Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The author, Steinbeck, uses his own personal experience to “serve as an inspiration…” (Johnson 1) when writing this particular story. His past experiences also helped him for the future. Lennie, of all characters, is the least dynamic. He undergoes a significant amount of change and develops throughout the story. He has been isolated with George throughout his life. His sole purpose in life is to make George happy and to own a farm with George and take care of the soft rabbits. Lennie is the most innocent and defenseless. He also is the largest and strongest, which does not help in certain situations. Lennie is the protagonist in the story. He gains the readers sympathy by his intellectual disability and helplessness. Lennie murders things by accident such as the mouse in his pocket, the puppy and Curley’s wife. He enjoys the touch of and somehow uses those murders and experiences to scare him from doing it again. George’s opinion means the most to him.

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.

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.

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

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 takes place in the country fields of Salinas and Soledad California with ranchos and ranchero people that come to the country to look for work to support themselves. Back in the 1940’s, lonely people would go from place to place to look for work on the farms. People would go find work and some of them do with luck and from the help of others. In the case of George and Lennie, they were running away from Weed where they used to work. George and Lennie had to run away because Lennie was getting in trouble for something that was misinterpreted as a violation to a girl that lived in Weed. Lennie did not do anything to the girl, she just got scared of Lennie when he was trying to touch her red pretty dress and all of sudden they both got into an argument from touching the dress to it being seen as rape. Lennie has a mental problem that makes him act like a kid and all he can think about is petting mice and rabbits. He cannot live a normal life like every adult can.

In Steinbeck’s ‘of mice and men’ set in 1930’s, both Crooks and Curley’s wife are defenseless victims of social prejudice which leads to their sadness and depression. Crooks, being a black man is discriminated and segregated towards by all the other ranchers “They play cards in there but I can’t play because I’m black- Crooks” whereas Curley’s wife being a woman is expected to stay at home and take care of the house “Why don't she get the hell back in the house where she belongs- Carlson”. Furthermore Steinbeck as well as the ranchers view Curley’s wife as “trouble” in Candy’s words and she is later referred as ‘jail-bait’ and ‘tramp’ by other men. Consequently both Crooks and Curleys wife choose to express their hurt in different ways: Crooks holes up in his room with his books in order to escape the harsh reality where he is treated as an outcast while Curley's wife does so by clamoring for attention and desperately trying to be noticed either by creating ‘trouble’ or flirting with the ranchers.

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)

Emotions are a huge part of being a human being. They are what influence our actions, decisions, and overall performance in life. For example, if a sixteen year old boy comes home from school feeling extremely agitated and angry, he will undoubtedly treat his parents differently than if he returned home feeling energized and uplifted. The emotions that we as personages come accustomed to are reflected in our lifestyles and the overall personal characterizations that we possess. Many people feel certain emotions based on things that have taken place in their lifetime or how they were raised throughout their childhood. In John Steinbeck’s Mice and Men, he portrays the feelings of isolation and loneliness in three different characters.

John Steinbeck once said, “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us”. In his novella, Of Mice and Men, two men go on an unexpected journey in search for their dream of happiness. There are many themes that come from their journey such as, the gilded American dream, the bond of male friendships, the power of women and femininity, and racism.

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"”

Death is inevitable. However, death arrives to people at different stages of their lives. Death is one thing that all people have in common; even books are connected because of the different deaths occurring in them. In S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, there are three major deaths occurring in the novel: Bob, Johnny, and Dally. Similarly, in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, there are also three major deaths: Candy’s dog, Curley’s wife, and Lennie. The Outsiders is a story depicting the life of Ponyboy Curtis, who is struggling to find his place in the world while battling the rival group, the Socs. Of Mice and Men is a story of two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who are bound together and share the dream of

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.

The book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck depicts the american dream by telling a story of two friends named Lennie and George who share a dream of having their own farm. Lennie is a more sensitive character who doesn’t have much of a brain and George is a very independent and strong character. In the text Steinbeck was successful at making Lennie sympathetic because he shows with different events in the book how Lennie reacts to them based on his character traits.

Zukav once said, "The pain of powerlessness is excruciating. It is the most painful experience on earth, and everyone shares it." John Steinbeck captures the gist of this quote through the representation of his characters in Of Mice and Men. Powerlessness can be broken down into broad categories. Steinbeck focuses on the financial, gender, and cultural conflicts many Americans faced during the Depression Era. Migrant workers Lennie Smalls, George Milton, and Candy all experience financial hardship due to their inability to overcome their inevitable financial circumstances. Curley 's wife struggles with being unimportant, irrelevant, and weak because of her gender. Crooks, a black man, lacks power and choice because of his ethnic background. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck demonstrates the theme of powerlessness in the 1930 's through the struggles of