Naturalism as a Mirror of the 1930's




 Literature is often a reflection of the time period in which it was written or, in the case of historical fiction, of the time period it is focused on.  Authors will often find sneaky little ways to demonstrate the dominant characteristics of the time period by blending in details, that, at a closer glance, reveal these hidden themes.

     In class, we viewed several videos (in the LitByFleming blog video bar) that gave us a look at some major events and common themes or characteristics of the 1930s.  John Steinbeck certainly considered these elements when writing Of Mice and Men.  In fact, it might be said, his writing style intentionally made use of naturalism in order to capture and expose some of the attitudes and characteristics of the American 1930s.




     Let's see if you can make the connection!  Think about some of  the naturalistic elements we identified in class (Chapter 1).  What aspects or characteristics of the 1930s are being demonstrated to us at those moments in the text?  What do you believe John Steinbeck was trying to show us or expose about the way people, life, or society was during this time in American history? 



        In chapter one of Mice and Men, the text demonstrated different characteristics that we humans have to take sometimes in our life. In the chapter Lennie and George are both walking down a path and they end up needing to stop and rest for the night in the middle of the wild. When Lennie and George finally stop, Lennie finds this pool of water (dirty) and he begins to drink from it as if he was an animal in need of some water. On page 3, it describes Lennie's reaction to finding the big pool of water; "His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse." In the particular text above it shows that Lennie's animal instincts took over and he drank like a wild animal. In the text it demonstrated that in the 1930's it was a time where there was no technology or no advancements, and everything had to happen naturally. Life was dry and hard for those who traveled miles and looked for jobs, and it sometimes brought out the animal in everyone.

       John Steinbeck was probably trying to demostrate that life in past american history was not easy at all. He was trying to demonstrate that life was no golden ticket just handed to you, you had to work and show that you were capable of holding up a job. Now a days we have technology and advanced objects that help us everyday such as: cars, bus's, phones... etc. It would be interesting to take the people from today and replace them with people from the 1930's, and experiment to see if it would be different for them than living here today in 2013. American History in the 1930's definatly was something different than today, we have been blessed to have the ancestors who went through the pain of living during those times to brighten our future.





Jobs In The 1920's