When Nature and Women Cry for Mercy: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from an Ecofeminist Lens

Youssef, Sayed

doi:10.21608/jwadi.2025.410024

When Nature and Women Cry for Mercy: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men from an Ecofeminist Lens

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلف

Sayed Youssef

Imam Mohammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

10.21608/jwadi.2025.410024

المستخلص

Despite the prevalence of ecofeminist undercurrents in Of Mice and Men, relatively few critics have sought to trace this aspect. Indeed, the novella does not explicitly address ecofeminism. Nevertheless, an in-depth analysis of it shows that certain elements invite an ecofeminist interpretation. The narrative tackles, among other things, some issues with ecofeminist dimensions, such as women's inequality, the rights of minorities, animal rights, and land degradation. The community depicted in the narrative is a patriarchal society, which is driven by its tendency against dualistic thinking, which imposes barriers between things seeming opposites, such as male/female, civilization/nature, and human/animal. Such dualism or binary opposition fosters the idea that one is the master and the second is the servile “Other.” Curley's unnamed wife is the only female character in the novella, which signifies how women were defined by their relationship with men rather than as independent individuals. Another character is Crooks, the stable black man who is always subjected to entrenched racism and prejudice due to his color. As for the weak and vulnerable, they are also marginalized and shunned in the patriarchal system depicted in the book. Despite its wonder and awe, nature is depicted as harsh and unforgiving toward humans’ exploitative stances.

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