a black , unbuttoned vest and a black coat. His thumbs were stuckin his belt, on each side of square steel buckle. On his head was a soiled brownStetson hat, and he wore high-heeled boots and spurs to prove he was not alaboring man. (Steinbeck, 1937:20)He wore a work glove on his left hand, and like the boss, he wore high-heeledboots. (Steinbeck, 1937:25)These two paragraphs describe clothes of Curley's father and Curley. They all wearhigh-heeled boots to differ themselves from workers to express their higher socialposition.
Also, during Curley's father's talk with Lennie and George, “the boss squintedhis eyes.” (Steinbeck, 1937:21) He sends a message with his eyes that he is doubtful ifLennie and George are good migrant workers and will supervise their work Hiscontemptuous eyes gives Lennie and George a sense of crisis which is moreoppressive than bad living situation and meager income. As migrant workers, Lennieand George know clearly about their low social status and their weak position. Theyneed to work hard and keep obedient to their boss so that they can keep the job tomake a living. To sum up, migrant workers are pressed both physically and mentally.
2.1.2 Fellowmen's misunderstanding of Lennie
Lennie's huge body and strong strength will make people away from him. Hisfellowmen consider Lennie as a frightening man and refuse to get to know him.
When Lennie and George work on the first farm before Curley's father's farm, anaccident happens which leads to their leaving. Lennie likes to touch soft things. A girlthere asks him to touch her red dress. However, Lennie is obsessed with the touchingand won't let her go. So the girl starts to squawk which shocks Lennie. Finally Georgecomes and socks him over the head so Lennie would like to let her go. It is only anaccident which Lennie can explain it to other workers. However, they don't provideLennie the chance to explain and make the cruel decision as follows:
“Well, that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weedstart a party out to lynch Lennie. ” (Steinbeck, 1937:42)The girl tells the law the lie and guys in Weed do not let Lennie explain but decide tolynch him. They make the decision all by themselves because they know Lennie ischildish and he doesn't understand to defend himself. So as Lennie's only friend,George has to take Lennie away from this farm to another.
In the second farm, however, Lennie is misunderstood again. It is described asfollows:
Lennie smiled helplessly in an attempt to make friends.
Crooks said sharply, “You got no right to come in my room. This here's myroom. Nobody got any right in here but me.”
Lennie gulped and his smilegrew more fawning. “I ain't doing anything,” he said.
“Just come to look at my puppy. And I seen your light,” he explained.
“Well, I got a right to have a light. You go on get outta my room. Iain't wanted inthe bunkhouse, and you ain't wanted in my room.” (Steinbeck, 1937:68)Lennie is very innocent. He sees lights in Crooks's room and comes into the roomhimself. What he does may seem a little abrupt to other migrant workers who are usedto keep distance from each other. When Crook meets Lennie, Crook feels offendedand directly asks Lennie to get out. He refuses to talk with Lennie and has no thinkingto make a friend with him. These fellowmen's misunderstanding of Lennie is not theirmistakes. They are used to keep distance with other people. If they open their heart, itis easily to get hurt. They have been apathetic and can not accept Lennie's difference.
2.2 Disillusion of Lennie's dream
Lennie and George have dreams of owning a piece of land and being loved inharmonious environment. They calculate their income and find it is possible toachieve their dream if they make an effort. However, things do not go smoothly asthey imagine. “Of Mice and Men is most often read as one of Steinbeck's mostpessimistic works, smacking of pessimistic determinism.” (Owens, 2008:18) Theyfinally fail. Lennie fails to get land. Also, he fails to seek love.
2.2.1 Lennie's failure to get land
Lennie dreams of getting a piece of land to raise rabbits. As a migrant worker, hepossesses nothing valuable except his dream. It is his dreams which differ him fromother migrant workers. He can't remember anything except his dreams and every timeGeorge talks about the dream, Lennie will be very quiet and happy. However, Lenniefails to get the land in the end.
