...Over the course of the novel Of Mice and Men, the motif of dreams is heavily developed. There are several dreams shown in the book, such as the obvious dream of George and Lennie going to the farm, and living off of the land. However, there are also some less apparent dreams, including Curley’s wife dream of becoming a movie star, or Candy’s dream of being accepted, working on the farm. The purpose of these dreams is simple, to give the characters something to strive for, and to provide hope of a better life, during a time when many people had nothing. The dream of the farm is shown most often through Lennie and George, as they discuss it the most. Throughout the entire novel, George tells Lennie about the farm, giving Lennie optimism for...
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...ohn Steinbeck presents the relationship between George and Lennie by using different techniques and devices in the first chapter. Their relationship is shown in different ways through âOf Mice and Menâ, and is such, that George is protective and makes decisions to prevent Lennie coming to harm. Also, Steinbeckâs presentation of relationship between the two men changes through the novella as they attempt to fulfil their dream-The American Dream. The first paragraph focussing on the two men (page 4) describes as one being a leader, and the other a follower. âThey had walked single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other.â Immediately, Steinbeck portrays the essence of George and Lennieâs relationship through the quote, that this relationship had a hierarchy; it was a leader and follower relationship, with one guiding the other. In the quote, one of the main words is âsingle fileâ, which suggests that George and Lennie are both children, because a group of children normally walk in a single file line. Furthermore, children always have dreams, which George and Lennie have-The American Dream, which is ironic because they are built and strong men acting like children. Another word which is important in the quotation is âopenâ, because we can infer from that word that Lennie chooses to walk behind George instead of beside, even though he has the choice. This can be because Lennie takes George to be the carer or the person who will guide Lennie to their...
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...The Teachings of John Steinbeck, Through the Novel Of Mice and Men During the 19th and 20th century, modernism was introduced. Modernism was a movement that sought to break ties with the classical and traditional ways of life. Many Authors during this time moved away from the American lifestyle and even the country. John Steinbeck was no exception to this movement. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the author uses a simplistic writing style to present the two characters “American Dreams”, while also using symbolism to connect the reader to the characters and the plot of the story. Throughout the book there are many symbols, and each symbol has a story to be told and a lesson to be learned. Candy’s dog for example, represents everyone who...
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...How does Steinbeck explore dreams? Of Mice and Men is set in the 1930’s in America. This was during the Great Depression. During this time, the vast majority of Americans lost almost everything they had up to the point that all they had left was their dreams and Steinbeck truly tries to convey this in the book. The book is mainly comprised of ranch hands and itinerant workers. To be an itinerant worker was to live a lonely life in isolation from the rest of the world. Again, all they have is their dreams. The isolation that each worker experiences, encourages individual dreams and Steinbeck show how, for a time at least, the American dream disappeared and this is typified when Slim makes a solemn remark, “Ain’t many guys who travel together. Maybe ever’body in the world is just scared of each other”. To fully understand how shattering that remark is you have to look back to the time before the Depression. There was prosperity. Anything was possible. America was seen as a land of opportunity and so was born the American Dream. The American Dream was a collective dream not only shared by Americans, but by people all around the world who saw America as a clean slate. By the time ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published, this was gone. Steinbeck shows this in the novel especially when he allows the reader to have their own insight into each characters individual dreams. This was intentional by Steinbeck as he was obviously trying to demonstrate how people are changed by the times that...
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...Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is the American dream and the drive to attain it. The life of a ranch hand is grim, yet the characters in the novel are still vulnerable to dreams of a better life. The dream of owning land, called the American dream by some, is what motivates George and Lennie in their work on the ranch. It is their friendship that sustains this dream and makes it possible. While the dreams are credible to the reader, in the end all dreams are crushed, and the characters are defeated by their circumstances. The characters in Of Mice and Men have very little to look forward to as migrant ranch hands. They travel from ranch to ranch with all of their possessions in a bundle, looking for work for fifty dollars a month, and that work does not usually last very long. If a man is a good worker, he might be kept on at the ranch indefinitely and wind up as Candy does, old and crippled, just waiting until he is no longer useful. George explains the despair of a ranch hand to Lennie: Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead to. (Steinbeck 13-14) Despite their destitute state, many of the characters in Of Mice and Men are prone to dream. George and Lennie dream of owning...
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...male population at this point in time ignorantly viewed women as, innocent people, seemingly unaware that women had the same feelings and emotions as themselves. In the literature studied women are portrayed in a more dominant and powerful people. For instance Lady Macbeth would not be your typical Elizabethan woman. Steinbeck`s Of Mice And Men was influenced by its social, historical and cultural context. `all the main characters in Of Mice And Men and men acknowledge, at one point or another, to envisaging a different and better life. Before her death, Curley`s wife confesses her desire to be in the movies. However, Steinbeck`s view of the harsh reality of 1930s America is alluded to before the story begins: circumstances have robbed most of the characters of these dreams before they could become reality. Curley`s wife for instance, has resigned to being married to someone she doesn’t love. What makes all of these dreams typically American is that the dreamers wish for perfect happiness. Steinbeck presents Curley`s wife in many different ways throughout the text. Overall, we should consider how Steinbeck wants us to perceive her. We can begin by exploring how the author first introduces the character of Curley`s wife, the perspective of other characters. For example, before we meet her, Candy tells George that he has seen her `give slim the eye` and she`s a `tart` (p. 49-50) Her physical appearance shows the negative imagery created by candy. Furthermore, her first appearance...
