John Steinbeck, author of Of Mice and Men, clearly and sharply creates his characters so that they can be interpreted - without surrendering individuality - as various archetypes. Steinbeck uses archetypes to enhance the fact that these characters do not belong in a normal society. On page 13, George says, “guys like us...are the loneliest guys in the world.” They move from ranch to ranch looking for jobs, but never “belong [to] no place.” A normal society contains people engaging with the trends and agreeing with the mainstream; contrarily, these characters are similar to outcasts. In addition to not fitting in with society, Crooks, Lennie, and Curley’s wife stand out since they all have become a specific archetype. Steinbeck describes his …show more content…
Lennie is an archetype of a wise fool, a person with a special ability; he is able to reveal either the best or worst in a person. Subordinate character Curley is known for being the boss’s son and for his hatred of “big guys.” This induces tension between the two men, foreshadowing a later conflict. Later, Lennie, smiling and laughing with a puppy, brings the worst out in Curley, who thinks that Lennie is laughing at him. Curley lashes out at Lennie smashing his nose inflicting pain. Lennie retaliates and injures Curley’s hand. This builds rage in Curley for Lennie; in other words, Lennie’s low intelligence brings out the worst in Curley. On the other hand, Lennie can also bring the best out in people. After Curley’s wife’s death, George admits that he knew that the dream ranch was not possible to achieve. He says to Candy that he got so used to telling Lennie that the dream ranch was achievable, that he got to “thinking maybe [it is].” Lennie brings the best out of George by giving him the hope that he lacked. It was the hope that Lennie gave George that motivated him to successfully complete a week of work. Lennie is the archetype of a wise fool, one who brings both the best and the worst out of
For Lennie’s archetype, his character represents innocence. In the story, Lennie is always in need to pet some kind of animal. His want of constant comfort from an animal is a childish quality for a grown man to have. This childish quality makes Lennie’s character have the innocence of a child no older than eight years old.
The humanity of the world has a wide variety of lessons and morals. The Book by John Steinbeck Of Mice And Men applies this with two characters Curly and George both demonstrating two very different things about society and humanity through George’s caregiver archetype and Curly’s archetype of the bully. Throughout the story, George the main protagonist cares for Lennie after he promised to look out and care for him through their uncertain adventure they end up at a ranch, and at the ranch, they meet Curly, a steel-headed individual who advocates rude and cruel behavior through yelling, stomping around, and fighting the characters of the book even if Curley is small and lacking compared to the others. In the book Of Mice and Men Steinbeck presents
In addition to not fitting in with society, Crooks, Lennie, and George stand out since they all have become a specific archetype. Steinbeck describes his character
In the Novel Of Mice and Men, there are many characters, all though not all fit in. In this book Lennie’s Mentally ill and he can’t communicate like the adult he is, Crooks is a black crippled men, and Curley’s wife is the wife of the boss is son. Lennie, Crooks, and Curley’s wife are outcast in the book “Of Mice and Men.” Lennies is an outcast in the book “Of Mice and Men,” first of all Lennie’s mentally ill and he is a social outcast.
Lennie's most atrocious crime is the death of Curley's wife. Curley is the ranch owner’s son. Oblivious to her demise, Curley's wife invites Lennie to touch her soft hair. Lennie, being obsessed with anything soft, eagerly pets her hair in a harsh manner. Curley’s wife screams at Lennie to let go of her hair, causing Lennie to cover her mouth in an effort to quiet her out of panic.
Lennie’s strength is almost superhuman, but as shown through his accidental killing of mice and the pup that Slim gifts him, he cannot control it. These accidental deaths are on a very small scale, George can help him get out of issues like these, but there is no way George can help Lennie if something really big happens. Curley is the ranch owner’s son, so he feels extremely entitled all of the time. One day, he comes into the bunkhouse looking for his wife, who always seems to be trying to get away from him, and searches the whole ranch before coming into the bunks a second time. The second time, Curley is angry.
