This novel is peopled with a landscape of loners and outcasts Essay

This novel is peopled with a landscape of loners and outcasts - Essay Example two great novels, which are â€Å"The Grapes of Wrath† which had rightfully earned him a Pulitzer Prize and also eventually, the Nobel Prize for Literature while the â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is a much shorter work but equally a realistic portrait of the travails of poor, working men who often had to travel to faraway places in search of meaningful work. In the absence of that, these migrant workers were forced to accept any jobs they can find at any wage that can offer a chance of keeping body and soul together. This novella is peopled with a landscape of loners and outcasts; people who are essentially rejects of society, in a sense, but somehow have to struggle on and exerted their best efforts to attain their dreams. â€Å"Of Mice and Men† was set in the context of the Great Depression during which a lot of people were thrown out of work compounded by the problems of itinerant migrants who in desperate situations have to somehow find a job. These workers transfer from one ranch or a farm to another ranch or farm doing menial tasks but despite doing backbreaking farm labor, a few of the characters in the novella found it appropriate to dream of finally owning a farm. A poor worker, like an itinerant farm hand, can still attain his dream if he works hard enough and strives to attain his dream, which may seem at first impossible to most people or even impractical to some people. It is the right of anybody to have a dream and the dream was what binds the two protagonists in the novella. George Milton is a quick-witted worker while Lennie Small is mentally retarded but the two of them surprisingly found good fellowship in each other. George has a good understanding of Lennie and took care of him in a way, out of pity for this mental impairment although ironically, Lennie Small is a big man physically. Most of the characters in the story are loners because they are migrant workers who out of necessity do not have roots in one place but move from one farm to another