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...Professor Gordon ENC 1102 TTH 830 am 19 November 2009 Research Paper Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck the author of the novel, Of Mice and Men, wrote a story about two migrant workers and their dream of one day owning their own piece of land (Bloom). George Milton and Lennie Small are the two main characters that travel together in search for work. The story took place in California, during the Great Depression, a time in history where everyone suffered from the economical problems and hardship. It was a hard era to live in, there was an extremely high unemployment rate, no one had a steady job and people had to adapt to a new living style. John Steinbeck was present at this time and had a firsthand experience working on a ranch (Leaf). He wrote about the American dream every human being wanted; through the characters of George and Lennie, who both dreamt for the same future, in owning their own land and working for no one else. These two characters are both similar in the sense of wanting the same thing, yet are completely different. Also, Steinbeck included a character, Curly, who lives every American dream and displays how he is. I am going to characterization these three major characters and show their part in the novel. The story begins with two different, thus alike men who are each other’s companion. George and Lennie are both men who work on ranches for money and do not have family, thus they both have a common future. They are both hard workers and optimistic for...
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...Explore the Significance of Curley's Wife in 'Of Mice and Men' How is Curley's Wife presented in 'Of Mice and Men'? The novel is a microcosm, a cross section of society reflecting the prejudice. Blacks had no rights in America; they were seen as ‘nobody’s. Women too had very few rights. The itinerant workers ended to be loners. All these people were forced into loneliness and isolation; they each had a dream in hope of a better life often referred to at the time as ‘The American Dream’. Central to Steinbeck’s novel is Curley’s Wife and her importance in the novel is of how she revolves around the novels main themes and events. Curley’s Wife is excluded for being female, she is often found in search for companionship on the ranch as her newly found marriage does not give her the affection she desires, as she states to Lennie “I don’t like Curley he aint a nice fella.” Because of this she often tries to interact with the other men although she is never allowed as they think a “ranch aint no place for a girl.” Carlson also states of how a “women should be at home where she belongs.” The fact that she is excluded from a place of physical work is indicative of how women were portrayed during the 1930’s. They were not expected to do work, but instead stay at home and raise a family. Curley’ wife feels insecure because of the loneliness she feels and it is made clear she is frustrated with this situation, “none of them care how I gotta live.” Throughout the novel as similar...
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...Explore the way the writer presents the relationship between George and Lennie in “Of Mice and Men” Of Mice and Men was written in the 1937 by John Steinbeck, he other well know books as the Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden, h also received a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. This book is set in the 1930s and set in California, his home region. During this time, the USA was suffering from a great depression, this meant that it was hard to find job because the economy was very weak, so to find job the men were disposed to go anywhere and the bosses would exploit their workers. The itinerant ranch workers where very lonely people because they had to move from place to place and tis meant that they could set up a stable life with a wife and children. Another reason that suggests to us that they are lonely is that at the end of each month they take their money and they go to “cat house”. The character of George and Lennie are very unusual and contrasting, this is because they have a strong relationship between them and they also have a dream, a dream of buying a house and some land to become independent and to life together for the rest of their lives. But the reader knows from the beginning that this will not happen and it will have a tragic end, and this is suggested in the title “Of Mice and Men” that comes from a from Robert Burns poem “The best laid schemes o’mice an’ men/ Gang aft agley” and it means: the best laid schemes of mice and men/ often go awry. As soon as the...
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...John Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men reveals that everyone has dreams in their lives; however, their setting-driven actions or disabilities make these dreams impossible. The theme of violence heavily impacts the story, to the extent that nearly every character shows violence, or has violence shown to them. While this violence in large part attributes itself to the aggressive setting, some character’s aspirations become unlikely due to matters out of their control, such as gender, race, and mental or physical disabilities. These variables can make or break the character's hopes and dreams. Acts of violence shown by the main characters, the farmhands’ desensitized views of violence, and various character’s social or physical handicaps...
