Analysis Of The Sphinx And Of Mice And Men

The Sphinx’s Judgement As the Sphinx riddled to Oedipus in Sophocles’s epic ,Oedipus Rex , â€Å"A thing there is whose voice is one ; Whose Feet are four and two and three . So Mutable a thing is none. That moves in Earth or sky or sea. When on most feet this thing doth go, its strength is weakest and its pace slow† In response, Oedipus answered to the Sphinx , â€Å"Man, who crawls on fours as a baby, then walks with two feet as an adult and then uses a walking stick in old age† leading to the Sphinx destroying itself and Oedipus to later take the throne in the city the Sphinx was guarding. In many ways, the Sphinx is analogous to the American Dream where many people are devoured by it while a small quantity ever â€Å"solve the riddle† and achieve their American Dream. In the 1937 novelette, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck incorporates the American Dream in the setting of the Great Depression in Tyler’s Ranch , California . During the Great Depression, many workers w ent into an exodus from the South and Midwest to California in light of the Dust Bowl . George Milton and his colleague, Lennie Smalls, perpetually endeavor to find stable employment. At Tyler’s Ranch, George and Lennie assume the occupation as barley pickers. Over George and Lennie’s duration of time at Tyler’s Ranch, they meet Candy , a Swamper, who has lost his right hand during work one day collapsing his American Dream. Through John Steinbeck’s harsh reality, Steinbeck presents the characters the adult George Milton