For one thing, Lennie's accidental murder of Curley's wife ruins their plan of thedream. Lennie has to pay the cost so he is killed by George in the last. Their plan isdescribed as follows:
“We got ten bucks between us.” Then he said thoughtfully, “Look, if me an'Lennie work a month an' don't sprn' nothing, we'll have a hundred bucks. That'dbe fifty. I bet we could swing her for that. Then you an' Lennie could go get herstarted an' I'd get a job an' make up the res', an' you could sell eggs an' stufflike that. ” (Steinbeck, 1937: 60)George makes a feasible plan with Lennie and Candy, a new friend in Curley'sfather's farm. However, Lennie kills Curley's wife in the accident which ruins theirplan that Lennie can not keep working on the farm.
For another, their dream may never be realized because it is just a vision. “Thisritual is performed often in the story, whenever Lennie feels insecure.” (Peter Lisca,1958:135) Each time Lennie and George meet with difficulties, Lennie will askGeorge to tell him the dream, such as the time when they run out of the first farm orafter Lennie being hit by Curley. They need a faith to live with so they can have afuture to look forward to and forget the cruel reality. The dream is just like a light intheir life.
2.2.2 Lennie's failure to seek love
Lennie is very innocent and childish. He is eager to be close with others.
However love is hard to find duiring the period of the Great Depression.
On the one hand, Lennie fails to seek love from people. Firstly, in Lennie's earlyperiod, he has not got much love from his family. He has no parents since he is a littleboy. He only has an aunt who also dies early and doesn't pay much attention to him.
Secondly, during the working period on the farm, Lennie also fails to seek love.
Crook is a black man so he is pushed aside by other workers and lives in his ownroom. But Crook refuses to make friends with Lennie. Also, when Lenniecommunicates with the red-dress girl and Curley's wife, he doesn't understand hisstrong strength and easily hurt them. Lennie just want to feel softness of the red dressand Curley's wife's hair, however, his wrong control of his strength hurt the red-dressgirl, and he kills Curley's wife. He fails to get love from these women but make othermigrant workers misunderstand him. Thirdly, Lennie is abandoned by his best friendGeorge. Lennie and George stay together for many years. They have the mutualdream and the future to look forward to as follows:
“Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world. They gotno family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up astake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing youknow ther're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing tolook ahead to. ”
Lennie was delighted. “That's it-that's it. Now tell how it is with us.”
George went on. “With us it ain't like that. We got a future……” （Steinbeck,1937: 14）
In their last trouble with the red-dress girl when they work in the first farm, Georgehelps Lennie get away from there. However, After Curley's wife's accidental death,George starts to be disgusted with Lennie, considering that Lennie could only bringtroubles and drag their dreams down. Thinking that Lennie will be tortured by others,George finally decided to shoot Lennie. So Lennie also fails to seek love from George.
On the other side, Lennie fails to seek love from animals. He loves animals but inthe wrong way. He loved little animals, such as mice, puppies and rabbits and wantsto raise them. However, he is unaware of his strong strength and often kills littleanimals without consciousness. Then it makes him regretful. He just shows love tothese little animals but hurt them instead. He can not get any love back from them. Asa result, Lennie could only stay away from these soft animals.
Chapter Three Great Depression - the Leading Criminal of Lennie's Tragedy in Of Mice and Men
American industrialization happens from 1890 to 1920, which not only broughtAmerica substantial increase in gross national product but also led to the surplus ofcapital so that workers and peasants were gradually trapped in a serious shortage ofthe purchasing power and finally in the history of human civilization the notoriousGreat Depression broke out in the 1930s. The Great depression is thought to influencethe American of Steinbeck's times in two aspects: the widening the gap between therich and the poor and the corruption of social morality, which is fully reflected inSteinbeck's Of Mice and Men.
3.1 Wider gap between the rich and the poor
“The Great Depression, the longest one in the history of the nation, left manyAmerican shaken. Sufferings were most acute among agriculture migrants, AfricanAmericans, Latinos, and American Indians. ” (Gienapp, Stoff, 2006:715) Of Mice andMen mainly talks about the gap between the rich and the poor in agriculture whichcomes from agricultural mechanization and widened by the Great Depression.
