Biblical Allusions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel he constantly uses biblical allusions to express the theme of losing paradise. His novel contains characters that allude to certain biblical stories, particular those in Genesis. Curley’s wife is alluded to the apple of temptation from the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. Also in the book of Genesis, George and Lennie are allusions to the sons of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. In using the biblical allusions of the apple of temptation and the brothers, Cain and Able, Steinbeck expresses the theme of losing paradise and straying from the path of dreams.

The next time Steinbeck presents Curleys wife is in her conversation with Lennie, Candy and Crooks. In this extract we see how Curleys wife clearly enjoys having power over others and because she is the only girl on the ranch she is prone to discrimination by being made to feel like one of Curleys possessions. We first get

The character of Curley’s Wife is very hard to unravel, as throughout the book, Steinbeck’s representation of women through characters such as George and Candy, is very harsh. This is because the sociological opinion at that time was that they were either, mothers, sisters, or prostitutes,

In the novel Curley’s Wife is portrayed as a source of trouble and danger for the men, not only in how she is described, such as ‘Curley’s married a tart’, but also in how Steinbeck portrays her affect on light and hope. Lennie and George first come across Curley’s wife when ‘the rectangle of sunshine in the door way was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in’. She is blocking one of the only light sources into the bunkhouse, which indicates that she is an obstacle on the path to realising hopes and dreams, for Lennie, George and the other men. George is wary of Curley’s Wife and so he warns Lennie ‘ Well you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rat trap ’. He suspects that someday she will cause Lennie to get into trouble, thus making it harder to reach their dreams. In the barn towards the end of the novel when Lennie kills Curley’s Wife, ‘ the sun streaks were high on the wall...and the light was growing soft ’. In this situation the light represents her hopes and dreams

In the novella, Of Mice and Men, there is a character named Curley’s Wife. Curley’s Wife is first shown in the novella as a character who is provocative and represented as darkness. Throughout the story she is dehumanized, objectified, and sexualized. Therefore, Steinbeck crafts the character, Curley’s Wife, in order to convey how the american dream is unattainable through him showing sexism and discrimination towards women.

“And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.” In the book, “ Of Mice and Men ,” by John Steinbeck (13), the author uses so many symbols in his characters and in the background throughout the story. In the book, everything represents symbolism whether it is the characters or the setting of the time and place they are in. The time period in “ OF Mice and Men “ is around the 1930s during the Great Depression. The men and women in the story aren’t very educated by how they talk and pronounce words. The setting is in Salinas Valley, California which is located in Northern California just south of San Francisco.

While reading and evaluating Of Mice and Men (1937) by the famed novelist John Steinbeck, the several relationships in the story reveal both true, authentic friendship, as well as the opposite, sad, desperate degrees of loneliness and plummeting isolation. Similar to the people that we come across in our lives, a handful of the characters in Of Mice and Men portray false faces of contentment, yet in actuality, they are alone and caught feeling stuck and empty on the inside. On the other hand, there are numerous representations of sincere friendships that seem as if they could last a lifetime. There are also episodes of different characters being vulnerable and straightforward with each other in a frantic attempt to have someone

In the book, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck used figurative language, specifically personification and symbolism, as well as diction to develop an apprehensive tone, and later a morose tone, in the euthanization of Candy’s dog. Candy was concerned about Carlson killing his dog because he did not want to lose his companion, which he had for so long. After he received no support from anyone else he inevitably allowed Carlson to do so which left him feeling depressed. Once Carlson introduced the idea of killing the dog to Candy, Candy attempted to reason with him as he “scratched the white stubble whiskers on his cheek nervously”(45). Steinbeck’s use of descriptive diction helps portray that due to Candy’s old age, symbolized by “the white stubble whiskers on his cheek,” he was becoming insecure

Curley’s wife doesn’t think about consequences. She is caught up in the moment she doesn’t she the repercussions peeking around the corner. Curley’s wife knew what Lennie did to her husband and she still thought of him as a big baby. I didn’t think Lennie would kill her but I knew he would be able to. Steinbeck made Curley’s wife a bit of a stereotypical woman of that time. Women were seen as clueless and a piece of property. Curley’s wife’s actions all led to different consequences and ultimately led to her untimely

