Picking up the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck holds a different feel then putting it down. Leaving the reader pondering the true theme of the story. A tale among two friends is the mindset most would assume before reading the book but digging deeper you start to realize the dark truth. The story starts with both Lenny who’s large and unaware of his own true strength and George who’s skinny and quick witted. The tale takes both characters and presents them with challenges. Lennie has a mild mental disability which often leads both of them into a lot of trouble. While George must take care of Lennie and always get him out of trouble. Two characters who travel together would be envisioned to be best pals but what awaits them is a rude awakening, George says “Lennie just come along with me out workin '. Got kinda used to each other after a little while” (Steinbeck 3.12). However the story dives deeper than just Lennie and George after leaving a town called Weeds because Lennie was accused of rape. The two were forced to run away which lead them to a ranch where they meet a character named Candy. Candy is an old aging handyman who lost his hand due to an accident. The life on a farm is hard and it is represented through Candy, he says “"A guy on a ranch don 't never listen nor he don 't ask no questions" (Steinbeck 2.67). The isolation he is put through often makes him feel hopeless. The only hopes Candy had was in his dog and in the dreams of getting paradise with
Decisions shouldn’t be made based on fear and the possibility of what might happen, but sometimes it’s that fear of the possibility that forces the unwanted decisions to be made. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a man with a mental disability accidently kills Curley’s wife; that man is known as Lennie. Curley immediately sends his men after Lennie when he found what Lennie had done to his wife. Lennie escapes into the bushes and waits for his best friend, George. When George found out what had happened, he sneaks off to help prevent Lennie from possible punishments; he shoots Linnie behind the head. What George did was best for Lennie.
Do opposites really attract? Can two people, with no similarities, share a close bond? It proves to be so in the novel Of Mice and Men , written by John Steinbeck. A novel which tells the story of two men, George and Lennie, and their journey of a new job working on a ranch. A novel with a different but interesting style of writing. A novel where John Steinbeck utilizes how powerful George is over Lennie, to signify how people believe they are dominant over others, because of their greater intelligence, social standards, or wealth.
Some characters in this novel are alienated by mainstream society because they do not fit society’s ideal image of a person. And they are all not accepted as human beings. Throughout John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the social injustice of how people were treated during the Great Depression is explored through the characters Crooks, Curley’s wife, and Lennie, to show that society actually needs to become stronger than it really is.
”Wha’s the matter with me?’ she cried. ‘Ain’t I got a right to talk to nobody? Whatta they think I am, anyways?” (Steinbeck 87) In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife is discriminated against because she is a woman living in the 1930s when few females could live economically independent of men. By choosing not to name her, Steinbeck reinforces her insignificance on the ranch and her dependence on Curley. While a misfortunate victim of isolation, Curley’s wife exerts unexpected power attempting to mask her pain.
Besides the American Dream, the theme of death plays a major role and is recurring in both texts. From the novel ‘Of mice and men’, both Lennie and Curley’s Wife die. From this we can deduce that they both got killed due to their differences and society looking at them in a different way. Both texts also foreshadow the future deaths from the beginning to the end of the texts, there is hints everywhere. The moment that Curley’s Wife was introduced, an ill feeling overcame the atmosphere indicating that Lennie will be getting into a mess with her. At the beginning, George clearly states that Lennie always gets George into trouble. Steinbeck states ‘You do bad things and I got to get you out’. Previously, before George and Lennie arrived at the ranch, Lennie got into trouble by supposedly attacking the only woman in Weed. This also suggests that there will be trouble between Curley’s Wife, who is the only woman on the ranch and Lennie. Connecting ends with ends, this shows that the only two women are insecure. Later on, there was an intimation that she is going to be killed by Lennie as Lennie kills the soft things he likes to ‘pet’ such as the puppy and the mouse. In the novel Curley’s Wife lets him touch her dress, which is soft therefore leading to an inevitable death.
The unemployment rate for African Americans during the Great Depression reached upward of 50 percent at its peak. The commonly seen statistic of a 25 percent unemployment rate is primarily only applicable to white males at the time. The Great Depression stressed many societal structures that oppressed peoples based on race, gender ability to work, and socioeconomic standing. Despite the fact that over three quarters of a century has passed since the end of the Great Depression, many of these inequalities still remain (although to a lesser extent). A large number of Discussion about the social problems in the 1930s may still be applicable to today 's society. In his novel Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck outlines many corrupt societal structures intended to exploit and demean individuals based on their perceived value: the inherent exploitative nature of the American Dream, the hierarchy of power in America based on an individual 's ability to work, and the way in which oppressive systems are maintained through a mis-projection of anger of the oppressed.
