/lit/ - Literature

>>20564325
It's short so Americans can pretend to read big boy literature.

>>20564325
Its a well-structured book that allows for pure (if a little shallow) analysis of symbolism. Great to introduce kids and teens to anaylistical thought while not overwhelming them with too much interpretation. It also reinforces some idea of a broken American dream, which has been all the rage since America was founded.

>>20564370
a guy which cannot fit in cause hes mentally disabled gets eventually shot as an act of mercy. whats the symbolism here?

>>20564325
Because it's american

>>20564410
Jesus Christ anon. Symbolism doesn't refer to the story itself, it refers to the items/concepts which develop meaning over the course of the story. Think of the Vaseline glove, the puppy, the lot of land. It blows my mind that someone who found a literature board can't come up with a solid interpretation of Of Mice and Men. It's a tier above children's literature.

Steinbeck stepped back from his writing and focused on dramatic storytelling. It follows the traditional narrative arc perfectly. Now, does this make the story simple? Yes, but was it a simple thing to do? I'm sure not. He wastes very little here, breaking down storytelling to its bare bones while still delivering most of what people have come to love about Steinbeck. Setting, character development, and emotional weight. I dont think it stacks up to his other better work, but there's certainly something admirable about the tightness of it all.

>>20564325
It's literally eugenics. The book being read by the public schools is used to conflate intelligence with moral value and to basically confirm, by the education system, that death is preferable to idiocy. The book is saying both: Without us, murder, and with us, intelligence and salvation. Obviously this from a secular heap of seething non-sense is hilarious, but that's why they have you read it.

>>20564539
The idea that intelligence IS moral value stems from Augustine, Plato, and Aquinas who all mistakenly believe that intelligence, not compassion, is the highest good.

>>20564474
or maybe I just prefer to enjoy something at face value instead of trying to dissect it like every literary critic yearns to. deconstruction is fine in small doses but otherwise its fucking annoying.

>>20564328
>>20564438
Obsessed

>>20564559
>Americans are obsessed with America
Must be all those German genes

>>20564539
>death is preferable to idiocy
Unironically yes.
If you disagree you are free to have yourself lobotomized.

>>20564575
I was referring to how every post "America this" or "America that" usually ESLs with an axe to grind. It gets old after awhile

>>20564585
rent free

>>20564553
Okay, but Steinbeck didn't intend for his stuff to be taken at face value. He wrote it with depth to inspire powerful, conflicting emotions in the reader. Now, what he wants those emotions to accomplish is debatable (not really, it's about the failure and corruption of capitalism as evidenced during the great depression), but he certainly did things for a reason. Your way of viewing art is like using a lawn sprinkler for a shower. Sure, it works, but its not the right tool for the job and you look like an idiot

>>20564610
>it's about the failure and corruption of capitalism
you for real?

>>20564539
American education institutions on Of Mice and Men:
>It's literally eugenics
Also America:
>constantly imports subhuman filth en masse for GDP big line go up (like a bawss XD)
Hard disagree on your interpretation there, frendo.

>>20564665
Read Grapes of Wrath if you disagree.

>>20564594
No, I live rent free in your mind, Pedro, that's my phrase you incorrigible faggot

>>20564710
>story set during Great Depression
>that means story is criticism of capitalism
this is you

>>20564755
>Steinbeck wrote: "I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the Great Depression and its effects]."

>Steinbeck's aversion to a capitalist society is a motif that appears in several of his literary works, but in The Grapes of Wrath he attacks capitalism constantly and he exposes the poverty, cruelty, and greed found in our capitalist system.

>And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of the dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at repression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.

>I guess the trouble was that we didn't have any self-admitted proletarians. Everyone was a temporarily embarrassed capitalist. Maybe the Communists so closely questioned by the investigation committees were a danger to America, but the ones I knew—at least they claimed to be Communists—couldn't have disrupted a Sunday-school picnic. Besides they were too busy fighting among themselves.

>Steinbeck's contacts with leftist authors, journalists, and labor union figures may have influenced his writing. He joined the League of American Writers, a Communist organization, in 1935

>>20564582
>>20564702
Given the low quality of my critics I am proven right

>>20565467
>Im rite ur dum
OshoOnDemocracy.webm

>>20564325
The real reason they teach Steinbeck in schools:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck
>He thought of the Vietnam War as a heroic venture and was considered a hawk for his position on the war.
>In 1939, he signed a letter with some other writers in support of the Soviet invasion of Finland and the Soviet-established puppet government.
He supported a war against the communist take over of Vietnam... and a war FOR the communist invasion of Finland.
>Documents released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2012 indicate that Steinbeck offered his services to the Agency in 1952, while planning a European tour, and the Director of Central Intelligence, Walter Bedell Smith, was eager to take him up on the offer.
Steinbeck was glowing, probably from the beginning. Socialism for him is only a tool for control, controlled opposition, same as communism, capitalism, fascism, etc. Every big author is pushing something; that was his angle.
His books had instant deals with Hollywood movies. If he was an organic writer, that would be impossible. He had obvious connections. And the coup de grace:
>Johann Adolf Großsteinbeck (1828–1913), Steinbeck's paternal grandfather, was a founder of Mount Hope, a short-lived messianic farming colony in Palestine that disbanded after attackers killed his brother and raped his brother's wife and mother-in-law.
And
>Steinbeck was inducted in to the DeMolay International Hall of Fame in 1995.

I honestly don't know. I think we should be reading Aristtotle for 24 hours a day so our brains can be very big. Isn't that book like under 100 pages? Nah, its too few pages for me. For me it's s when Ion and his companions brought the people together into a community, for then the people was first divided into the four tribes, and the tribe-kings were created. Next, and first after this, having now some semblance of a constitution, was that which took place in the reign of Theseus, consisting in a slight deviation from absolute monarchy. After this came the constitution formed under Draco, when the first code of laws was drawn up. The third was that which followed the civil war, in the time of Solon; from this the democracy took its rise. The fourth was the tyranny of Pisistratus; the fifth the constitution of Cleisthenes, after the overthrow of the tyrants, of a more democratic character than that of Solon. The sixth was that which followed on the Persian wars, when the Council of Areopagus had the direction of the state. The seventh, succeeding this, was the constitution which Aristides sketched out, and which Ephialtes brought to completion by overthrowing the Areopagite Council; under this the nation, misled by the demagogues, made the most serious mistakes in the interest of its maritime empire. The eighth was the establishment of the Four Hundred, followed by the ninth, the restored democracy. The tenth was the tyranny of the Thirty and the Ten. The eleventh was that which followed the return from Phyle and Piraeus; and this has continued from that day to this, with conti

It's a decent read and not too hard to understand. Subsequently, it's a good start when trying to introduce pre-teens to symbolism and "levelling up" to "big-boy" literature.

>>20564325
They made me draw the main characters as an assignment in highschool

>>20564325
an attempt at normalizing shooting retards