The Desperate Hope For Life In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Aspirations of success often drive individuals toward success. However if one only focuses on their dreams and not on working to achieve their goals, they will not be successful. Charles Dickens and John Steinbeck in their respective novels Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men, use their main characters failures in manifesting their aspirations to warn about the dangers of aspiring about the future and not focusing on success in the present.

The harsh and lonely characteristics of crooks emphasize the loneliness theme shown throughout the book.

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

As the sun finally slipped down past the Gabilan Mountains, it left the valley in darkness. The trail was scarcely lit by the stars that barely shined through the branches of the towering sycamores. The beaten path was barely visible in the darkness, merely a slightly darker shadow than the tall grass surrounding it.

The sun started to crawl behind the moon. A breeze started to pick upbringing in a cool night chill. Fallen tree branches scattered, coated with dirt roll across the highway. During the night the bar was filled with dirty hands and minds that were somewhere else. Slim held open the door for George, whose eyes never seem to close since he touched the gun.

Curley and Carson looked after them. And Carlson said, “Now what the hell you suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”

The definition of the word Hope is “ a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” A common theme between Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Gaines’ The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is hopes and dreams. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman follows the life of a young girl born into slavery, and her hope to have a better life. The book, Of Mice and Men, details the struggle of two men trying to find jobs during the Great Depression in hopes of reaching their dream of having their own farm and a better life. A historical event that ties the two books together is Martin Luther King Jr. and his famous “I Have a Dream” speech where he explains his hopes and dreams of a better life for African Americans.

A persons environment and surroundings can influence their life in a negative or positive way. This is demonstrated in the captivating novel, Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, as it is exhibited throughly through the two main characters Lennie and George. Throughout the novel, we see as Lennie and George face personal adversities, along with multiple other characters in the book facing adversities of their own. Although the adversities are difficult and strenuous, having a supportive environment helps to turn the adversities into growth. Therefore, the adversities are only temporary, but growth and life skills are permanent.

John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men is the classic story about migrant workers George and Lennie. Despite George’s best intents and actions throughout, Lennie’s continuous actions lead to more trouble which eventually leads to Lennie’s death. This story weaves the theme of inevitable fate throughout, and how continuous actions lead to consequences and a foreshadowed fate. In the first chapter of the book, we learn of Lennie’s actions in Weed, and of George and Lennie’s escape. The way that Lennie is described as a child, just grabbing for something soft and not knowing any better, is how we learn of Lennie’s mental disability, and get our first glimpse of how it affects both his and George’s lifes. This childish behavior of his leaves him with simple thoughts, and often he doesn’t think things through, or remember things.

Dreams are what keep all of the men going. They need something to hang on to in the hopes of a better life in the future. George and Lennie have a dream before they even get to the ranch. Slim doesn’t believe anybody's dreams come true. Curley’s wife says the men with dreams spend their money at the whorehouse without thinking twice about it and ruin their dreams.

The deep green pool of the Salinas River lay disturbed in the late afternoon. A camouflaged frog cut sharply left and right in the shallow pool; back and forth, back and forth until it stopped suddenly. The valley was empty as the animals attempted to stay out of the unusually cold and bitter air; the day made even colder by the hiding sun and the biting wind. A slow, rhythmic crunching of dead winter leaves quietly interceded into the area, and as it grew louder what little wildlife was present fled into the bushes and sycamore trees.

“Of Mice and Men,” wise words describing the relationship between man and animal alike, the sharing of the beautiful quality known as hope. The novella of mice and men is very layered and it illustrates the topic of dreams, hopes and plans, it speaks about the life and the downfall of two men, George and Lennie. During a time when the world faces many problems, having only each other to depend upon, they choose to cope and crush any obstacles that get in the way of their most treasured desire, the Dream Farm. John Steinbeck develops a theme of

Dear Mr.Stien Beak your book brought sadness and joy.The book of Mice and Men (1936) made me realize that many things lead up to what happened to Lennie was kinda spread out thro the hole book and we didn't know what was going to happen still.The reason that gouge did the right thing was because if curly would have caught Lonnie then he would have made his death really slow and painfully and he did is kill a person witch is not a good th no at all.

“Maybe God has a bigger plan for me, than I had for myself.” (Jaime Sullivan, A Walk to Remember). This quote strongly relates to the novel, “Of Mice and Men,” (by John Steinbeck), because of the concept of dreams. These are not only images caused by sleeping, but can be hopes which one has for the future. Many characters in the novel have dreams and goals which they desire to accomplish. Yet, often times, not everything goes as

The nature of human existence displayed in this novella is extremely predatory. In the novella Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck is not afraid to show the importance between the predator and prey relationships in our world. We see this in the relationships between Curley’s Wife and Crooks, Curley and Lennie, Curley’s Wife and the other men and more. In Mr. Steinbeck’s novella predatory actions are exhibited throughout.