All people understand the struggle of having to provide for themselves. Unfortunately, there is not a soul on the planet who understands this more than those during the Great Depression. Steinbeck really portrayed Naturalism in his book about two men, one of which is mentally challenged, traveling from farm to farm during the Great Depression. Naturalism can be defined as “the application of principles of scientific determination to fiction and drama”. Steinbeck's book, Of Mice and Men, is a wonderful piece of literature full of many Naturalistic characteristics. An example of a Naturalistic characteristic in Of Mice and Men would be how Naturalists believe humans are the only beings in the natural world. Steinbeck used animal imagery to portray how humans are superior. Lennie, the man who is mentally challenged, was found to be carrying a mouse in the beginning of the story. A quote from George, Lennie’s companion, about the mouse from the story would be, “That mouse ain’t fresh, Lennie; and besides, you’ve broke it pettin’ it” (9:3). When Steinbeck wrote this scene, he was trying to depict how big humans are to other beings. Another example from the story was when Carlson shot Candy’s dog…show more content… An example of how this is shown in the story, would be how Curley is constantly wanting to fight. Curley’s wife said, “Spends all his time sayin’ what he’s gonna do to guys he don’t like, and he don’t like nobody” (76:3). Curley is a very insecure person and he believes he must beat everyone to be the best. This is especially obvious when it comes to his “tart” of a wife. Steinbeck used Curley as an example of how humans respond to environmental forces and internal stresses; therefore, Curley was not able to control his temper when it came to his insecurities about his wife and her
