DAFNE ROS GARCA N DE CUENTA: 303096447 THE INSTRUMENTALISATION OF THE HUMAN BEING IN THE BOOK OF MICE AND MEN

Two of the most important moments in the book Of mice and men are Lennie and Candys dog death; the reason of that is because both died under non-natural circumstances. The aim of this paper is to explain that the death of those characters was due to an instrumentalist conception of the human being that rose with the beginning of the twentieth century. With the rise and development of the second industrial revolution the mind of the people suffered a new transformation; notions from the liberalism like self-interest and individualism started to leave aside ideas as common wealth and camaraderie. In the book Of Mice and Men this characteristic is implicit in all the characters loneliness and also in phrases like Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another. I just like to know what your interest is. 1 Or Aint many guys travel around together...Maybe everbody in the whole damn world is scared of each other.2 Another step to the instrumentalisation of the human being is the establishment of pragmatism as a philosophical approach that focus in the usefulness as a determining consideration of right conduct; we can see an example of this when Carlson said: That dog aint no god to himself. I wisht somebodyd shoot me if I got old an a cripple.3 And also when the boss said: Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another. I just like to know what your interest is. 4 The main interest in this new world is focus in self-preservation, as a result people or any living thing with a lack of ability in dealing with its own survival is

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Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men, United Satates of America: Penguin Books, 1993, page 22 Id., page 35 3 Id., page 45 4 Id., page 22

seen as failure, as something weak that should be killed in order to keep him from suffering. Once again we can see that point in the following parts: Got no teeth. Hes all stiff with rheumatism. He aint no good to you, Candy. An he aint no good to himself. Whynt you shoot him, Candy?.5; also when Slim said: An s pose they lock him up an strap him down and put him in a cage. That aint no good, George.6 Finally, the previous phrase supports Slims last phrase: You hadda, George. I swear you hadda. Come on with me. 7 The previous quotations make us think that Lennie had to die because he was not capable of surviving by his own and that led him to his doom. In conclusion we can say that relationship between humans has changed pretty much since the establishment of the industrial revolution. Individualism, pragmatism, self-interest and self-preservation have grown out of proportion. Nowadays, it is hard for us to see the value of things without thinking in their usefulness and most of our acts of compassion have a background based on liberalism, as we could see in Of Mice and Men.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men, United Satates of America: Penguin Books, 1993 SOURCES Saavedra Mayorga, Juan Javier, El hombre como instrumento: la administracin y la instrumentalizacin del hombre en el occidente moderno,

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1507849, 17.09.2011

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Id., page 44 Id., page 97 7 Id., page 107