The Role Of Quests In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In Thomas Foster’s How to Read Literature like a Professor and John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, they both reveal that people can go through quests, and ultimately learn self-knowledge. The five aspects of a quest are listed in chapter one of Fosters text and are translated into the character George from Of Mice and Men. This main character or “quester” goes through the book on his “quest” for his dream of having a farm with his best friend but goes through challenges along the way and in the end finds out something inside himself.

Imagine if you had almost no money, only had 1 true friend, and one goal that you will do anything to achieve. That's the life of George and Lennie, two farm hands who are about to start working on a ranch in Salinas, California. It seemed like everything was going well for the two of them, or at least they thought it was. Steinbeck argues, throughout Of Mice and Men, that we as humans need to be able to comprehend the fact that the American dream is impossible, so when we fail at that, we won't fall as hard as we might if we had full faith in it, and he develops this stance using diction choices, imagery, and characterization.

Hopes and dreams can be very important for peoples’ needs and survival. In Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, each of the main characters is driven by their hopes and dreams; it provides a sense of motivation and animation to each of their being. From Lennie and George being driven by their hopes and dreams of owning a farm, to Curley’s wife’s dreams of becoming an actress, having dreams plays an essential role in giving hope to the characters of Steinbeck’s story. Although dreams and hopes are essential themes in Steinbeck’s story, in a sense, Steinbeck does seem to emphasize that dreams are not meant to be achieved, and that there are other factors that are essential for survival. I believe Steinbeck included their dreams to give

Barbara Sher once said, “‘Isolation is a dream killer’” (qtd. in Wishcraft). In his novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck scrutinizes the effects that alienation can have on society. Many characters experience loneliness throughout the novel. He illustrates the results of individuals becoming isolated from their peers. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck portrays characters alienated from society in order to illustrate the harmful effects of loneliness caused by discrimination.

There is a high chance that Of Mice and Men is, to say the least, the most depressing look at the Depression ever written. However, quests are seldom ever easy, and questers nearly always draw the short straw. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a very clear demonstration of a quest as Thomas C. Foster describes them in How to Read Literature like a Professor. Each of the five elements are illustrated in the novel. Of Mice and Men is an example of a quest because there is a clear and obvious quester with a specific goal, a series of setbacks and endangerments that prevent this goal from happening, and a final realization made despite the original goal not being achieved.

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.

Quest stories are generally seen as physical tests of muscle and endurance. In an archetypal quest, the main character goes on a long and painful voyage, and conquers all fears in order to achieve the goal at the end. Literature describes quests in a slightly different way. Thomas Foster’s “How To Read Literature Like a Professor” describes how a quest has five general parts: a place to go, a person to go there, a reason to go there, challenges along the way, and a deeper meaning to the whole thing. John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” relates to Foster’s words. In the novella, George, the main character, is questing towards owning a farm with his mentally disabled friend, Lennie. The two men are a package deal. Lennie

Some people have to face difficult decisions in their life. In fact, some people have to make decisions between life and death. In John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are best friends and migrant workers during the Great Depression. Many characters face discrimination in the story including Lennie, Crooks, and Candy. Lennie is a tall guy who has a mental disability which makes it hard to distinguish between right and wrong. Crooks faces racism everyday, while Candy deals with ageism. On the other hand, Curley is a small man who is very intimidated by men bigger and stronger than him. George acts as Lennie’s caretaker and best friend. But, George realizes he has to make a life-changing decision when Curley threatens to hunt

For my book report I read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Of Mice and Men is a fiction book told in the third person. The story is set most likely in the early to mid 1900’s, and most of the story takes place on a ranch in California. The story’s language was out-of-date for our younger generation, and it helped determine the time period. This was an excellent story and in the following paragraphs I’ll talk about the protagonist and antagonist, extra characters, and a summary of 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.

Sometimes you make decisions that take other people into consideration, but a majority of the time you make choices without realizing it will affect other people. Situations like that happen a lot in “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. Throughout the book, the characters face many situations in which they have to make difficult choices. Most of the time the choices that the characters make create a snowball effect and turn into bigger problems. There are many instances throughout the book where this has happened.

Throughout the novella, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck’s use of motif reveals the theme that friendship is an important part to living a fulfilling life . Lennie has just run away due to the fear that he would no longer be able to tend the rabbits. He had this fear because he had just killed Curley’s wife and the young pup. So he ran away to the bushes that George had told him to go to in the case of an emergency. George was talking to Lennie even though he knew he had to kill him.

In John Steinbeck’s novel, of Mice and Men, there are a multitude of motifs that corresponded with the real life problems they were facing in that day. Reoccurring elements in this narrative include the predatory nature of human existence, corruption of women, loneliness and companionship, and the different kinds of strengths and weaknessses.

There is a high chance that Of Mice and Men is, to say the least, the most depressing look at the Depression ever written. However, quests are seldom ever easy, and questers nearly always draw the short straw. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a very clear demonstration of a quest as Thomas C. Foster describes them in How to Read Literature like a Professor. Each of the five elements is illustrated in the novel. Of Mice and Men is an example of a quest because there is a clear and obvious quester with a specific goal, a series of setbacks and endangerments that prevent this goal from happening, and a final realization made despite the original goal not being achieved.

The book Of Mice and Men, there are several themes. One of them are consisting of the strong vs weak. Of the many characters, protagonists and antagonists, Lennie and George are some of the most used in the book. Lennie and George are an example of strong vs weak. The strong are the people who strive and don’t give up just because of someone else. The weak are the people that live by the basics of life or just to get by. In some cases, George is the strong one while Lennie is the weaker one, but sometimes it’s vice versa.