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...English: GCSE Controlled Assessment – Of Mice and Men Heroes and Villains: Explore the ways Sympathy and/or Dislike of a character is created in Of Mice and Men. Even before plunging into profound depths of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, it is unequivocal that the novel is a microcosm of American life in the 1930s. As a result of the Great Depression, the setting is abundant with hardships which immensely mould the reader’s ambivalent feelings towards the most dominant female character in this book: Curley’s Wife. Steinbeck’s depiction of this flirtacious but “lonely” temptress has the reader leaping from heartbreaking sympathy to nurturing an intense abhorrence for Curley’s Wife. In the very first few moments that the novel introduces Curley’s Wife, she is immediatley condemned to the reader’s dislike because the author depicts her character as a threat to not just George and Lennie, but their aspirations to “live off the fatta the land”. The author intends to establish Curley’s Wife by labelling her to be an ominous threat from the very beginning as “the rectangle of sunshine was cut off” by her mere first appearance. Steinbeck’s particular use of the word “sunshine” is symbolic of hope which is derived from the main theme in this novel – the American Dream, or rather a paradise that has resulted in false hope flourishing in their hearts. This is in correlation to the “sunshine” which is evidently referring to George and Lennie’s vision of owning a farm. Furthermore, the...
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...careful planning and precision, fate will be a leading factor of one’s outcome despite hard work and effort in John Steinbeck’s, Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck’s use of extended metaphors displays fate as unpredictable and unavoidable despite careful planning and work. “Heron stood...motionless, and waiting” (Steinbeck 99), revealing fate as patient and unpredictable, but is also inescapable, never truly escaping from the “legs of the motionless heron” (Steinbeck 99). Steinbeck’s use of extended metaphors writes down the relationship between Lennie and the water snake and fate and the Heron. The heron symbolizes fate as powerful and inevitable, only having one path in which it takes. The bird simply attacks with no hesitation, just...
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...John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men This scene in Of Mice and Men is made extra tense by the author, John Steinbeck, by a mixture of linguistic devices, description and speech. Curley’s wife is introduced in this scene and it starts by describing her. In the novel “Of Mice and Men” John Steinbeck tells a story of dreams, hopes and loneliness. We are introduced to a majorly significant and complex character, Curley’s wife. Steinbeck shows us that Curley’s wife is flirtatious, mischievous but most of all an isolated character. She plays a main part in the novel; in doing this she displays and presents many of the main themes. Before we are presented to Curley’s wife, Candy talks about her, to George and Lennie. She is spoken about in a gossipy manor. “I think Curley’s married a … tart.” Steinbeck is prejudicing and preparing us before we meet Curley’s wife. He does this, so that we have an influenced preliminary impression of Curley’s wife and the way she acts. Steinbeck creates tension in this scene as, at the start, he builds up a stark image in our mind about how Curley’s wife looks. He also makes it very clear to us what both George and Lenny are thinking. Lenny is dazzled by Curley’s wife’s beauty whereas George is more wary of her and knows better than to chat with her too long. We develop an initial perception of Curley’s wife as being flirtatious and promiscuous. This is shown at the entrance of Curley’s wife’s. Steinbeck first introduces us to her appearance, “full...
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...‘How does Steinbeck present the character of crooks?’ John Steinbeck uses the character of Crooks to create the image of racism and symbolise the marginalization of black people at the time the book was set in. Steinbeck first introduces Crooks when Candy calls him a “nigger,” this term was acceptable during the 1930’s in the great depression. Crooks is seen as an animal by the other people on the ranch at the start of chapter 4. Steinbeck says “crooks, the negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn” this shows that he is treated no better than an animal by the people on the ranch as he is black this is because a few years before black people where seen a slaves. Crooks got his nickname form the people who work on the ranch because of his crooked back. This shows that he is being discriminated against because he is different from the others in the ranch. Crooks also gives the image of loneliness and need for company form a human and the reality of that many black people thought that they wouldn’t get their American dream. He shows this in page 99 Steinbeck writes “ he had books too; a tattered dictionary and a mauled copy of the California civil code for 1905” the word ‘mauled’ symbolised that he may have gotten mad that he thinks that he won’t get his dream. Also the book he has is from 1905 which considering the date that this was set in it looks like he had been wanting this job for a long time and the fact that...
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...Which significant Cultural Issues evolve during the course of the novel? Give Specific Reference to the themes present in the text. "Of mice and men", by John Steinbeck is a classic novella with containing pages filled with awe-inspiring literature, that has brought smiles as well as tears to all of its readers. There are several cultural issues that Steinbeck incorporates into this text, using effective techniques and a very articulate writing style to make this novella one to be remembered long after the final pages have been read. The main cultural issues that evolve through the course of the novel include racism, alienation and the constantly evolving issue of hope. The main cultural issue that evolve during the course of the novella is discrimination and prejudice. There are three main people in the novella who are discriminated against in this text. They include Curley's wife, Lennie and Crooks. Crooks is an American African and because of his skin colour he is constantly discriminated against throughout the novella. As Lennie enters Cooks' room for the first time, he becomes very defensive as he says, "You got no right to come in my room. This here is my room. Nobody got any right in here but me". Lennie, as innocent as he is, does not know about racism and does not, through the entire novella understand or use racism against Crooks. Lennie, who does not know of racism, "smiled at helplessly in an attempt to make friends". Crooks realises that Lennie is mentally...
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