Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck has a powerful setting that combines well with the tone of the story. The story setting takes place through the Great Depression, which left several people in vain for work and money. Tone is explained to be the attitudes that an author has towards a subject. From the beginning of the book readers become aware of the tone being sympathetic, realistic, and honest. Although Steinbeck shows sympathy for his characters, it doesn’t compel him to give the story a “happily ever after” ending. For example, George is a farmer with a good heart, but in the end he ends up shooting his best friend Lennie out of mercy. Steinbeck also contradicts poverty and minimal resources with friendship and dreams of having a better life. George and Lennie are traveling farmers searching for work, they don’t have a permanent home. However, they have a dream of owning their own farm and Lennie gets to tame the rabbits. This contradiction was an honest way that Steinbeck informed his readers that the American Dream was just a dream that never ended up coming true for some people during the Great Depression. This book was written in the style of naturalism which is at times portrayed to be a very daunting genre. Characters in naturalism are typically preyed upon their …show more content…
His disability doesn’t allow Lennie to comprehend the consequences of his actions. Lennie has a fascination of touching soft thins. This obsession led him to being accused of rape because he touched Curley’s wife’s dress. Steinbeck portrays him in a way that makes readers think he’s innocent however, we can’t be quick to judge. Lennie continued looking at Curley’s wife even after George told him to stop. Readers made their own assumption on the innocence of characters without the influence of Steinbeck. His approach made reading feel like we’re all one in the same, going through the hardships of
Lennie was mentally handicapped and he was not sure of what he had done when he accidentally killed Curley’s wife. This was much like the situation in Weed that was referred to in the beginning of the book. George had told about the time that Lennie had wanted to feel a dress that a woman was wearing. Lennie grabbed the dress and she started screaming. Lennie, out of fear, held on.
The unconscious acts of Lennie in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck lead to terrible incidents. Steinbeck exemplifies in the book how even good people can act in violent ways. John Steinbeck uses Lennie’s action of killing Curley’s wife to communicate to the audience how he isn’t killing her with malicious intent, but how he is a good person who acted violently. Curley’s wife is intrigued by Lennie and his infatuation with petting soft things. She giggled at him realizing how he was on the strange side, even so he seems harmless, and with his intentions he is.
This essay is about The book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. The story is about two men, George and Lennie, who get a new job at a ranch, and how they go about their lives there, taking place in the early 1900s. I think that the author was successful in making Lennie a sympathetic Character. One of my reasons is that he likes things that are soft, and he tries to pick them up whenever he finds them. For example, In the first chapter, Lennie found a dead mouse on the side of the road, and put it in his pocket.
We read Of Mice and Men in English class recently. The two main characters are George Milton and Lennie Small. Toward the end of the book, Lennie gets into trouble for murdering Curley’s wife; George did the proper thing and executed him. First, Lennie should have known that murder is an awful thing, even if he was mentally challenged.
Lennie has a very big attraction to soft things that he can pet; this gets him in trouble throughout his life. Many events in Of Mice and Men are foreshadowed such as Curley’s wife’s untimely death, the loss of the farm dream, and Lennie’s death. In the novel Lennie shows great interest in petting soft things, and it is also shown that Lennie normally kills the things he pets. However, Lennie and George were caught in a situation in Weed where Lennie grabbed onto a girls dress and this got him and George into serious trouble.
"And I get to tend the rabbits" (Steinbeck 105). Rabbits were what George and Lennie were talking about just moments before Lennie dies. George knew that this innocent idea of tending rabbits would calm Lennie down so his last thoughts would be something that brought him joy. By using the motif of rabbits Steinbeck shows how Lennie would have never been able to survive off that dream and how having innocent dreams can blind you from the real
In Chapter 5, Lennie commis two murders. He kills his puppy, and Curley 's wife. Yet somehow, John Seinbeck manaes to portray Lennie as the most innocent character in the book. Steinbeck leaves readers feeling sympathetic towards the "soft giant". He is able to accomplish this by depictin Lennie as a person ho has the mind of a child and does not know his own strength.
This relates to a quote from The Pearl by John Steinbeck that says,
Steinbeck intended for the character the reader will feel the most sympathy for is Lennie. The mental disabilities of Lennie, included with his overwhelming strength that he can’t control, makes you feel the most sympathy for him because he’s mostly unaware of the problems he causes and doesn’t comprehend the extreme consequences for his actions. Lennie’s mindset is that of a small child, innocent and curious, never out of anger or meanness, but the fact that he’s a man with beast-like strength is what causes the trouble for Lennie. Every bad action Lennie has committed has never came from a state of anger.
George describes Lennie honestly, but it shows the cruel side of humanity by pointing out Lennie’s weaknesses and his inability to fix them. Steinbeck’s tone sets up a very honest and cruel world that man lives in Steinbeck’s use of
Lennie never raped the girl, however he never got a chance to share his side of the story, because of his disability, and the circumstances of the situation were then assumed. Lennie wanted to pet the girls dress because it was soft. “ “Jus’ wanted to feel that girls dress-jus’ wanted to pet it like a mouse.” ” (10) This example is one of many that lead us to believe that Lennie was
John Steinbeck has a style of writing unparalleled in history and in the modern world. In the same way, his philosophies are also unparalleled, with his focus in socialism not extending to communism or abnegation of spiritualism. His ideal world is utopian, holding the dust bowl migrant at the same level as the yeoman farmer was held in Jeffersonian times. In The Grapes of Wrath Steinbeck Steinbeck, who posses impregnable technique, conveys his message of a group working tirelessly for the betterment of the community.
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the era of the Great Depression in the 1930’s is revealed through a simple story of ranch workers who hope to improve their lives. Migrant workers, George and Lennie, have a friendship that is based on trust and protection. The other workers lack the companionship and bond that these two men have. In the novel, the absence and presence of friendship is the motivation for the characters’ actions.
In the book of “Mice of Men” by John Steinbeck, it was evident from the start that Lennie could not possibly function in the harsh society that they lived in without George by his side to care for him. In the ending of the book, George ended up killing his best friend Lennie because of three justified reasons which are that Lennie had previously shown acts of violence, he ended Curley’s wife’s life which made it impossible for Lennie to rejoin civilization , and Lennie would have suffered worse at the hand of
From this, a new dream can be realized and the story can continue and start the cycle all over again. The central idea presented, man's unflinching commitment towards each other, is seen to be of thematic significance throughout John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men. In which Steinbeck uses migrant workers of The Great Depression to address loneliness, friendship and the importance of unity. The novel achieves this through the relationships between characters like Lennie,