OMAM - Religion + Mental Disability
Mental Disability 🚩
Religion
Animal Imagery
Monster without
Setting - Eden-like opening
'Terrier who didn't want to bring a ball back to its master'
Status
lost of faith
looking for a job, no time for church
Depending on which church you go, shows your faith
Blame god for their financial problems
Terrier - dog bred to kill vermin
Failure to sustain the aspect of giving that takes place on church sundays
During the Great Depression, some religious groups organised soup kitchens
Socially inferior / unaware
Church membership declined during the Great Depression
Adam and Eve - The fall of Mankind due to Adam and Eve
Childlike Imagery
HI
click to edit
Eugenics theme
'the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.' "lizard... rabbits... 'coons... dogs... deers"
Candy's dog is shot because it is blind and old.
Lennie kills the mice
Church Supported those struggling with Great Depression
'I like to pet nice things'
John Milton wrote the Epic Paradise Lost - it is a tale of the biblical story of the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan
Soup Kitchens for those unable to have food
George is aware of the discrimination towards people with mental disabilities.
'Jus' like a big baby.'
Religious institutions help people get jobs
George lies to the boss saying that Lennie was kicked in the head as a child. He is aware that it is more social acceptable than developmental delay or autism.
Links to OMAM where the social and economical world in which its character in which characters live is fundamentally flawed.
The novella opens by an Eden-like pool that that is presented as a natural paradise, but the people only come and visit and share the the resources amongst themselves.
Belief that those who had mental disabilities were treated like children: 'as the novella progresses, the comparisons to animals are increasingly sinister, rendering [Lennie] not just animalistic, but also savage’
'ain't gonna let me tend no rabbits now'
After killing Curley's Wife
Focused on rabbits even after murdering Curley's Wife
People believed that the land they admired can soon be theirs and influences their future actions
click to edit
childlike priorities
21st century ideas
naivety
It justifies the reason for Georges actions
The purity of the world (in the novella) opening scene proves to be unsustainable as the story continues. The influence of mankind changes the course of nature, leading to disasters.
Mentally disabled are unable to survive in Great Depression due to harsh conditions and society beliefs
Conditions for those during the 1930s were unpleasant
Steinbecks intention - to contradict society expectations?