Of Mice and Men tells a story about an unusual friendship between two workers, set in America during the depression in the 1930s. George and Lennie dream of having a place of their own but first they have to survive other ranches. Main characters George and Lennie camp in the brush, based in the “Gabilan Mountains”, “a few miles south of Soledad”. George is “small and quick” and clearly dominant. Lennie is “his opposite” clumsy and large, similar to a bear. George finds Lennie stroking a dead mouse. George demands for the mouse and he complains that caring for Lennie prevents him from having freedom. We find out that Lennie tried petting a girl's dress, which resulted to them losing their jobs in Weed. However, they are looking for new jobs …show more content…
“The bunk house was a long, rectangular building.” They meet their boss and his son Curley. Curley is aggressive and cold with the boys straight away – especially Lennie, “he glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie… his hands closed into fists.” George is apprehensive of Curley and tells Lennie to stay away from him, “This guy Curley sounds like a son-of-a-bitch to me.” They see Curley's pretty but flirtatious wife and meet some of their colleagues such as Slim and …show more content…
Crooks is alone in his barn room when Lennie joins him. Crooks takes advantage of Lennie’s soft personality and rudely tells him to leave. “Don’t come in a place where you’re not wanted.” They talk about Lennie and George’s dream - Crooks is unconvinced, but when Candy comes in as well, Crooks acts pleased and asks to be part of the plan too. Curley's wife arrives and threatens Crooks. “’Listen Nigger,’ she said. ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?’” Crooks realises he can never really be part of Lennie’s plan due to him being inferior. The next afternoon, Lennie accidentally kills the puppy that Slim had given him by petting it too hard. “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice.” Curley's wife enters the barn and sits with him. After a while she starts talking about her feelings and dreams. “’Coulda been in the movies…” She invites Lennie to stroke her soft hair. He strokes her hair strongly and she begins to panic. As she begins to shout, he also panics and places his hands over her face. Unintentionally he suffocates her and she dies. Scared he runs away, just as George had told him
Of Mice and Men is the classic tale by John Steinbeck of two men trying to achieve the American Dream. But things are not going great for George and Lennie. They move from town to town trying to get a job to be able to afford to get their own property, which is made more difficult by the fact the novel takes place during the Great Depression. Besides the obvious effect of the poverty caused by the Great Depression on the characters that it is the reason George and Lennie are migrant workers, it also causes the characters, not just George and Lennie, to be more suspicious and distrustful of those around them. The setting in which this novel takes place, the Great Depression, causes most of the characters to isolate themselves, everyone except
From the book Lennie says, “‘I wouldn’t never forget to feed them. When we gon’ta do it, George?’ ‘In one month. Right squack in one month…’” (61) From this you can tell that George and Lennie share the same dream and they both want it to happen. Their dream may become a reality and they’re also getting other people to come with them and share the same dream as them such as Candy. “‘S’pose I went in with you guys.’” From the book you can tell that Curly is thinking about joining them in their dream of owning their own ranch. Even though their dream may not become a reality they still believe it
Curley, an amateur boxer, was a small man who hated big guys like Lennie; one time, Curley tried to start a fight with Lennie. Lennie ended up breaking Curley’s hand, and Curley is still mad at Lennie. “Curley came back to life ‘I know who done it… I’m gonna get him, I’m going for my shotgun… I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts’ Curley ran furiously out of the barn” (Steinback 96), Curley wanted to kill Lennie out of spite for accidentally killing his wife. If Lennie was not put down by George, Curley would have caught them and found a way to painfully execute Lennie. After Candy let Carlson put down his old dog for him, he felt that he should have done it himself. George knew he had to be the one that killed Lennie because he would feel guilt if it was not him. He had remembered when Candy let Carlson put Candy’s dog down and how upset Candy was, and George knew he had to make sure Lennie went in a peaceful way, thinking about the
Lennie loves to pet soft objects, and he’s obsessed with mice and rabbits because he loves how nice their fur feels. Every time he pets things he likes, he always gets himself into trouble. In the very beginning of the book, George and Lennie have to run away from a town. They need to escape because a woman accuses Lennie of raping her but all he did was pet her soft dress. When the women started screaming Lennie got afraid and held on. Lennie doesn't understand right from wrong when it comes to situations like this.. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress-jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse.”(Doc B) This dialogue from Lennie shows how he can’t control himself. Later in the book Lennie gets a puppy that he can pet without harming it. Lennie ends up petting it too hard and kills the puppy. “I di’n’t know you’d get killed so easy.” (Doc B) This quote shows how Lennie didn’t mean to harm the puppy. When Curley's wife talks with Lennie and tells him he can pet her hair, things don’t turn out well. While lennie pets Curley's wife's hair, she yells many times “Let go!” This startles Lennie and he ends up snapping her neck by accident. John Steinbeck foreshadows Curley's Wife's death by showing how when Lennie pets soft things, he gets in trouble or ends up killing what he’s
One of the most astounding books Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, took place in one of the darkest time period in American History, the Great Depression. The setting of the book took place in a small country town in Soledad California, near the Salinas River. This book introduces the two main characters, George Milton, and Lennie Small with real life struggles of being migrant farm workers for a ranch. The story opens up with one of the many conflicts that George and Lennie will face throughout the whole story; George and Lennie running away from Weed after feeling a girls red dress. Although Lennie commits certain acts of violence in Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck portrays Lennie Small as having the traits common to the innocent archetype.
George the smaller leader and Lennie the mentally challenged friend. They travel around looking for jobs. They get a job at a farm when Lennie accidentally kills curley's wife. Which makes George do the unthinkable and kill his friend. This all takes place in California during the dust bowl. George is the protagonist in the book of mice and men by John Steinbeck. Lennie is the antagonist in the novella.