DISLIKE: In Section two, Curley’s Wife’s description is continued and from this, the author formates further antagonistic feelings towards her through the use of colour imagery and symbolism. She is described as having “full rouged lips” and that her “fingernails were red”, and is also wearing a dress with “red mules”. Curley’s wife’s whole outfit is constantly referred to the colour red and Steinbeck has intentionally, repeatedly mentioned this colour in Curley’s wife’s description to emphasise the significance of it. This clarifies that Curley’s wife is going to be a potential threat to George and Lennie’s dream. She is a sign of jeopardy and Steinbeck is foreshadowing that she will bring harm to George and Lennie’s dream. This idea can then be confirmed to be rightfully conceived as the colour ‘red’ is also symbolic of danger, aggression and violence. This links to the woman in weed who was also dressed in red, indicating that Lennie will attack Curley’s wife as she is also dressed in red. Here, Steinbeck is foreshadowing the future of the book. Throughout the novel, we discover that George and Lennie’s dream is indeed shattered because of Curley’s wife. Steinbeck is once again reiterating the futility of the American dream, reminding the audience that not all wishes come true.

John Steinbeck wrote the book, Of Mice and Men, and incorporated detailed and descriptive settings, dreams, and character appearances for the book to be turned into a major motion picture like the one that was created in 1992. I think the book was written this way because the reader is taken to the place being described or sees the character being described. Steinbeck makes it easy for the reader to be put in George’s or Lennie’s shoes by using imagery and figurative language, such as similes and metaphors. “Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled

As the only woman on the ranch and one of the very few mentioned throughout the entire novella, Curley’s wife is mistreated by the sexist men she lives around and is even blamed for her own demise. The workers on the ranch look down on her and often speak negatively about her behind her back. The men insult her with derogatory names such as “tramp”, “bitch”, and “rat-trap”(Steinbeck 32). After Lennie kills her, Candy blames her for her own death yelling at her corpse, “‘You done it, di’n’t you? I s’pose you’re glad. Ever’body knowed you’d mess things up. You wasn’t no good. You ain’t no good now, you lazy tart.’ He sniveled, and his voice shook. ‘I could of hoed in the garden and washed dishes for them guys.’” (Steinbeck 95-96) Candy blames Curley’s wife for the string of unfortunate events that led to both her death and the death of Lennie and emphasizes that he always thought she was trouble. He places the blame on her for not allowing him to achieve the American dream, even when her death was at the hands of Lennie, a mentally challenged man. Literary critic Howard Levant, when discussing the death of Curley’s wife, states, “The ultimate irony in this tangle of violence is that none of the characters is evil or intends to do evil… ‘love’ has different meanings for Lennie and for Curley’s wife; the clash of meanings ensures their deaths.” (Bloom 97-98) Levant is

John Steinbeck’s 1949 novella entitled Of Mice and Men uses many significant symbols to convey meanings about the human condition. Such symbols include hands to represent labour, cards to signify chance and taking a risk, and finally, rabbits to suggest ideas about achieving one’s hopes and dreams. Symbols are a key central device in delivering meaning, as they consistently repeated throughout the narrative and are typically associated with the novella’s many characters.

One character in the story does not even have a name: Curley’s wife. Steinbeck illustrates her as someone who is a pawn of those around her. On the surface, she is reduced to a rude and selfish woman. But, if one looks deeper, Curley’s wife’s gender and class hinder her high aspirations and reduces her to ridicule. Her husband restricts her contact with others and does not show any affection towards her. She reveals this while

In the story “Of Mice and Men” the main point that the author is trying to make about human life is that oppression does not only come from the hands of the strong or powerful. Many of the characters in this novella share that they are lonely. They have no real companionship with anyone because they don’t stay in one place long enough and they desire comfort from a friend. Part of that makes them weak and they seek to destroy those that are weaker than them to feel powerful. They are rendered helpless by their isolation.