Essay On Friendship In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men/ gang aft agley,” (Burns 38). This precise verse from the poem “To a Mouse” inspired John Steinbeck to compose the widely-known novel Of Mice and Men. This book depicts the story of a clever man named George and his faithful yet mentally disabled companion, Lennie, working on a Californian ranch during the Great Depression. The two have an American Dream of owning their own farm, but this is all shattered when Lennie unintentionally murders the boss’ daughter-in-law. In order to protect his closest friend from a most terrible and cruel death sentenced to him by society, George shoots Lennie humanely.

“The best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew.” This was from Robert Burns’ poem, “To a Mouse.” John Steinbeck used this quotation as the title of his book, Of Mice and Men. As in the poem, human being’s plans also do not always go as intended. Even in this title, Steinbeck is already foreshadowing what will happen in the story.

TS In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, one of the main characters, George, faces a difficult situation when his best friend, Lennie, murders the wife of another character, Curley. S George must make a significant decision to either let Lennie continue to live and allow him to suffer through Curley’s vengeance, or to prematurely end Lennie’s life, and thus save him from endless torture at the hand of an enemy. George feels responsible for Lennie because of his promise to Aunt Clara to take care of him. Shooting Lennie was George’s way of protecting him.

He life has so far been trying to keep a steady job while caring and looking after Lennie, who easily gets them kicked out of almost every place they go to. “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither,”(Steinbeck 8). George honestly knew he would be better off without Lennie. But because of Lennie’s aunt, he would keep him safe even if a town was after him. Multiple times he has saved Lennie from others who misinterpreted him for a fool or a creep, when really they acted on impulse than understand the situation at

In the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’, Steinbeck introduces us to a character named ‘Crooks’. He is not shown as a main character of the story, but is given much light in section 4, especially in this extract. Steinceck presents the character of Crooks in order to represent the racial attitudes towards black people at the time of the Great Depression and to show us the negative stereotypes of black people in an American society in the 1930s. At the beginning of Chapter 4, Steinbeck gives careful detail of Crooks’ room when he writes, “a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung”.

He even acknowledges that “one may smile...and be a villain” but he does not even begin to consider that the statement could apply to the ghost before him (1.5, 109). In fact, he simply uses what the ghost has told him in order to strengthen his belief in the villainy of his uncle. It doesn’t occur to Hamlet, despite his friends’ various warnings, that the ghost could potentially not be his father. It doesn’t matter to him that, once alone with it, the ghost could “assume some other horrible form,/which might deprive [his] sovereignty of reason” (1.4, 72-3). Hamlet wants to see his father and so he sees him.

Douglass begins his narrative with the analogy, “Slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs (pg. 1).” This analogy is saying that slaves know nothing of their age, which is a basic fact that most people can recall instantly. Also, by using this specific analogy, Douglass is demonstrating how slavery is dehumanizing for blacks by bringing slaves down to the level of a barn animal. White readers at the time would have never known personally what it as like to be treated similarly to an animal, but many were aware that animals were pieces of property, not something that you saw as an equal to a person. By comparing a slave to an animal, white Northerners who had little exposure to slavery could now see how the institution of slavery degraded slaves from the status of a human to that of a piece of expendable property.

When I finished reading the excerpt about the life of Frederick Douglass, I learned more about the roughness and hardships of his life and story. Had I not read this excerpt, I wouldn 't know the beginning of his life story and many of the reasons he wanted to become and abolitionist. Sometimes Douglass wished to be animals, so that he could escape the world of thinking. This was a very rough life for a young boy to become a slave and grow up as one. When sold into slavery, Frederick was not very old.

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.” - Alice Walker In Chapter 4 of Of Mice and Men race and gender are depicted in different ways symbolizing different character behaviors.

Making a sacrifice to a healthy friendship Of Mice and Men is a story written by John Steinbeck, a story about two men named George and Lennie. In the story George and Lennie have been kicked out of the town Weed because of an incident that happened to Lennie in weed Ultimately, George stays with Lennie through thick and thin while on the ranch miles ahead from Weed. Lennie appears to have trouble there on the ranch he kills the boss's son’s wife and kills a puppy that was given to him. Friendship is extremely important in the novel because in John Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men he uses the struggles of friendship to illustrate the difficulties for the migrant workers' survival during the 1930’s. George is a character that display friendship by caring for Lennie in the book Of Mice and Men.

After killing Lennie, George is stiff and numb, and Slim, a farmhand, decides to take him for a drink. Of Mice and Men should be read in schools and be available in libraries, not banned from people’s access. The sympathetic characters, compelling plot, and a strong companionship that runs throughout the book are all positive aspects of keeping this book available to read. Throughout their journeys, Lennie and George hoped that they could acquire a small farm, and this hope brought them through many difficult times together.

“‘I didn’t mean to scare you. He’ll come back. I was talking about myself”’(Steinback 72) Even though everyone doesn’t care about Crooks, because of his skin color and in this quote he told Lennie that he doesn’t even care about himself. Crooks tells Lennie to believe in himself and that George will be beside him at all cost.

Crooks is a character, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This man is portrayed as a crippled African-American stable buck that lives

In the autobiography Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass written Frederick Douglass in 1845, the main character, Frederick Douglass is an escaped black slave portraying his life, his story and aspects of who he was and what he has gone through. Frederick Douglass was a slave who ran away from his owner in search for freedom and liberty during the slave era in the United States. Frederick Douglass was born in Maryland in 1818, and into slavery. Frederick Douglass was an odd person in this time period and in this book, as most slaves were kept on their job sites and had little to no chance of escaping during this time. Frederick Douglass defies the odds and became a free black man, and escapes north to become an influence to others.

In the novel Of Mice & Men, by John Steinbeck, Lennie and George’s relationship is not the most quintessential friendship. Though in the first part of the story it is not said that Lennie has any social disabilities, you can pick up the characteristic. George has a way with words, which affects Lennieーbut only within that moment. Steinbeck portrays both these characters very vividly; although he does not just flat out make a list describing each man, he shows each personality and relationship they hold.