American industrialization, the transition to new manufacturing processes, leadsto the agricultural mechanization which makes many developments in agriculture andinfluence migrant workers. Lennie and George consider things too simple that theycan afford the land in months through planning the usage of their money. However,during the industrialization, agriculture has developed a lot in two aspects. Firstly,industrialization brings advanced production methods which have higher efficiencyand lower cost competing with personal strength so it can defeat manpower easily. “Inthe second year after Of Mice and Men published, half of the country's crops werereaped by combine harvesters rather than manpower in the United States.” (Li, 2015:90) Less and less people are choosing the job as a migrant worker. Lennie and Georgeare very likely to lose their jobs at any time without supporting measurements andthen they lose the way to get money. Secondly, fewer people can own the land withthe advanced developments of agriculture in twentieth century. During the 1930s,agriculture in California has been controlled by several ranchers. So even if Lennieand George can afford a piece of land, they have no way to keep it for long. Runninga family farm is very hard comparing with running a ranch so that Lennie and Georgefinally will be merged with ranches.
With the existence of gap resulting from agricultural mechanization and naturaldisaster Dust Bowl which happens during the 1930s, the Great Depression widens thegap. People in the low class such as migrant workers are in the depths of despair.
Migrant workers and peasants keep long-hours of hard work with the same output, butsales of volume decreases so that they can only sell crops out with low price which iseven lower than cost. However, the government refuses to take action to help the poorin such situation. The president Hoover holds the concept of poor law in Britain,thinking that charity would make accepters poorer so he supports the idea that thepoor should save themselves, starting from families and neighbors, and then frompersonal organization such as farmers and capitalists, finally from the government.
The low class is in greater exploitation because the upper class including farmers andcapitalists try to transmit their pressure to peasants and workers which leads toexacerbated class divisions.
As a migrant worker, Lennie lives a very tragic life. He loses his parents in a veryyoung age and only has an aunt who also died years ago. With his mentally disability,he should have got fund from social services. However, it is impossible during theGreat Depression. Instead, he is exploited for his obedience and strong strength whichmakes him the best worker.
3.2 Corruption of social morality
The most serious social impact of the Great Depression is the loss of morality andfaith of American people which is more severe than the recession. “During the GreatDepression, when the government calls people to cheer up, it sounds only like emptytalk.” (Liu, Li, 2008: 20) The Great Depression destroys people's spirit life.
On the one hand, the Great Depression influences people's growing environmentwhich can make total difference in people's future life. Firstly, the Great Depressionaffects families. “A report of California Unemployment Committee says that losses ofjobs and income break many family members who are dejected and have no respectfor themselves, which decrease their working efficiency and employability”. (Liu, Li,2008: 18) These family members have very low living standard so that many of themleave children to relatives or charities. Some left children can never see their parentsagain. Break of families also brings crimes such as stealing, hitting and murdering.
Secondly, the Great Depression affects social education that less money are used for it.
In 1933, around three hundred and thirty thousand children are deprived of education.
“No one can ever calculate how much price American civilization pays of pooreducation due to the Great Depression.” (Shannon, 1960: 16) In Of Mice and Men, asan abandoned child, loss of love and education is a possible reason for Lennie'smental disability.
On the other hand, money plays main role during the Great Depression whichleads to people's more attention to money and interests than relationships betweenpeople. Curley's father is a representative of the upper class. As the owner of the farm,he uses money as a standard of all things. He feels curious about their relationshipwhen he sees Lennie and George because he considers Lennie as trouble. He can notimagine why George would like to take Lennie. It is described as follows:
“The boss deliberately put the little book in his pocket. He hooked his thumbs inhis belt and squinted one eye nearly closed. ”“Say-what you sellin?”“Huh?”“I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin' his pay away from him?”“No, 'course I ain't. Why ya think I'm selling him out?”“Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like toknow your interest is.” (Steinbeck, 1937:22)Curley's father thinks that George takes Lennie because George wants to sell Lennieout to get money. He considers money should take part in everything and do notunderstand it is friendship brings Lennie and George together.
