MOTIVASI ATAU PENGHANCUR: PERAN KAPITALISME DALAM OF MICE AND MEN KARYA STEINBECK = MOTIVATION OR DESTROYER: THE ROLE OF CAPITALISM IN STEINBECK'S OF MICE AND MEN

Background: John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men depicts the struggles of working-class Americans during the Great Depression, showing the emotional and economic stressors they faced. The story is largely about the American Dream, a dream that is shaped and perverted by capitalist ideology, one that determines success is promised, but rarely offered, to those on the margins of society. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine how capitalism functions as both a driving force on the dream (as the Sender) and as a destructive influence against the dream (as the Opponent) for each character. Method: The research employs a qualitative literary analysis using a structuralism approach to evaluate the Subject-object relationship, the Sender-Receiver axis of motivation, and the Helper-Opponent structures in terms of narrative. Results: The results indicated that, while capitalism was a motivator within the text, providing a sense of ownership, security and control, it was simultaneously causing structural impediments, such as class division, economic precarity, racism, and patriarchal norms, to their dreams. Conclusion: Of Mice and Men posits critiques capitalism not simply as an economic system, but also as an ideological machine that produces desire. The novella shows that capitalism can cause the same dreams to both receive motivation and be crushed, and that hope is then a form of control.

Keyword : capitalism; American Dream; structuralism; actantial model; Greimas; Steinbeck.