John Steinbeck's 'An Excerpt From Minny'

Sin is something that is beneath all people. No matter the race, gender, or age. It is even in the most innocent families. In the Pearl, John Steinbeck uses similes, symbolism, and characterization to show the reader that the obsession with money is the biggest sin a family.

Barbara Sher once said, “‘Isolation is a dream killer’” (qtd. in Wishcraft). In his novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck scrutinizes the effects that alienation can have on society. Many characters experience loneliness throughout the novel. He illustrates the results of individuals becoming isolated from their peers. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays characters alienated from society in order to illustrate the harmful effects of loneliness caused by discrimination.

Like Aibileen, Minny is just one many generations of her family to be working for a white woman, only Minny is made with an aptitude for cooking and sass. Minny has been taught since she was a little girl by her mother, knowing she was going to end up as a maid no matter what, to never talk back to the white lady, don't get involved in their business and to not get attached to them. Those rules were never broken until Minny was fired from a previous job, working for the mother a villainous woman named Hilly Holbrook, for talking back to Hilly and feeding her a certain tainted pie. "'And that's how come I did it ... I told her to eat my shit"' [Minny tells the story of the pie Hilly ate containing her poop] (p.g. 398). Minny was not only gutsy but played a crucial role in this story because she is the one who gathered all the other maids necessary in order to complete the book. "But I se it, the flickeron her mouth, a hint of softness beneath her anger. Minny made this happen" [Skeeter when she realized Minny was the one who convinced all the maids to volunteer to share their stories.] (p.g.

	This story opens with the main character named Jim Nolan leaving behind his former life and going to meet Harry Nilson, a leader of the "Party." Jim had a father killed in a riot, a mother who died, and a sister that was missing. He wants to join the "Party" because he wants to do something that will give his life meaning. He is accepted, and is introduced to other members of the party. The next day, Jim accompanies Mac McLeod to Torgas Valley to help workers organize a strike against the orchard owners in the valley. They meet a restaurant car owner named Al, who gives them food for free. Jim and Mac get off the train and meet a group of people. They help a

Plot/Summary: My novel takes place in Monterey, California where Mack and the boys try and to set up a party for doc until things don’t go as planned. Mack, the boys, and a group of unemployed men helping them out. They try and set up the party in Docs lab which is also known as his house. Lee Chong is a grocery store owner and offers to buy Mack and the boys some beer. Mack attempts to do stuff but every time he gets him self in trouble. Eddie is a back up bartender at the local bar and brings home stolen bottles after work. Gay stays with the boys because his wife likes to beat him but he is often in jail or at the bar because of all the fights he gets into with his wife, Doc finds a couple of dead people laying on the

I. John Steinbeck used his personal experiences as a laborer to write many of his novels like Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath.

Do you have an unrealistic dream? In the book Of Mice and Men by John

Carver also emphasizes the contradictions within the characters themselves in the story, which illustrates the uncertainty of love, and how there is not a clearly defined approach to understanding it. Returning to the topic of Terri's previous marriage, Mel, her current husband, complains about his failure to understand how she could refer to that abusive relationship as love. However, later on when she corrects him while he is talking, he turns to her and asks her to "shut up" (Carver 767). Another important contradiction which takes place throughout the entire story, is how the four friends are discussing a subject which they all have had bad experiences with, since they have all been divorced and remarried. The contradictions throughout Carver's story symbolize how love can also contradict itself, and trying to understand love is impossible since so many particular cases can negate specific examples of love.

“It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.” John Steinbeck said this of all humankind. He thought highly of us as a species, just as Dr. Stockmann did in Henrik Ibsen’s play Enemy of the People. Both men had problems in their societies, Stockmann in his town and Steinbeck in America, and both believed that humans were capable of seeing the problem and fixing it. The rest of the population did not see this as the case. They believed he was an enemy of the people and a threat to their way of life. Because of how Steinbeck expressed his views, people felt threatened by what he wrote and they called him a threat to

	 John Steinbeck was a famous American author who wrote from the 1920 to the 1940. Steinbeck was constantly moving across the country trying to succeed as a writer. John Steinbeck lived a life of constant up and downs, successes and failures before he landed on his feet and became a famous author.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men concerns and unlikely couple who travel about the country searching for work. Throughout the novel, characteristics of important people are similar yet different. George Milton and Lennie Small are two characters that have many differences physically, but many similarities mentally.

Black people were treated like nobodies in many places in the united states and in the book they were treated like nobodies. Minny’s mom was a house maid and that where she learned to clean. She wanted to become a house maid when she got older and that’s what she did. When her mother was a maid she made little pay, and she was treated

Janie is a black woman who asserts herself beyond expectation.  She has a persistence that characterizes her search for the love that she dreamed of since she was a girl.  Janie understands the societal status that her life has handed her, yet she is determined to overcome this, and she is resentful toward anyone or anything that interferes with her quest for happiness. "So de white man throw down de load and tell de nigger man tuh pick it up. He pick it up because he have to, but he don't tote it. He hand it to his womenfolks. De nigger woman is de mule uh de world so fur as Ah can see, "(Page 14)  laments Janie's grandmother as she tried to justify the marriage that she has arranged for her granddaughter with Logan Killicks. This paragraph establishes the existence of the inferior status of women in Janie's society, a status which Janie must somehow overcome in order to emerge a heroine in the end of the novel.

Francis just got hired as an undercover agent to spy on people. He was assigned to find out the whereabouts of an inactive spy.

Ever since Lennie has passed, George has had a tough time coming along. George has suffered without his best friend for three days and already doesn’t want to be here. One day, a beautiful day came along. George had decided to go to town- just to get things off of his mind. The walk into town took a while, and by time he got there, his legs felt like they were going to fall off. He found a bench and plopped down. On the bench were many memories that were sketched from others. Some saying: “Forever in our hearts” or “I love you 4-25-1937.” Seeing all of these words on the bench made George think. What if he made a memorial for his best friend Lennie?