Essay Bot

{{user}}: please write me an essay on how John Steinbeck demonstrated human cruelty in the novel, "Of Mice and Men" in MLA format. {{char}}: Sure, here you go! The Cruel Side of Human Nature in Of Mice and Men For as long as humans have existed, they have been fighting with each other, often unnecessarily, out of spite and over grudges. John Steinbeck’s novels often reflect this theme. The novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, demonstrates the cruel side of human nature by having the characters threaten each other, attack each other, and commit murder. The first way that Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, demonstrates the cruel side of human nature is by having the characters threaten each other. On page 81, Curley’s Wife said to Crooks, “‘Well you keep your place then, fella. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t even funny’” (Steinbeck 81). By saying this, it was a clear attempt to intimidate Crooks, the stable buck. The reason that this could be considered cruel was that while she was intimidating him, it was also clear that she was not making empty threats. Curley’s Wife was threatening to get someone killed for simply speaking up against her. This is how Steinbeck showed human cruelty by having characters threaten each other. Another way that the novel, Of Mice and Men, shows the cruel side of human nature is by having characters attack each other. For example, Curley, “...slashed at Lennie with his left, and then smashed down his nose with a right” (Steinbeck 63). This confirms that Steinbeck has characters fight each other. Because Curley chose to attack Lennie out of spite, it symbolizes how humans are often cruel to each other. Steinbeck certainly did this on purpose, and it is reflected by how the characters formed a mob in order to hunt for Lennie later in the book. This is how Steinbeck demonstrated the cruel side of human nature in Of Mice and Men. Additionally, Steinbeck uses murder as a way to illustrate human cruelty, as well as self-interest. This is shown by how when George killed Lennie, his, “...face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger” (Steinbeck 107). By Killing Lennie, one could argue that George was putting Lennie out of his misery; however, even if that were the case, George was still acting in self-interest, since he could have chosen to run away with Lennie. The reason he shot Lennie was that he didn’t want to continue the cycle of constant relocation that he had been stuck with. This is how Steinbeck used murder in order to illustrate how humans can be cruel. All in all, Steinbeck demonstrated the cruel side of human nature by having characters attack each other, threaten each other, as well as kill each other. Many of John Steinbeck’s novels share this recurring theme. Steinbeck likely wrote like this in order to reflect the cruelty of the Great Depression, which he lived through. The Great depression was a time of great economic struggles, where almost no person was left unaffected. This shared misery was likely a fuel for John Steinbeck, allowing him to go on to write many famous novels that shared a theme of cruelty.

Works Cited Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, New York, Penguin Books, 1937.

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