Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

“Of Mice and Men” is a short story written by John Steinbeck. In “Of Mice of Men”, George and Lennie, the main characters, are forced to run away from Weed after Lennie gets in a mix up with a girl and is accused of rape. They end up getting a new job in Soledad to work on a ranch. While there as ranch hands and migrant workers, George and Lennie form good relationships with some, but bad relationships with others. Lennie has tons of physical strength stored deep inside of him that he doesn’t fully understand that he has. With this strength, he unintentionally kills a mouse, breaks Curley’s hand, kills his new puppy, and kills Curley’s wife. Without the option to migrate to another ranch for work, George is forced to kill Lennie for the other men were out to get him. Ever since the beginning of George and Lennie’s adventure they had their dream in mind as a “light of the end the tunnel.” George comforts Lennie with this dream of theirs as he puts the barrel of the gun to the back of his head and pulls the trigger. Dreams play a very important role in this novel. In “Of Mice and Men”, Steinbeck uses failed and elusive dreams to show how captivating life can be when chasing the American Dream.

”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.

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.

Solidifying the theme of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonist George expresses his significant loneliness despite a strong kinship with his friend Lennie, “’I ain’t got no people… I seen the guys that go around the ranches alone. That ain’t no good’” (41). Published in 1937, amidst the horrific turmoil of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novella struck a sensitive chord with readers. Set in the heart of California’s Central Valley, this story follows two men, George and Lennie, as they run from old shadows to a new farm for work. Clinging to the distant dream of owning their own piece of land, the men imagine life outside their present difficulties. Illustrating that life is varied by emotional complexities beyond black and white, George’s longing for companionship and family seep through in conversations with his new co-worker Slim. Despite Lennie’s sheer physical strength, his mental abilities are limited to that of a naïve, innocent, and very young boy; the result is a relationship akin to an uncle and nephew. Lennie, with primal-like behaviors and a gold-fish memory, struggles to adhere to George’s words of wisdom. In the end, tragedy strikes them both as George is forced to kill Lennie due to an accident with the son of the landowner’s wife – a woman who looks for trouble at the onset. Consequently, George’s state of loneliness is bequeathed to a new level as he begins to imagine life without Lennie in tow.

In the novel “Of Mice and Men”, by John Steinbeck, the emotion of isolation is presented frequently throughout the novel. John Steinbeck shows the emotion of isolation through the characters in the novel which makes it easier for the reader to relate to this emotion because we are all familiar with it. Throughout the novel Crooks who is a black stable buck lived on the ranch with many other men, but due to the extensive racism during that time, this made him feel isolated from everyone. A quote that shows this is “A guy gets lonely if he ain’t got nobody...

People with little in common can still be able to hold a strong and perfect relationship. There can be many differences in people but they could come together and put aside their differences to become good friends. This leads to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men which has many relationships that are all unique and most of the characters are completely look, act, and think differently. The book Of Mice & Men has many themes, but one theme that stood out was people can be totally different, but still have a superb relationship. The characters in Of Mice & Men help unveil the theme by Lennie and his love for animals and George, George choosing to stay with Lennie, and Candy and his loyal canine.

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 by John Steinbeck Steinbecks novel, Of Mice and Men portrays the

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)

In the novel “ Of mice and men” by John Steinbeck, many beliefs that have cause human suffering was showed. These beliefs were exposed throughout the story and impacted how the characters’ development and how the events came to place. These beliefs are dream, guilt, and loneliness.

John Steinbeck 's novella, “Of Mice and Men”, set in California in the early to mid-1930s during the Great Depression is a microcosm. The novella tells the story of two itinerant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who are in search of a new job and looking for new opportunities as they move from ranch to ranch. It focuses on the barbaric relationships the men on the ranch including George and Lennie start to develop with each other as the novella progresses. The novella shows the importance of violence by focusing on how it is a part of human nature and especially making the needless and gratuitous violence in the world of men evident to the reader, thus implying the brutal and violent society that the ranch workers during the Great Depression inhabit.

During the Great Depression, it was not uncommon to become morosely secluded while working. Men would go far away from their families in search of any jobs they could get, with only themselves to confide in; colleagues only filling in the void of friends and family partially. Naturally, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, written during this period, would reflect this fact as a major aspect of the story. Loneliness would become the sinew of Of Mice and Men, manifested in some of the story’s main characters: Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. These allusions to loneliness are found throughout the book, mimicking the rampant disease of isolation at the time.

Chapter 3: “George half-closed his eyes.”I gotta think about that. We was always gonna do it by ourselves." Candy interrupted him, "I 'd make a will an ' leave my share to you guys in case I kick off, 'cause I ain 't got no relatives or nothing"”

Loneliness is an emotion of isolation and no hope or dreams in life, which is what John Steinbeck achieves by portraying this through the characters in his novella Of Mice and Men. The main characters are affected by loneliness in their own different way throughout the novella. rf

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.