How Does Steinbeck Present The Bunkhouse And Its Inhabitants in Of Mice and Men?

The bunkhouse affects the characters by showing how each person interacts with one another in a social setting. It shows that even with that small of a group there are still outcasts such as Lennie and Candy. Everyone looks on Lennie as big and dumb and Candy as old and useless. "Lennie crept to his bunk and sat down, trying not to attract attention." page. 53. This shows how Lennie will never fit in which predicts the ending of the book a bit more. The river at the beginning of the book shows how fast and easy life can be taken away. The first time George and Lennie visit the river it is calm and still. "For a moment the place was lifeless. " page. 2. But the second time they visit the river at the end of the book it is windy and unsteady.

Although outside, the atmosphere is happy and filled with life, inside the barn is deeply contrasted with calmness. The quiet barn emphasizes the life and energy that fills the outside, and the stillness and death that encompases the barn. From inside the barn, sounds of the outside can be hear, like the “clang of horseshoes on the playing peg and the shouts of men, playing, encouraging, jeering.”(84). This highly contrasts the “quiet and humming and lazy” (84) atmosphere of the barn. The life outside versus the stillness inside emphasizes the horror of the upcoming murders. The barn is not only quite calm, but lonely as well. There is a “buzz of flies in the air”(84) as Lennie is sitting alone stroking a dead puppy, making the scene much strange

"Although there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunkhouse, inside it was dust". This shows that the light tries to get in but never manages to penetrate the darkness. This is important to the themes of the story because workers' hope for a future farm is just like the light while the cruel reality is like the darkness. Their efforts to realize this plan is just like the light trying to penetrate the darkness, but their dream

Barbara Sher once said, “‘Isolation is a dream killer’” (qtd. in Wishcraft). In his novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck scrutinizes the effects that alienation can have on society. Many characters experience loneliness throughout the novel. He illustrates the results of individuals becoming isolated from their peers. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays characters alienated from society in order to illustrate the harmful effects of loneliness caused by discrimination.

| John Steinbeck uses a great amount of description in this text. With this description, the reader is able to visualize what the bunk houses look like on the outside and on the inside. It

Steinbeck utilizes the novel as a form of social protest by enunciating the brutal and inhumane way the wealthier class treat the migrant workers. For instance, in order to not loose any profit from the fields, the affluent bankers decide to forcefully drive the families off the fields using tractors to “bite into the house corner, crumble the wall, wrench the little houses from its foundation”(39). However, the working class does not have the opportunity to refuse this decision because of the desperate

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the author constructs the setting of the story in a way that it creates a deeper meaning to the overall sense of the story. The places associated with the novel are able to establish a connection to the characters, theme, and plot of the story. The introduction of the setting, which is Soledad, hints the novel’s theme of loneliness, as Soledad means solitude. Through his description of a river that “runs deep and green,” “yellow sands in the sunlight,” “golden foothill slopes,” and trees that are “fresh and green,” the author is trying to show the natural beauty of the setting. As a result, the author is able to create a contrast between the beauty of the background and the hardships of the

After the Great Depression, many things changed, different\\ genders and races were all treated differently. Blacks and white women were forced to be outcast in the world, women belonged in the house and blacks did not belong anywhere. In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays perfectly of how blacks and women were separated from everyone else with Curley’s wife and Crooks, the black stable hand. Curley’s wife and Crooks are alike in many ways; in their loneliness, the way they are separated from everyone else and how they get out casted from everything, discriminated against during the time period; which helps show how blacks and women were treated during this time period of life.

Also, ‘the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows’, this represents that the little hope in the bunk house only helps to further illuminate the darkness and harshness of society. In a setting, such as the ranch, where dreams are suppressed and suffocated, they take on a greater importance and significance to the mens lives, they rely on the dreams to get by.

Steinbeck uses his tone to show the readers how gloomy the house that the farmers were forced out

He knows that he has given up the life of a free man. He knows that he

‘..Guys like us that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world they got no family they don’t belong no place.’ This is what many felt during the ‘great depression’ in the 1930’s. John Steinbeck gives us the sense that many felt lonely ‘they got no family they don’t belong no place. The main theme of this novel is alienation; the three characters, Curley’s wife, candy, and crooks are all alienated, and felt it by another person at some point. They all have dreams... it’s the American dream... but not all dreams come true...

One of the families lives in a “tent [that] is full of flies clinging to the apple box that is the dinner table” and “buzzing about the foul clothes of the children, particularly the baby, who has not been bathed nor cleaned for several days” (Studysync 41). This visual and auditory imagery communicates their alarming situation of enduring their grody living conditions thus, causing the reader to empathize with the families and to perceive what they were forced to withstand. Through the use of a metaphor, Steinbeck displays the effect the poor living conditions had on the people. In another family, the mother’s “eyes [had] the glazed, far-away look of a sleep walker” after bearing a stillborn baby (Studysync 43). The metaphor is comparing the mother’s eyes to those of a sleep walker, who usually have open eyes that appear half-awake. The mother had lost her spirits and the will to do anything productive when she lost her baby. Losing a child is extremely tough, especially if the child never had the chance to breathe because of malnutrition and the reader can see her perspective and understand what she went through. Furthermore, Steinbeck uses logos. In a different family, a “father will not be able to make a maximum of four hundred dollars a year any more” since

Through his characters, John Steinbeck, author of Of Mice and Men, illustrates the way people endure isolation, and the despondency that is found in those lacking a purpose which was commonplace during the Great Depression. One such character is Crooks, who is different from the other ranch hands because he is an African American, and as such, he is forced to live alone. He has a crooked, misshapen spine, which makes him even further of an outcast. He is lonely, and he has shielded himself from the other farmhands in an armor of pessimism and abjection, when in all actuality, he wants to talk to the other workers rather than reading books alone in his room. He feels that “A guy needs somebody to be near him. . . A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody” (72). In this way, Crooks is insinuating his own need for company, and when Lennie and Candy show up in his room, “It was difficult for Crooks to conceal his pleasure with anger” (75).

The Bunkhouse is another main setting in the novel and is important as it is where the readers are introduced to the rest of the characters. The bunkhouse is a functional building with not a lot of potential. This setting shows a sense of reality as it provides only the bare minimum to the ranch workers as if they do not deserve anything more. There are ‘eight bunks’ in the bunkhouse, with each one having ‘two shelves for personal belongings’, showing they don’t have enough money for a lot of things for themselves. Steinbeck is showing as if the ranch workers are not as good as the rest of the people.