Componential analysis to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men’s Characterization: A Semantico- Stylistic Study

Abstract

      John Steinbeck, who was mostly read and respected for his works during the Great Depression, was highly regarded for his expansive view of mankind. Steinbeck succeeds in maintaining people's faith in humanity despite destruction and gloom. In the present study, Steinbeck's humanistic interest in Of Mice and Men’s characterization will be examined. The dream of a paradise future and the pursuit of genuine human connections are highlighted in the conclusion section as noble ideals to pursue. Equality, benevolence, and fraternity are forever the sublime human spirit calling people to return, even if they are temporarily lost their direction. Componential analysis of meaning, which reduces a word's meaning to its most basic distinguishing elements, is a helpful method in the study of meaning of characterization in Of Mice and Men, especially when identifying the meaning of a lexeme. Componential analysis is still employed in contemporary linguistics despite certain challenges and limits in its usage. Due to the fact that small components are not visible at the surface level, the application of componential analysis to English literary texts- Of Mice and Men for example- creates a lexical interaction based on semantic relationships between words at the deep level. Thus, the meaning contained in the surface-level components may be obtained through their interactions. Establishing semantic relationships between words allows for the componential analysis to explore the deep surface structure of words.