... and brusque man, who is the leader of the duo. The other half of the duo is Lennie Small, who is oversized, mentally challenged, physically powerful, and inclined to getting into serious trouble. In the novel there are multiple occurrences of repeating patterns and events. Steinbeck effectively uses cyclical patterns throughout his novel to thoughtfully portray its themes. In section four of the novel Steinbeck uses a cyclical pattern to depict feelings of hope and companionship. Section four begins with Crooks, a stable hand, rubbing liniment on his spine alone in his shack with no hope. Next, Lennie wanders into Crooks's and tells him about the protagonists' goals of purchasing a plot of land. Crooks's lack of hope is portrayed when he tells Lennie, "Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land" (Steinbeck 74). This quote marks the beginning of the cyclical cycle showing the reader that Crooks is hopeless. Then, Candy arrives explaining to Lennie and Crooks that buying land may actually be plausible. When Crooks becomes aware of this he has a sudden change of heart. This is the second step of this example of the cycle in which Crooks forms feelings of hope and companionship. Later, Curley's wife approaches the three men asking if they have seen her husband. Candy asks her to leave insisting the men want nothing to do with her, but she refuses. After further berating the men Curley's Wife becomes angry and says to Crooks, "I could get you strung up on a tree so...
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...answering, consider the connection between the novel's setting and the characters' vocations. Also, how does Steinbeck signal the importance of setting in his choice of place names? Though the novel is more famous for its characters than its setting, Of Mice and Men could not have been set elsewhere than in the rural Salinas valley of California. The problems of the novel are intimately tied to the rhythms and frustrations of the itinerant worker's life. Shifting from ranch to ranch, from one menial job to another, the Californian itinerant worker risked a life of meaningless labor - of pure, cynical sustenance. George and Lennie, with their dream of acquiring a farm, represent an attempt to stand against such perpetual loneliness. Even the name of the city near which the novel is set - Soledad, which is Spanish for "solitude" - resonates with this theme of loneliness. The title, Of Mice and Men, is an allusion to a Robert Burns poem. How is this allusion meaningful in the novel? Consider some similarities and differences between Burns and Steinbeck's works. Robert Burns' poem, "To a Mouse," is the source of the famous quotation: "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men / Gang aft agley" ("often go awry"). And, indeed, Of Mice and Men features two men with a scheme - to escape their lives of menial, temporary employment - that goes awry. Beyond this simple plot similarity, the two works both consider the relationship between the human and animal worlds. Burns...
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...George Milton and Lennie Small, walking to a nearby ranch where harvesting jobs are available. George, the smaller man, leads the way and makes the decisions for Lennie, a mentally handicapped giant. They stop at a stream for the evening, deciding to go to the ranch in the morning. Lennie, who loves to pet anything soft, has a dead mouse in his pocket. George takes the mouse away from Lennie and reminds him of the trouble Lennie got into in the last town they were in — he touched a girl's soft dress. George then reminds Lennie not to speak to anyone in the morning when they get to the ranch and cautions Lennie to return to this place by the river if anything bad happens at the ranch. When he has to take the dead mouse away from Lennie a second time, George chafes at the hardship of taking care of Lennie. After calming his anger, George relents and promises Lennie they will try to find him a puppy; then he tells Lennie about their dream of having a little farm where they can be their own boss and nobody can tell them what to do, where Lennie will tend their rabbits, and where they will "live off the fatta the lan'." Lennie has heard this story so often he can repeat it by heart. And George emphasizes that this dream and their relationship make them different from other guys who don't have anyone or a place of their own. They settle down and sleep for the night. The next morning at the ranch, the boss becomes suspicious when George answers all the questions and Lennie does not talk...
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...For starters, it is directly said that Lennie is dog-like; loyal, obedient, and less intelligent than a human. “Slowly, like a terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again.” (Steinbeck 5). That quote was discussing the dead mouse that Lennie didn’t want to give up to George. Although short, it makes a key point in the book by almost directly comparing Lennie to the sheepdog. Just as Candy would speak in defense of the dog that followed him, as did George with the man who followed him. Just as the dog held no real usefulness to Candy except companionship, it was the same to George, who constantly had to travel because Lennie kept causing trouble. As discussed in the previous paragraph, Lennie was seen useless to the ranchers because of his lack of intelligence; the final nail in the coffin being that he killed Curley’s wife. The death of Curley’s wife and the “stink” that bothered the ranchers could be compared. Both annoyed the ranchers to the point where they wanted to kill the source of...
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...consciously crafted language in order to depict the harsh discrimination in that specific era. Racism and gender divide is a prominent problem, and this is displayed through the use of his characters; Crooks, a segregated, crippled African- American and Curleys wife, a faceless female objectified by many a man. The readership can visualise the extent of this problem due to the apparent language, which is used to illuminate the less obvious emotions, hidden away by the hard exterior of each character. Curley’s wife is initially introduced as a ‘girl’. The authorship used this de-grading word show highlight that during that era women were not valued in society. They were seen as weak, as well as naïve. The readership can sense the sensitivity in the marginalisation. Even before she has entered a room, negative de-valuing thoughts are passed around, such as “rat trap” and “jail bait”. Which influences other judgements. George and Lennie are told to stay away from her before they have even become acquainted. Curleys wife, knows she is not respected, she realises that she is small and insignificant. However she wishes to overcome the metaphorical chains that bound her self-worth to Curley’s belief that she belongs to him. Hence ‘Curley’s Wife’. This is apparent when we are presented with a “…heavily made up” woman. The word ‘heavily’ suggests that she is attempting to be noticed and again develop her own person, without being linked to Curley. Nevertheless, because she is described in an undesirable...
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...introduce his two key characters. The land is described with poetic imagery of “golden foothill slopes” where “sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool”. This description lends contextual evidence of the Californian landscape and lives up to the naming of Soledad, which is a translation to loneliness, a large aspect during the Great Depression. The unspoilt scenery of purity and perfection is “beaten hard by tramps” when man decides to enter. This setting is particularly poignant as it foreshadows the events later in the novel. As George and Lennie are introduced, their characteristics contrast greatly with George being the “small, wiry, quit-witted man” and Lennie being continuously described with animalistic features and a “large, lumbering, childlike migrant worker”. The two are characterised by their differences, but more importantly their similarities. Hollow and staged threats...
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...How does Steinbeck use the opening setting to engage the reader? ‘Of Mice and Men’ was published in 1937 and was written by John Steinbeck. He drew some of his ideas from his work experiences (manual and unskilled) whilst supporting himself through college. His circular novella follows the lives of George Milton and Lennie Small who were two itinerant workers searching for jobs during the ‘Great American Depression’ of the 1930’s. Life was very hard during this time so people had to find work where they could, however low paid. It considers their relationship with both each other and the people they meet at the ranch. It is set over a time period of 4 days and has several different themes running through it. As the novella progresses the reader learns the significance of earlier events and gradually the novella moves towards the tragic ending. The first two pages that Steinbeck has written, transports you to the place where you are first introduced to George and Lennie. It creates a clear image in your mind of the surrounding countryside and its beauty. The opening pages of all books and plays need to engage the reader almost immediately if the reader is to continue. So does this vivid description and the emergence of two unidentified men ensure your want to read further and understand why they are there? By looking more in depth at this opening to the novella we should see how Steinbeck succeeds in engaging the reader. In the first line of the novella, the author writes...
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