Karl Marx and "Of Mice and Men"

Paper Summary:

This paper shows that John Steinbeck's classic novel, "Of Mice and Men", could easily be classified as describing the class struggle. In it, Steinbeck explored the pitfalls of what Marx dubbed, "Idealist Socialism." He also, in an extremely metaphorical way, described the downfall of capitalism. This paper shows that by ousting both capitalism and "idealist socialism," Steinbeck leaves the reader with only the option of communism. This paper argues, therefore, that Steinbeck was not anti-socialist and, hence, should be considered pro-Marxist.

From the Paper:

"At first the men (the example of Lennie and George is used here as a constant, since we must assume the men felt the same way as them) are ready to work, and have no problem with it. The only real thought they have is of the money and food they would be getting. Soon though, they realized it would not be all they had thought it would. This is seen more clearly when the microcosm is more closely examined. First, there is the boss, who is representative of whoever would control the socialist community. The boss represents, also, the corruptness of the socialist governments. We can see him playing favors when Candy says, "He just don't give a damn. Won't ever get canned cause his old man's the boss"(27). The fact that he is playing favorites with his son makes no real difference, since favoritism is favoritism."

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