After he has killed Curley’s wife and he runs to the brush, he is apprehensive and scared of what is to come, which makes him more of an animal than ever before. Everything has settled down, and now he has to focus on how George will react. Lennie is compared to a bear many times throughout this book, and this shows the reader that he is dehumanized and is basically degraded into
George is out playing horseshoes with the men, while Lennie however, was in the barn with the pups, then Curley’s wife walked in. For the duration of the novel, Curley’s wife, was known as a tart, and as a troublemaker, for this reason, George told Lennie to stay away from her. Lennie begins to touch her soft hair, after she had said it was ok, but he was petting it much to hard, angering her. She repeatedly told him to stop, she tried moving away, but Lennie was in a panic and grabbed on to her hair. She began to struggle and scream and Lennie tried to make her calm
Then Candy starts to get mad and says that they already have all the money and they’ll be out of here by next month. Crooks was so surprised that he even suggested if he could join them, however next thing they knew Curley's wife showed up and asks about Curley even though she already knows where he's at. They all tell her to go away or their will be trouble, and Crooks goes as far as to tell the boss. Curley's wife wasn’t going to have none of it and threatens him to tell everyone that he threw himself on her, which for a colored man to do to a white woman back then was a very bad accusation punishable by death. Candy then tries to change the conversation by saying that he can hear the other coming back, which makes Curley's wife run off. Finally before Lennie and George left, Crooks told Candy to forget about what he said, and he was doum to think that he could live in such a
While waiting to begin their work, George and Lennie met the boss’s son, Curley, who has a little bit of a Napoleon Complex. Curley asserts his power right away by demanding that Lennie answer when he is spoken to. George warns Lennie to avoid Curley so they don’t get into trouble again. Later, Curley’s wife comes into the doorway of the bunkhouse “looking” for Curley. Lennie gets mesmerized by her beauty, but an old swamper named Candy lets them know that she has the “eye”, which means she is a flirtatious woman. George tells Lennie to stay away from her too. A while later, Curley came into the bunkhouse finding Lennie laughing and smiling. Thinking he is laughing at him, Curley gets angry and moves toward Lennie beginning to punch him. George told Lennie to let him have it so Lennie caught Curley’s hand and completely crushed it. The jerkline skinner, Slim, told Curley that his hand got caught in a machine to cover up the embarrassment and so Lennie wouldn’t get in trouble. The next day while the other guys were playing horseshoes, Lennie was in the barn, petting his puppy that he had accidentally killed. Curley’s wife wandered into the barn saw Lennie and wanted to have a conversation with him. He resisted at
The movie, “Of Mice and Men” portrays the harsh life of migrant farm workers in the 1930s. Directed and produced by Gary Sinise, it is a heartwarming movie starring John Malkovich (Lennie), Gary Sinise (George) and more. The movie, based off the popular and once infamous novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, talks about the working class in the 1930s when the stock market crashed. Overall, the movie depicts aspects of the lower class realistically, and how the two men, George and Lennie, go on their lives. The setting gives the audience a direct point of view of life in the early 1900s. By watching the movie, the viewers know that the plot is often very troublesome, since the two main characters attract trouble.
“And it don't matter. It's just the talking.” This shows that Crooks is probably a hidden conversationalist. He likely loves having conversations, but that’s not possible for him anymore. “It's just bein' with another guy. That's all." More so, it’s the company aspect of having a friend that is more important than merely talking. “S’pose George don’t come back no more.” Crooks went from being friendly to attacking Lennie’s only weakness, George. “What’ll you do then?” Crooks wants Lennie to imagine how he would be without George. George is the only one caring for Lennie, essentially protecting Lennie from himself. Lennie cries: “He won’t do it,” right before he becomes nearly hysterical. Lennie cannot fathom a life without George. It’s nearly identical to a toddler realizing they are lost in a mall without their parents. “Crooks’ face lighted with pleasure in his torture.” Crooks acts very sadistic in this particular passage. He knows very well how attached Lennie is to George. They have one of the most recognizable friendships on the ranch. Crooks does not want that to be - he wants everyone to feel how he
‘Of mice and men’ is a tale of loneliness and hardship felt by the people living in America during the 1930 's. Written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, it tells the heartbreaking story of two ranch workers during the depression; George Milton and Lennie Small. At the time America was very poor, with a shortage of jobs so people had to travel in search of new jobs. As many people were constantly moving, lasting friendships or relationships were hard to come across. People became scared to have friendships, scared of each other making them lonely and isolated. Most of the characters lived by ‘every man for himself’; only having to care for themselves, not having to worry about others and therefore
“In a moment Slim came back into the bunkhouse. He looked at Lennie, still crouched fearfully against the wall. ‘Let’s see your hands,’ he asked.
His love of soft things instantly overwhelms the rest of his thoughts. His mental disability causes him to forget everything George taught him: about not going near her, about how she is trouble. Even though he didn’t want any trouble, her hair reminds him of the rabbits. As soon as Curley’s wife starts to get uncomfortable and asks him to stop, Lennie can’t. Curley’s wife is suddenly in horror, so she yells out for help. Upon hearing this, Lennie instantaneously cups his massive hands around her mouth and nose, knowing what consequences will follow if he gets caught in trouble again. Lennie’s childish actions causes Curley’s wife to start suffocate until he eventually breaks her neck. It takes a few moments for Lennie to react to what he has done an then he remembers whar George told him to do if he got in to trouble, “Lennie if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” . This is the only thought he can think of at this point, so he sets out for the river.