Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis

By killing Lennie in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice And Men, George protected himself, prevented unnecessary harm from coming to Lennie, and ultimately, he let Lennie die happy.

Sometimes whats ideal in a situation is not what the truth of the situation and can cause your ideals to be lost. In William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies”, he demonstrates a shift in some of the characters from the thought of idealism to the reality and truth of the world. Ralph is a good example of this shift, he starts out thinking the island will be a fun place and they’ll have fun waiting to be rescued, but soon he realizes that there is going to be more hardship and struggles to keep up the moral and hope of rescue. In the book Ralph wanted to keep everyone safe and get them off the island, but Jack wants to be a leader and messes up his plans, making it so that Ralph is alone in his plan to get rescued.

Everyone has dreams, big and small. When one dreams, there is a scent of whimsical hope in the air mixed with the powerful drive for success to obtain their luminous goals. But, many times these luscious dreams end up in grief and pain instead of a promised joy due to the hurdles in life, such as the certain circumstances that society professes or the flaws in a person that restrains them from their aspirations. The writer, John Steinbeck, incorporates this ideology in his novella, Of Mice and Men by creating three pivotal characters. Lennie, Crooks, and George all have schemes that go wrong, and yet hope to illustrate their desires of fulfilling their American Dream and to be prosperous for their own independent purposes.

William Golding’s book Lord of the Flies focuses mainly on a group of boys’ who have been stranded on an uninhabited island where they face many problems with themselves and others. One of the many dilemma’s within this story was the division of power between Ralph and Jack. They both had qualities of a leader, but they had different intentions with where they wanted to go; Jack was primarily the villain in this story showing savagery, while Ralph was civilized. So, why do the boys’ join someone who is cruel? Jack knows that he can manipulate their fears and use activities that are relatable to them because they are still little kids. Although it might seem devious, Jack is intelligent by using these tactics because they prove to be

“He shook her then, and he was angry with her. ‘Don’t you go yellin’,’ he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. (91).These was one of the events that took place at the end of John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men. After endless catastrophes and tragedies, Lennie small, a giant mental handicapped, and best friend of George. He makes a terrifying mistake of killing of Curley’s wife at the ranch. The men at the ranch try to bring Lennie to justice by killing him brutally. So, George should make a right decision of what to do with Lennie. In the end, George did the right thing by killing Lennie because he killed a woman, Lennie was mentally handicapped, and men at the ranch would have killed him.

Golding was a pessimistic man but he was also a truthful man. He understood that man is inherently evil and wrote a book explaining his knowledge to the world. This was a bold move but he wrote the Lord of the Flies because he had a message that he needed to unveil. Why was this message so significant? He saw the brutality of WWII from the position of a British soldier in the Royal Navy. He saw people being slaughtered in front of him. The cruelties of war can only be described in a basic way through a children’s book because if he were to go into detail everyone would be throwing up their lattes and pink, sprinkled pop-tarts. However, his purpose was to write this novel and if he chose not to do it, there would have been one more reason for people to be naive in their beliefs of this world. Instead, he was a truthful man who was not afraid to divulge the necessary information to make people stop and think about their actions. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense that Golding would write a novel arguing his point of the inherent evil of man?

For my 9th grade Summer Reading Assignment, I had to read “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck and annotate my thoughts, questions, as well as key scenes and literary elements. Below are my annotations.

Sometimes the hardest situations in life force you to make a difficult decision and that is exactly what George has to do. The book “Of Mice and Men” is a story based on 2 men, George and Lennie in the 1930’s. George and Lennie are traveling farm workers. Most travelers don’t travel with others, but Lennie and George have a different situation. Lennie is mentally challenged and a family friend of his, George, promised Lennie’s aunt Clara that he would take care of Lennie and do what is best for him while they are out working. Although some would argue that George did not make the right choice, George’s decision to kill Lennie was right due to the fact that Lennie would have lived a harsh life in prison, Lennie might have suffered in a mental institution and leastly Lennie wouldn’t have had the right medical attention to help with his gunshot wound.

In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck delineates that purpose is the motivation behind a dream, and yet when they are devastated, the loss of hope keeps a dream or goal from being accomplished. As George and Lennie settle in a forest nearby, looking for their job, George and Lennie unravel about their dream. Lennie explains the motive hidden under their dream, stating, “But not us! An' why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you"(Steinbeck 14). As George and Lennie discuss their dreams, they do realize that the main drive or intention behind the dream is each other and that is their motivation of the dream. Steinbeck gives the audience this quote since, he needs them to consider what might happen

The sound rang in your ears, his limp body fell to the ground, and your hand shook with the weight of your gun, and the blood of the person you just killed; your best friend. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, George’s best friend is lying dead in front him, Lennie, who like George is just a character but is mentally disabled. And although Lennie may have killed Curley’s wife and is now in danger, George murdering Lennie doesn’t solve any issues. George was not justified in killing Lennie because they could’ve run away like they did in Weed, George betrayed Lennie’s trust, and by killing Lennie George shows he is a hypocrite to his own rules.

In the novel, George has determined that it was time for Lennie to die and this was a just and good choose. George knew he was the one to kill Lennie because he learned from his past actions. Another reason was he knew that if he killed Lennie he would not suffer. Also, Lennie had no capability to sense reasoning like a normal individual and so he did not comprehend what he had done to Curley's wife.

George’s decision at the end of John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men can be defended in two ways. One sense is that George’s action to shoot Lennie was justified because George wanted the best of his friend. George knew that Lennie wouldn’t ever be happy locked up in jail, which led George to the decision of taking Lennie’s life. He also knows that Lennie is overly dependant on him, and he knows that if they were somehow separated, Lennie wouldn't survive. On the opposite end, George may have done this for his own benefit. George wanted to get rid of Lennie from the very beginning of the novel, because he wanted to live a free life without having to constantly have to Lennie’s problems.

In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are best friends and hard workers. In the end of the book, George makes a tough decision for Lennie. During the book George watches out for Lennie, but they end is different with a twist. The book ends with George shooting Lennie in the head. This is right, because Lennie killed Curley’s, he also killed animals, and George needed to get rid of Lennie.

Another place where George betrayed Lennie is on page 60 when George,Lennie and Candy are all in the bunkhouse and Candy agrees to pay for some of the land and in return George was going to let Candy help out on the farm. Now instead of it going to be just him and lennie on the farm he ended up going against what he told Lennie and allowing candy to tag along. He broke his promise to Lennie. One might say that it’s fine that he invited him along because it’s not like Lennie cares anyways,but that is besides the point. The point is George told Lennie on multiple occasions that it was only going to be them two and no one else. He essentially lied to him.

Losing something or someone that you secretly always wanted to get rid of is a lot harder than you would think. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two lonely men by the names of Lennie and George. These men are traveling together to their new job because of the trouble that Lennie always seems to get in. They travel together because of Lennie’s mental incapabilities. Lennie doesn’t understand and is always getting himself and George into a lot of trouble. Of Mice and Men reveals that humanity is going to be upset if they lose something important to them even if they thought they wanted it gone the entire time.