Of Mice and Men has many recurring themes and motifs. One of them is the idea of male friendship. This theme is mostly developed vicariously through the relationship between George and Lennie. It’s shown to be complicated, since they’re dependent on each other, but they cause problems for each other as well, and it sets them apart from the others on the ranch.Lennie and George are dependent on one another. George has taken care of Lenniesince Aunt Clara’s death. In Chapter 1, Lennie talks of living on his own in a cave but George counters that by saying “Yeah? How’d you eat? You ain’t got sense enough to find nothing to eat” (Steinbeck 16). Lennie’s mental disability prevents him from being able to live in his own. In addition to that, George functions as a parental figure or role model for Lennie. This is evidenced by how Lennie tends to imitate George’s actions and is fixated on not disappointing George. On the other hand, George is also dependent on Lennie for companionship and optimism. While talking about the dream, He finishes by saying “You jus’ let ‘em try to get the rabbits. I’ll break their God damn necks. I’ll...I’ll smash ‘em with a stick’ He subsided, grumbling to himself, threatening the future cats which might dare to disturb the future rabbits. George sat entranced with his own picture.” (Steinbeck 61). This represents how George is protective of Lennie and their future together. The rabbits are symbols for Lennie and the future ranch.George
The character in Of Mice and Men that is most similar to Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby is Curley. Curley and Tom Buchanan have many similarities throughout both books. These shared characteristics stem from one thing both men have an abundance of: privilege. Curley and Tom are easily two characters with the least amount of struggle in The Great Gatsby and 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
In the book of mice and men George and Lennie are good friends. They want to get a farm and get rabbits and live off the fat of the land. George and Lennie show the true meaning of friendship.
Quote- Throughout the book we see mean people, although it is worth asking if they were always this mean. The reason that they are mean is because of the time they are living
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.
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.
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.
A golden green field stretches ahead endlessly, pointing towards two great mountains with its straightly planted fruit trees. To the left of the field are three small cabins built with simple wood structures in rectangular shapes. Near the edge of a cluster of trees sits a large house, painted white and red with a wooden porch resting out in front. Laborers are scattered throughout the field, each one carrying a basket filled with harvested crops and working individually. They bend down together in a rhythmic manner to pick the fruits and buck the grain, despite standing meters apart. A scrawny, short man leads a horse back to the dilapidated stable, while a tall, slim man leads a parade of donkeys towards a fenced area. Another man, old and
Deep down inside, each person has a strong desire for a companion. Someone you can trust, who you can learn from and teach, but most importantly, one who can always be there for you no matter what happens. The relationship between the intelligent and feeble George Milton and the imbecile, but vigorous Lennie Small is displayed as the main objective in Steinbeck 's novel, Of Mice and Men. The description among these two characters is a form of juxtaposition because the two characters vary in several ways. The author’s intention of using this technique points out the differences between characters and how their personalities counteract each other significantly.
Friendship and companionship play a big role in people 's life and how they interact with others, and the world in general. How people build relationships is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives. The less relationships that people build, the more lonely, and self-kept they become. Throughout the book Of Mice and Men, George, and Lennie are examples of the positive effects on building relationships, and Crooks is an example of the negative effects on not building relationships. Crooks represents loneliness, and not building relationships. George and Lennie represent dependence on one another, and an example of how to build a strong bond/relationship. Throughout the book Of Mice and
Friendship is a value that everyone should clearly understand the meaning of. Guidance of others through obstacles and making helpful choices. However, there are highs and lows of each friendship, people should always be there for each other as human beings no matter what color you are or what disability you might have. In the novella Of Mice and Men, the author develops the importance of friendships and companionships. The author, John Steinbeck, illustrates the value of friendship throughout the novella by expressing the feelings, thoughts and actions of the characters in the book. While showing the characters doings, Steinbeck also describes the amount of frustration that transfers character by character. This is
One of the main causes for the cycle that George and Lennie lived in was Lennie’s innocence and misunderstanding of his actions. Throughout Of mice and men, Lennie is often times distracted by the little things in life, almost as if he had the mentality of a child. “”I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some long-haired rabbits. An’ they was, you bet. Sometimes i’ve even pet mice, but not when I could get nothing better”(90). The way Lennie describes and speaks about the rabbits
In the novel Of Mice and Men, the characters George and Lennie go through hard times while chasing their dreams, but rely on friendship to get them through it. George and Lennie had a tough life and depended on each other’s friendship to get succeed. As they made their journey they were constantly chasing a common goal which was to have a house with rabbits. In the end, George and Lennie needed each other because without one another they wouldn’t be able to
For expanding my horizons assignment, I attended a science lecture lead by the speaker Dale D. Edwards from the department of biology at the University of Evansville. The topic and title of his lecture was “Of Mites, Mussels, and Men”, in which the title, as he pointed out, was a play off of words for the book, “Of Mice and Men” written by author John Steinbeck. Although his lecture had no connection to the book, he talked about what he studies and how he became interested in doing what he does today in the biology world. He explained right from the beginning that he would not consider himself to be a “mite” guy, in which he was never really interested in them, and yet, ironically, mites are what he focuses on for a living. His current work involved studying parasites of shorebirds and how them differ regionally and then also studying mussels as a host for parasites such as the Unionicola, which is a water mite most commonly found living on the gills of freshwater adult mussels (relationship is called parasitism).