In the novel, ¨Of Mice and Men,¨ the author, John Steinbeck, develops complex characters which opens the story up for interpretation. Steinbeck uses both direct and indirect characterization, which forces the reader to infer important traits about each characters. An example of a character is Crooks, a colored man working on a ranch during the Great Depression. Being the only black man on the ranch, Crooks is often looked down on as a stable bunk, and is not respected as the other men are. Because of this, Crooks is perceived as powerless.
He ran furiously out of the barn. Carlson said, “[he’ll] get [his] Luger,” and he ran out too. ``When Curley first met Lennie he immediately disliked him because how Lennie was bigger and stronger than Curley. But He was more enraged by the fact that Lennie was the reason that his wife died which caused Him wanting Lennie dead or experienced the worst type of pain. Even though because of his cognitive disability he doesn’t realize the harm that he is causing.
Sydney Votino Mrs. Daquelente English 2 12 May 2023 Formal Outline: Cause-and-Effect Essay Thesis: Lennie, Curley’s Wife, and Crooks are characters from John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men who struggles with mental issues, being used, and racism leading to broken dreams that negatively impacted their lives. Body Topic A: To begin, Lennie’s experience with mental issues ruined his dream and drastically changed his hopes for the future. Direct Quote
f Mice and Men Essay - Essays and Analysis Critical Context and Evaluation print Print document PDF list Cite link Link Of Mice and Men is one of the most widely assigned modern novels in high schools because of both its form and the issues that it raises. John Steinbeck’s reliance on dialogue, as opposed to contextual description, makes the work accessible to young readers, as does his use of foreshadowing and recurrent images. Equally important is the way in which he intertwines the themes of loneliness and friendship and gives dignity to those characters, especially Lennie and Crooks, who are clearly different from their peers. By focusing on a group of lonely drifters, Steinbeck highlights the perceived isolation and sense of “otherness”
The characters in “Of Mice and Men” have memorable personalities that we all can relate to due to their set archetypes. John Steinbeck uses these common and generalized in order to have the readers relate more to his characters. This allows the reader to experience the story and feelings of the characters much better and lets the reader to connect to the character’s feelings, or force the reader to form opinions that aligns with those of the main protagonist(s). In “Of Mice of Men”, readers are initially introduced to Curley’s Wife with words such as “tart”, and having “the eye”. Which, even if readers do not know what that means, it may be inferred through diction that she is overly flirty, or a “tramp”.
This triggers Lennie to react harshly by “bouncing” the pup too hard and killing the puppy onsight. Lennie becomes troubled with the situation because he remember that George will not let him tend the rabbits in their dream ranch, so he proceeds to hide the puppy in the hay when Curley’s unnamed wife shows up to the barn where he is located. Lennie is first estranged to Curley’s wife,but as time passes on they become close and give up information to each other. Curley’s wife expresses the pain she has felt when
Steinbeck uses Archetypes to represent various larger groups of people at that time in order to show how each group was discriminated. Lennie is symbolic of the “wise fool” archetype, being mentally inferior but being able to reveal the best and worst of others. Like when he was talking with crooks. Crooks scowled, but Lennie's disarming smile defeated
In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck illustrates a ranch in the 1930’s during the great depression where those who fit into mainstream society run the show, and those deemed “outcasts” are rendered useless. Steinbeck depicts characters with setbacks that diminish their value in the eyes of society, and contrasts them to characters that have no difficulties conforming to the norm. Crooks, being a black man isolated by his race, and Candy, a elderly man limited by his age and missing limb are examples of Steinbeck characters that experience hardships because of the differences. The poor treatment of Crooks and Candy by the other characters, and their chronic unhappiness in a place that doesn’t value them, comments on how
Characters George and Lennie share the unrealized dream to own a small farm. This does not happen because Lennie’s incompetence to listen to George and his compulsion to touch soft things. Candy’s dream of gaining something tangible after working hard is crushed when Lennie ruins the farm-plan by killing Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife wishes she was an actress away from the grasp of Curley and the ranch. This however, is foolish because as a child she was called a fantastic actor.