Of Mice and Men - Misc Questions Essay example

In the beginning of Steinbeck’s novella, George and Lennie have set up camp and are starting to cook supper. Lennie annoys George by stating a simple luxury, and George recoils by exclaiming he could “live so easy. [He] could go get job an’ work, an’ no trouble” (11). After an explosion from George, like a

In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck uses juxtaposition in the first two chapters by placing two very different settings after each other. In the first chapter, Lennie and George are at the Salinas River Valley of California, while in the second chapter they are at a Bunkhouse. Both settings contrast with each other because one takes place in beautiful, serene nature, however the other takes place in a social setting indoors. In the story the nature scene is described as, “On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool.” The setting above sets a peaceful, natural, beautiful tone.

George is one of people in the ranch that had big goals to achieve, but he couldn’t accomplish any of them because of Lennie. George taking care of Lennie affects his dreams in a big way because every time George gets closer to his dreams Lennie completely ruins it. In the story it states George saying “ dumb bastard likes to touch everything he likes”(steinbeck 41). This is very important because this shows how childish lennie acts. The most important thing to him was to have dreams to have a farm and his own place with Lennie. This quote “ we got a future “ (Pg . 14) shows that he had a dream worth living for. Another way George had gotten his dreams taken away was when Lennie killed their boss’s wife. I know that George was a very lonely person because in the story he talks about guys like him in the ranch . “ guys like us , that work on a ranch are the loneliest guys in the world” (Pg . 13). This is very important because it shows his feelings towards being lonely.

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.

Steinbeck has written ''Of Mice And Men '' about an adventure of George and Lennie trying to accomplish their American dream's during the Great Depression during the 1930's where thousands of people lost their jobs in the Wall Street Crash making them feel hopeless. George and Lennie come to work at a ranch near Soledad in California. There they meet fellow ranch mates and a woman called Curley's Wife. In this essay I will focus on how Curley's Wife's personality and actions change throughout the novella and who she affect her and other bunkmates throughout the novella. In addition to that I would be showing how Steinbeck creates tension by using Curleys Wife.

| 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

2. George is a small and thin man with sharp features (Steinbeck 2). He has a quick temper and a wit to match. His temper is shown early in the book on page 4 when he gets mad at Lennie for always forgetting what he’s told him. George plays the role as the caregiver in his relationship with Lennie. A conflict

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

This will cause more people to be happier and create more dreams. This novel shows a lot of compassion when George has to shoot Lennie and then never continues their dream of owning a farm. He does not want to carry on that dream without his friend by his side. It is better to have friends different from yourself. Steinbeck shows compassion through the two characters, George and Lennie. George is compassionate towards Lennie, he looks out for him and does not leave him

From what I gathered from the text above, I find that the descriptions of George and Lennie are foreshadowing how they act before they do so. I could picture George just the way the author describes. From the description it seems like he’s never at rest and always moving around to find his way through life; this is shown when the author makes George say “I got you! You can’t keep a job and you lose be ever’ job I get. Jus’ keep me shovin’ all over the country all the time.” (Steinbeck 11). On the other hand. Lennie seems like he’s a bit clumsy by the way the way Steinbeck says “... and he

Together they have a dream to save up enough to own a farm where George is his own boss and Lennie can have animal to feed and pet. But the failure of their dream is followed by many ironic twists. In this essay, I will be discussing the main issues Steinback raised through the novel about that lifestyle that revolved around ranchmen in the early 1930’s. The main

John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, takes place during the Great Depression in the 1930’s, in the Salinas Valley, California. It establishes the prospect of the American Dream, discrimination,loneliness, and disenfranchisement through its characters. George and Lennie provided the value of the American Dream, to which the leading female role, Curley’s wife, represents how women are exempt from the American Dream, and appeared as less than equal to men. She developed a form of loneliness throughout the course of the novel. The novella seeks to demonstrate the way of which life was like for the characters of all different statuses and backgrounds. Through Curley’s wife’s character, we are able to see how life was like for a women during

In this essay I will show how Steinbeck presents Curley’s wife in a number of ways throughout the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, showing both how she is portrayed as a ‘nice girl’ as well as a ‘floozy’. This novel was set during the great depression and is written around two key themes of the American dream, which every ‘ranch hand’ owned their own patch of land, and loneliness, the only common feeling that each individual in the novel feared. Loneliness was the main theme that caused Curley’s wife to be interpreted in a negative way by the other ranch men.

John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men features a variety of characters who found it extremely difficult to survive during the Great Depression era. In order to make even a very basic living, workers were forced to migrate from farm to farm. Steinbeck’s two central characters, George Milton and Lennie Small, are migrant workers in search of the Great American Dream. The novel focuses on their three day journey, where they encounter other men who heavily influence their lives. The most influential of these men is Slim, the “Prince” of the Soledad Ranch. Together, George Milton, Lennie Small, and Slim prove that a true friendship consists of understanding, forgiveness, and wanting the best for one another.

Even from the very start of John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, the uniqueness of George, as a character, is already noticeable. He is described as "small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features" and has an obvious dominance over the relationship between Lennie and himself. This lets the reader know from a very early stage in the book that George is different, and probably the essential character. George's character seems to be used by Steinbeck to reflect the major themes of the novel: loneliness, prejudice, the importance of companionship, the danger of devoted companionships, and the harshness of Californian ranch life.