Strong Themes In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Every day, people are faced with responsibility. Some thrive under the pressure while others crumble. Responsibility is a sign of independence. Teenagers with greater amounts of responsibility feel freedom from their parents. In the same case, too much responsibility can put more stress on that freedom-seeking teen and can have devastating effects. John Steinbeck shows the theme that in life, responsibility is best taken in moderation in his novel Of Mice and Men.

John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. was an American author wrote many novels including one of his most famous, Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men teaches many lessons about the nature of human existence. Each relationship grows throughout this short story and end with a dramatic experience. All of the characters, including Lennie, George, Crooks, and Curley’s wife, admit, at one time or another, to having a profound sense of isolation, seclusion and loneliness.

John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the journey of two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who struggle through the navigation of working on a ranch in California and fulfilling their dreams together during a time of financial depression. The novel begins with George and Lennie traveling through the California wilderness to get to a new ranch just south of Soledad where they are going to begin new work. They had to leave their previous jobs in a town called Weed because Lennie had caused trouble with a girl by holding on to her red dress because he wanted to feel it, and this incident spiraled into rape allegations against Lennie. As George and Lennie make their way to the new ranch, Lennie; who is a large, but simple minded man; found a dead mouse and wanted to keep it to pet because he likes soft things. George, who is more serious and protects Lennie, takes the mouse away from him because even though it’s dead, he should not be messing with it. Lennie often does not realize his strength because of his mental incapabilities and as a result, he causes a lot of trouble and harm. George finds taking care of Lennie to be taxing, but he knows that their friendship is an important bond that he does not want to be without. In order to comfort Lennie in the wilderness, George tells the story of their shared dream to own their own ranch where they can follow their own rules and live as they please. When they finally arrive at the ranch the next day, George and Lennie

The characters in of Mice and Men can be compared to real people from Steinbeck’s life. During Steinbeck’s days of being a ranch hand, he was surrounded by workers that represent George and Lennie. “Two migrant ranch hands, George and the mentally challenged Lennie, and their simple yet ultimately thwarted dream of owning their own land.” (“John Steinbeck”). All their lives they had jumped from job to job because of Lennie’s disability. They had experienced several difficulties due to Lennie’s inability to control himself, so their dream of a farm full of rabbits and other animals had seemed to be nothing more than a dream. Other people within the story had also been in direct relation to those of his personal life.

Another one of Lennie's character traits is that he is reliant. Lennie demonstrates this trait various times in the book because he relies too much on George. One of the times when Lennie is reliant is when he relies on George to tell him what to say. George tells Lennie what to say because they think if their employer knows about what Lennie did in the other town he might not want them around. In this case Lennie relies on George to tell him what to say because George and Lennie want the job, so in case Lennie messes up George can cover for him. Lennie is also reliant when he and George are by the Salinas River and they are camping out. “Lennie just stood there while George gathered the food and fire wood” (page 12). This is important because Lennie relies on George to provide food and warmth. A final example of why Lennie is reliant is when George tells Lennie that he can’t ever talk or make any contact with Curley’s wife. “She said

“Man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of nature”, H. G. Wells. Throughout Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the majority of the characters are given bestial qualities, such as cold-heartedness and a very uncompassionate mentality. Unlike the others, Lennie and George seem to be compassionate and caring towards one another. The most prominent difference is how Lennie’s disability gives him a childlikeness and an ability to see the world without judgement and fear. More suitably, Lennie seems to have a very strong connection with nature, he is consistently around animals whether they are dead or alive. Because Lennie has a learning disability, he would normally be mistreated and not be able to be hired to work in this time period but, he

The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.

Although Of Mice and Men definitely teaches young students about how the setting was set up back then, the themes of abuse and death included could be found highly inappropriate or offensive to young students today. These themes arise from the multiple abusive and gory deaths of characters throughout the novel. For example, the novel included a reoccurring scene of murder of innocent animals by Lennie including mice and puppies. Some readers are not able to handle such grimness, therefore finding it repugnant or simply unacceptable. Readers with their own pets may also feel a terrible sense of guilt and repulsiveness by simply reading the novel. Another example is portrayed when Lennie violently kills Curley’s wife by shaking her to death.

American journalist David Grann once said, “You want the story to be about something, have some deeper meaning, but there is also an emotional, almost instinctual element, which is, does this story seize some part of you and compel you to get to the bottom of it?” Every piece of text has a meaning that goes deeper than the page it is printed on. Of Mice and Men is an example of this. Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in 1937. The story takes place in California during the Great Depression, a time where it was laborious to be anything close to successful. Everyone believed that with a minimal amount of hard work and money saved up, the American Dream could be at their fingertips. The two main characters George and Lennie struggle to get land to call their own. Lennie is driven by his dream of tending rabbits, but he makes it challenging when he is the main reason of their setbacks and complications as they move from job to job. Fortunately, George is always there to clean up the mess. Of Mice and Men is studied as an allegory because the characters symbolize problems more substantial than the ones Steinbeck clearly writes about. John Steinbeck zooms in on other problems that America struggles with besides the enticing desire for just materialistic things. Steinbeck criticizes racism, the mistreatment of those who are disabled, and the disrespect of women.

In the book, Lennie is viewed as a very forgetful character. In the book Lennie says, “I forgot again George.” This trait of forgetfulness that Lennie has effects those around him, especially George. At the beginning of the book, George tells Lennie that he would be better off without him because Lennie is the reason why he can’t keep a job. This effects Lennie because despite his best efforts, he finds a way to hurt the ones he cares about. This situation makes readers feel sympathy towards Lennie because he can’t help forgetting everything and it must be very frustrating for not only him, but to George as

The personality of George and Lennie are demonstrated by the use of different verbs and adverbs. Typically, the descriptive words used towards Lennie demonstrate his absence of maturity. For example, when Steinbeck mentions “dabbled,” “shapeless,” and “timidly,” he is trying to display Lennie’s indecision and hesitation when it comes to dealing with struggles, conflicts, or anything. On the other hand, Steinbeck uses adverbs such as, “sharply” and “gently,” which suggests the fact that George thinks deeply before he speaks or takes action. Overall, the reader is able to surmise, that Lennie still has state of mind where he requires the care of an adult, in this case, George. In addition, Lennie looks up to George as a role model because he believes if he emulates what George does, he will not land in

Steinbeck first foreshadowed the pivotal events of the book through Lennie’s slight mental disability shown on page 8 where George refers to him as a “crazy bastard”. It can be assumed that Lennie indeed has a disability and therefore impacts on the decisions he makes. An example of the effect Lennie’s disability is on page 13 where George loses his temper and recounts

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two men, George and Lennie who travel from ranch to ranch hoping to make enough money to buy their own land. Buying the land is what George and Lennie talk about constantly, this is in fact their American Dream. They have recently left a town called Weed because of an incident that happened there and are now heading to Soledad to work on another ranch. John Steinbeck was successful in making Lennie a sympathetic character because he portrays Lennie as a big strong muscular man that has basically no brain, so he doesn’t really know his own strength so when he hurts someone or does something bad you can’t really blame him.

Of Mice and Men Theme Analysis Essay John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men features many different themes. The two main characters, George and Lennie, are migrant workers traveling to a new ranch. The story follows their experiences while working there. One of the most prevailing themes in the novel is broken dreams.