What is dialogue? Dialogue is when characters speak to one another in a book, play, or movie. Dialogue is very important to many books, movies, and plays and Of Mice and Men is no exception. The things that characters say shape their personality in the story. On way dialogue serves a purpose in Of Mice and Men is it reveals more about the characters. Another way is it allows the reader to experience the action as the character is experiencing it. One last way dialogue affects a story is it generates an impression of reality.
Of Mice and Men takes place in the country fields of Salinas and Soledad California with ranchos and ranchero people that come to the country to look for work to support themselves. Back in the 1940’s, lonely people would go from place to place to look for work on the farms. People would go find work and some of them do with luck and from the help of others. In the case of George and Lennie, they were running away from Weed where they used to work. George and Lennie had to run away because Lennie was getting in trouble for something that was misinterpreted as a violation to a girl that lived in Weed. Lennie did not do anything to the girl, she just got scared of Lennie when he was trying to touch her red pretty dress and all of sudden they both got into an argument from touching the dress to it being seen as rape. Lennie has a mental problem that makes him act like a kid and all he can think about is petting mice and rabbits. He cannot live a normal life like every adult can.
In a discussion John Steinbeck said, "I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent. Lennie was a real person. He's in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks . . .” (Parini 27)
Dreams are futile fantasies because dreams are high expectations of what we want in our lives, which we rarely end up achieving. Our hopes and aspirations make us believe that we have the ability to fulfill our dreams, although many frequently tend to fall short. Steinbeck uses dreams for comfort to help the characters in Of Mice and Men move on from their simple lives. George and Lennie’s, Curley’s wife’s, and Crooks’s dreams are their interpretations of what a wonderful life would contain, although none of them have the ability to achieve their dreams. Crooks’s dream is to become a part of a community where he can be accepted. Curley’s wife dreams of becoming an actress and gaining money for “valuable” items in life. George and Lennie’s dream is to own a farm and live on their own, this would create joy and gratefulness in their lives. Through these examples, Steinbeck demonstrates to the reader that dreams give us false hope for ideas that are unachievable.
The setting of the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck began south of Soledad, California in a riverbed near the Salinas River. The time was during the 1930s with the Great Depression. The two main protagonists, George and Lennie, enters the scene resting after the long walk toward the new ranch where they would work. They decided to camp out in their newly discovered paradise and wait for tomorrow to do their job. Amid making dinner, George threw away Lennie’s dead mouse and ended the night by comforting themselves by talking about their future plan and dream.
Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck is about two homeless men named Lennie Small and George Milton. I am rating this book fair because I had some problems with some specific topics, however the overall story was good. The problems I had with the book includes some uninteresting side characters, a bad ending, and the book does a bad representation of real people and real judgement.
In 1949, the Gold Rush brought people from all over pursuing the American dream. A theory defines itself as if you is if you have enough perseverance and will power, you can make anything of yourself in the U.S.A. In John Steinbeck 's Of Mice and Men, two migrant workers are still struggling to find their speck of gold. George Milton, a smart, quick-tempered man looks after Lennie, a huge man that is mentally underdeveloped who doesn 't know just how strong he is. They have a simple dream of having their own land, which they get closer and closer to until it eventually fails, like many dreams in the Gold Rush. Their dream ultimately breaks down because of Lennie 's unconscious and restricted strength which prevents him ever succeeding in his only desire of petting soft things and because like many other migrant workers, they did have enough money.
George gets a puppy for Lennie thanks to Slim. Lennie loves to pet his soft puppy. One night all the men went out, and Lennie wanted to stay, go to the barn and pet his dog. Lennie does so and when playing with the puppy Lennie petted it too hard accidentally killing the puppy. Lennie is alone, scared and sad until Curley 's wife appears in the barn.
Friendship reaches across cultural, geographical, racial and physical boundaries; looking at ‘of mice and men’ and ‘the boy in striped pyjamas’ compared the ways that writer uses this and other concepts of friendship to shape their narratives.