Carlson is a representative of the low class. He is also a migrant worker. When hesees Candy's old dog, he expresses his hatred of it. It is described as follows:
“And it stinks to beat hell. Tell you what. I'll shoot him for you. Then it won't beyou that does it.”Candy…“I'm so used to it,” he said softly. “I had him from a pup.”…….
“I don't see no reason for it,” said Carlson….“Let's get it over with,” he said. “Wecan't sleep with him stinkin' around In here.” He put the pistol in hid hip pocket.(Steinbeck, 1937:47)Candy is old and alone all these years and all Candy gets is the dog. They staytogether since the dog was a puppy. However, Carlson considers the dog as a stinkingand useless disturbance of their life and does not understand the company betweenCandy and the dog. After the dog's death, Candy stays in silence for a long time. ForCandy, that dog is his best friend.
Also, people from the low class lose their hope and future because of hardsituations. Migrant worker is a job which is representative of the low class. Georgeused to talk about other migrant workers as follows:
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. Theygot no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up astake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing youknow ther're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing tolook ahead to. ” (Steinbeck, 1937: 14)When these migrant workers get money, they just use the money to buy drinks tointoxicate themselves so they do not need to think about their hard lives. They justmuddle along, taking one day at a time without the intention to live a better life.
Chapter Four Conclusion
As a writer who grows up in California with many different working experiencesand personally goes through the American Depression, John Steinbeck is veryfamiliar with people from the low class and has a deep insight into social problems.
His works are cruel and bare with a sense of cold humor. Steinbeck gives hissympathy for the oppressed and compares the pure joy of life with barbarous desire ofmoney. However, his affections of nature, farmlands and wastelands express his loveof America which brings him inexhaustible inspiration of writing.
Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is considered as a “grand little book, for all itsultimate melodrama” by Nobel Prize citation in 1962, which tells a tragic storyhappening just in three days. Characters in Of Mice and Men are all very alone exceptLennie and George who are company of each other for many years and mostdifferently, they have a dream and try to realize it. However, Lennie is isolated bypeople around him and his dream finally breaks. Based on the tragic figure Lennie inSteinbeck's Of Mice and Men, readers can infer that the individual tragedy reflectsproblems of the society at that time, which is the major theme of the novel.
Although Steinbeck does not directly describe how hard migrant workers' life is,he infiltrates his incisive and familiar understanding of their difficult position in his OfMice and Men by describing Lennie's tragedy that he is isolated by people and hisdisillusion of dream, thus revealing to the reader of the helpless destiny of the rootclass in such an era that huge gap exists between the rich and the poor and thecorruption of social morality. The title Of Mice and Men uses the technique of symbolwhich comes from Robert Burns' poem To a Mouse which shows sympathy for littlehelpless animals. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie has a similar fate with a mouse,isolated by the society and can not control his own life. Lennie is a representative ofvictims in the Great Depression.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
On the completion of my paper, I personally would like to be thankful for the following people who supported me with my sincere gratitude.
I gratefully acknowledge the help of my supervisor, Professor L, who hasoffered me valuable suggestions in the academic studies and guided me through allthe stages of the writing of this thesis. During the period of preparation of the thesis,she has spent much time reading through each draft and provided me with inspiringadvice, helping me build the outline. Without her patient instruction, insightfulcriticism and expert guidance, the completion of this thesis would not have beenpossible.
Then, I also owe a debt of gratitude to all the professors in the School of ForeignLanguages in Institute Last but not the least, my thanks would go to my beloved father and mother fortheir meticulous consideration and great love in me all through these years. I also ownmy sincere gratitude to my friends, my roommates and my fellow classmates who offer me their helps and times in listening to me and helping me work out myproblems during the difficult course of the thesis.
