Double Visions in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

• Main Authors: Chao-nien K'ung, 孔昭年
• Other Authors: Yuan-yin Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 1994
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90831183675483201212

碩士 === 淡江大學 === 西洋語文研究所 === 82 === As a humanitarian, John Steinbeck provides multiple conception of value in his works. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck employs double visions to reveal the disorder from a world of cant, confusion, and alienation. This thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is a brief introduction. Chapter One reveals how Steinbeck uses double visions as a satire. The juxtaposition of the American dream and the American nightmare presents the multiple forms of the American hope, whereas the political and economic elements are used to castigate the laws of the jungle in American society. The use of the named and the anonymous alludes to the actionlessness of the authority concerned. The subsuquent chapter attempts to reveal the vague frontier of the oppositions in human actions and ideas from the doubles, such as "love and hatred," "pessimism and optimism," and "responsibility and freedom." The third chapter deals with the animal and human elements in human nature by Steinbeck's use of double visions as amalgams. The conclusion discusses that the superficial values of textual meanings must be broken through the interactivity between the author and his readers to present the plural values of the text.