Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Decisions shouldn’t be made based on fear and the possibility of what might happen, but sometimes it’s that fear of the possibility that forces the unwanted decisions to be made. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, a man with a mental disability accidently kills Curley’s wife; that man is known as Lennie. Curley immediately sends his men after Lennie when he found what Lennie had done to his wife. Lennie escapes into the bushes and waits for his best friend, George. When George found out what had happened, he sneaks off to help prevent Lennie from possible punishments; he shoots Linnie behind the head. What George did was best for Lennie.

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.

Picking up the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck holds a different feel then putting it down. Leaving the reader pondering the true theme of the story. A tale among two friends is the mindset most would assume before reading the book but digging deeper you start to realize the dark truth. The story starts with both Lenny who’s large and unaware of his own true strength and George who’s skinny and quick witted. The tale takes both characters and presents them with challenges. Lennie has a mild mental disability which often leads both of them into a lot of trouble. While George must take care of Lennie and always get him out of trouble. Two characters who travel together would be envisioned to be best pals but what awaits them is a rude awakening, George says “Lennie just come along with me out workin '. Got kinda used to each other after a little while” (Steinbeck 3.12).

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.

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.

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.

The novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ was written by John Steinback, whom depicts how life was like for men and women in the 1930’s. From the outset, we were shown through the title itself ‘Of Mice and Men’ that the novel wouldn’t end well for George and Lennie. As this title was inspired by a Scottish poet whom said in his famous poem ‘To a Mouse’ ‘…the best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley’, conveys how no matter how well we may plan the future, things will often go wrong and obstacles will appear. Additionally, despite the American dream – the lack of hope, violence and harshness surrounding the men; gave a clear view into the lives of migrant workers such as George and Lennie. Portraying how the American dream is deemed unattainable for the men at the ranch, whom are destined to fall prey to a vicious cycle of harshness and violence – unable to escape from the world that they are living in.

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 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)

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.

“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.

In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the first chapter illustrates the theme that dreams keep men motivated to survive. This novel takes place during the Great Depression where poverty was common. George and Lennie wander through the Soledad valley during this era and are at the bottom of the economic ladder. The only way for them to survive is through temporary work at the local ranches. As they head out to the newest ranch, they stop for dinner near a riverbank.

John Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show how hard life was for migrant ranch workers during the time of the Great Depression and how they were often exploited by their employers. In showing how George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own piece of land did not come true, Steinbeck explores a wider theme, criticising the idea of the American Dream. The American Dream tells people that there is ‘opportunity for each... regardless of the fortuitous circumstance of birth and position. Steinbeck criticises this as these ranch workers were given few opportunities. Settings play a very important part in the novel as they pinpoint clear times and places giving a sense of realism to the story, but they are also used to create atmosphere.

Wandering around the countryside with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a sack full of personal valuables, these transient workmen were hard hit by the Depression and were forced to travel from job to job to survive. George and Lennie, who journey across California from Weed to Salinas, Steinbeck’s hometown, spend the novella yearning for the American dream, which to them was embodied in owning a small farm together with rabbits and a garden. This fantasy exhibits the two men’s loneliness and longing for stability (Of Mice and Men Synopsis). Steinbeck himself personally suffered these feelings while staying in New York after dropping out of Stanford (John Steinbeck Biography).