Should we still read Steinbeck?

John Steinbeck has written numerous American classics, from Of Mice and Men to The Grapes of Wrath; Steinbeck’s novels shed light on the social injustices he saw in America at that time. Now that the days of the Great Depression and World War II are over, some wonder: do his works hold any significance in modern America? Is there any reason for them to still be taught in schools today? 

Of course they should be.  While Steinbeck’s stories were written nearly a century ago, their continuous criticism of social inequality, the American Dream, and American society as a whole still resonates in today’s political climate for those with the eyes to see it.

Of Mice and Men is one of Steinbeck’s most popular and critically acclaimed novels. It tells the tale of George and Lennie, two migrant ranch workers struggling to achieve their perfect American dream of owning their own house and farm due to Lennie’s mental disability, which makes it difficult for them to keep a stable source of housing and income. While GHS freshmen read this novel every year, it consistently appears on the American Library Association’s Frequently Challenged Books list. 

The story covers the topics of classism, ageism, racism, ableism, and misogyny through its characters and their experiences. Most of which are based on Steinbeck’s own observations after he was sent to work on a farm as a teen and witnessed firsthand the discrimination that his coworkers, most of whom were minorities, faced in America. 

In Of Mice and Men, the driving issue behind Lennie and George’s struggles is poverty. The sole reason Lennie and George must jump from job to job in the first place is that they need money to stay alive and hopefully save enough to buy their own place. If George’s rant about how he considers going to a cat-house for the night a luxury is anything to go off of, the men have likely lived in destitute conditions their entire lives. 

The pure exhaustion that George and Lennie feel from living this way weighs them down. They sleep on lice-infested beds in a room with 5 other men, they have no possessions to their name, and work long days for a measly paycheck that is not enough to support themselves. There is an air of misery around them and the other men at the ranch that is derived from the poor quality of their lives. 

With these characters, Steinbeck confronts the cruel realities of life for the working class. Do people who endure harsh labor for 11 hours a day deserve to be paid poverty wages? At the time of writing Of Mice and Men, roughly 50 percent of the entire country lived in poverty. Steinbeck’s work didn’t just document the experience of a small minority; this was reality for nearly half of all American citizens in 1937. 

Though the percentage of people in poverty in America has lowered to 11 percent today, it’s 11 percent of a much larger population. Roughly 36.8 million to 37.9 million people in America right now are classified as living in poverty. With the recent crackdown on government assistance, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for working-class people to get access to necessities such as food, water, healthcare, and housing. Steinbeck criticized these systemic issues in his novels to bring awareness to them and bring change to American society, but they are still rampant in America today.

Another prevalent issue that Of Mice and Men confronts is ableism.  One reason Lennie and George are forced from job to job and never experience a sense of stability is due to Lennie’s mental disability, which makes him struggle with social cues and not have a clear understanding of his own strength. George must constantly make excuses for Lennie’s actions to get him out of trouble, for he knows the only alternative for Lennie would likely be a mental asylum. Which, at the time, were notorious for mistreating and abusing their patients. 

Though mental health facilities today have vastly improved since the 1930s, disabled people are still regularly excluded from society. People still call others the r-slur, autistic, schizophrenic, and psychotic as hurtful insults, as if having a disability that makes you think differently from the rest of society is the worst thing someone could be.

Ableism is incredibly rampant in online spaces as well. There is a whole online culture called “lolcow” culture that focuses on targeting disabled people, making them think they have a supportive fan base and community, then having that fan base convince them to participate in destructive behaviors for their own amusement.   Students who read Of Mice and Men are able to see through the lens of a disabled character, and understand his struggles. 

A character that stands out to many in the novel is Curly’s wife, a young woman who, aside from her husband’s title, remains nameless throughout the story. Upon first glance, she serves no purpose other than to be an obstacle in our main characters achieving their dreams, but her role as a villain is little more than surface-level. 

Curly’s wife faces misogyny both within her own story and readers of the book. Far too many read Curly’s wife as playfully presenting herself when greeting the men, and take no time calling her a harlot or Jezebel. The woman is referred to as a ‘tart’ before she even makes her first appearance. It is astounding the sheer number of people you can find in online forums who accuse Curly’s wife of being the true big bad of the story.

Curly’s wife is not exactly innocent. She takes out her anger on people she has power over, but that doesn’t excuse the mistreatment she faces in the book, nor does it make her the overarching villain. Curly’s wife is, to an extent, a victim of her circumstances. As a woman in America in the 1930s, her life choices were already limited. She tells Lennie that she dreamt of being a movie star, and the only reason she married Curly was because that dream didn’t work out. 

Even in her wildest dreams, Curly’s wife cannot imagine a future for herself where she is appreciated for anything but her surface-level beauty. The one moment she lets her guard down and shares her feelings with Lennie is the moment leading to her death. While all the men of the ranch confide in one another about the woes of their lives and can find comfort in their shared dreams and experiences, Curly’s wife is ostracized for her gender from the second we meet her till the second her life ends. 

Her character reflects a common mindset about women in Steinbeck’s time, one that has carried into today. The mentality that women are commodities to be looked at and evaluated based on their attractiveness to others’ eyes is a sexist one that is hardwired into our society. It’s the reason it is common, almost expected, for women to leave the house with a full face of makeup, hair nicely done, and impeccably dressed, while a man who does as much as admitting to washing his face every day is called flamboyant and “doing too much.”

If Steinbeck’s works are irrelevant and outdated, how come the issues they address are still happening? If the book no longer applies to today’s society, then why are the social issues it criticized 90 years ago still recognizable today? Steinbeck’s works are more relevant today than they’ve ever been, and it’s not just Of Mice and Men that applies.

Though it is one of Steinbeck’s most popular novels today, and it is taught in many middle and high schools, his other works are equally as politically relevant in their topics and themes. For instance, The Grapes of Wrath, the novel that is considered by many to be Steinbeck’s literary masterpiece, is a criticism of capitalism, government corruption, and classism. It follows a poor farming family who’ve been evicted from their home and move to California in hopes of better opportunities. 

Many people today can resonate with a story of being forced from one’s home and having to adapt to a new culture in hopes of a better life, and the looming threats that come with it. This story is one that many people who immigrate to America today can sympathize with and relate to, especially considering the recent dangers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Looking for a better life in America has never been as hazardous as it is now.

Steinbeck wasn’t just documenting our country’s history; he was writing the reality of marginalized people in America at the time, and these apply to America’s past, present, and future. His works are more relevant today than ever.  Forgetting our past does nothing but put us in danger of repeating it.