Truth & Deception in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

Despite the fact that lies cause strife, and we know this is the case, it has not prevented a drought of truth from plaguing our word. Nor has it stopped the proliferation of ersatz substitutes. This is best emphasized by Friedrich Nietzsche, who once said:

“As a means for the preserving of the individual, the intellect unfolds its principle powers in dissimulation…by which weaker, less robust individuals preserve themselves”.(1)

Fiction attends as a necessity as it’s a safe place to investigate atmospheres. Steinbeck uses the chaos and ambiguity engendered by the Great Depression to explore truth and deception at their extremes, in his novella Of Mice and Men. The conclusions drawn in the text tell how truth is healthy, to an extent, but how humans need some small lies to survive in life. Issues arise when these lies gain momentum and make their inevitable confrontation painful.

Take Steinbeck’s motif of the American Dream. It’s the exclusive falsehood Steinbeck reiterates in the text, and one that gains speed. Are ‘ten acres’ with ‘a chicken run…kitchen…orchard…’ and ‘pig pen’ realistic goals for George & Lennie? Of course not. It’s a dissimulation from their reality.

George confronts this deceit after Lennie’s death, accepting that “-I think I knowed from the very first. I think I know’d we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.”. George’s American Dream is a deception that gained pace, overtaking him and leading to an acceptance more painful than if he’d faced the truth. Through this, Steinbeck evidences the dangers of a great lie.

Parallels can be drawn between this and our world today. Society’s sense making apparatus is easily hijacked by groupthink. The most awful part of the worst events in history is that they were orchestrated by a minority, but the majority came to believe that this minority constituted the majority. Most Germans didn’t believe in Hitler, but most Germans believed that most Germans believed in Hitler, and so the majority of Germans gave him their voice. This phenomenon is not limited to negative events. Climate activism and Black Lives Matter protests are both worthy causes. Yet, we must ask ourselves, if all protesters cared about these issues, would they still exist? Private truths and public lies (2) are the source of what societal truth is. Recognizing this composite nature will allow us to better understand ourselves and each other.

Steinbeck represents this through George & Lennie. George is, at all costs, honest with his partner, which is necessary in keeping the pair alive. Here lies the practicality of being honest; without it, humans cannot function together. However, being too honest means we have to confront raw life, a terrifying thing, hence why George deceives Lennie before his death. A balance is imperative.

Society cannot progress when divided by deceit. Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a fictitious necessity in demonstrating why we need a balance of truth and lies. The longer we let the lies boil, the hotter the burn will be when they spill over.

(1) On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense (1896), Friedrich Nietzsche.

(2) This excerpt derives from the title of Timur Kuran’s work Private Truths and Public Lies (1995).