Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

John’s writing style was developed from the experiences in his life; this may be why he is so interesting to read, because John has had an interesting life. He tried to find an organic means of expression for each book that he wrote. He considered his work to be experimental. He intentionally used a documentary style for The Grapes of Wrath, the fabular for The Pearl, the picaresque for Tortilla Flat, a playable novel for Of Mice and Men, and so on. Generally he belongs to the myth-symbol school of the twenties. Dreams, the unconscious, recurring myths, symbolic characters--these qualities are characteristic of what Jung called the "visionary" style.

Realism, Steinbeck once noted, is the surface form for his interest in psychology and philosophy.

His writing style is evident in all of his books and is not easily confused with that of another writer. Steinbeck was the first recognized author to use such great description throughout his novel, as well as his style in which he carries his characters. Many of his characters are in the lower class with not much money or property. They are all in search of the better life and go through many struggles to achieve that. This differs from previous authors because it was not the type of story that left someone with a good feeling and his stories had many underlying tones of political views for the lower class. Many authors before his time were aimed at those readers of a higher class. As well as this, in some of his books he shifts from different relating stories. This is a new idea also because authors were expected before to have a complete story that is easily translatable. Many authors following Steinbeck took this style into their own writing. Finding more depressed characters, characters that didn’t have the finer qualities in life.

Steinbeck's style in the novel is conversational and direct. People are talking throughout most of the book. They talk in the natural language of the ranch-lots of cursing, name calling, and slang. The style fits in well with the common man and naturalistic themes.

While Steinbeck's language and style are natural and detailed, his sentences are carefully constructed. His descriptions are almost like poetry. Here is a sentence from the first paragraph of the book: "The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool." Notice how the author has repeated