Thematic Issues In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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 George stand out since they all have become a specific archetype.

The author of one of the best selling novels including Of Mice and Men, the third child of Olive Hamilton and a hard working boy in the “Salad Bowl of the Nation”, John Steinbeck. Steinbeck was brought up in Salinas, California during the Great Depression. This might have influenced his setting for Of Mice and Men. As well as George and Lennie life as a farm worker, since Steinbeck also grew up in a farm setting.

Of Mice and Men was an excellent novel about two migrant workers traveling in Southern California, trying to make enough money to fulfill their dream of attaining their own plot of land. They have trouble accomplishing this goal when Lennie, the big and clueless on of the two, consistently makes mistakes, some of them being vital. The author, John Steinbeck, uses great techniques and literary devices that build up to the climax and resolution. Throughout the story, he describes how several characters all have/had dreams or goals, but none of them truly achieved those dreams. All of these literary devices, techniques, and the entire plot lead up to my thesis statement. Steinbeck uses dialogue and conflict to project his belief that dreams

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, there are many diverse characters. Every single character portrays a different aspect of the human nature. The naïve, the protector, the calm, the manipulative, the rage filled, the shunned, and the hopeful. Each character is dynamic in their own way. This is a small glimpse into what traits Steinbeck thinks the human race has, embodied into each of his characters’ personalities.

George from George Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” made the right decision of killing Lennie in the story, while other might disagree. George shot Lennie in the back of the head to save him from the suffering and humiliation from a mad and revengeful Curley. George did this not out of hate, but out of the love of their friendship. “George raised the gun and his hand shook, and he dropped his hand to the ground again” (Steinbeck). George is struggling to come to terms that he is going to shoot his best friend. Continuing on the point, another reason that it was good for George to be the one that would slain Lennie is because he was dangerous. Throughout the whole story Lennie proves with his actions he makes that he is a menace to society. “..And

A symbol is anything that represents a larger idea, especially a material object representing something compact. A symbol can also represent a theme or moral to the story. It gives the reader something deeper to think about, and find other possible connections to different characters or objects overall. The novella Of Mice and Men captures many deep connections and displays various themes for the reader to obtain. Steinbeck uses numerous symbols that grow into greater themes throughout the novella such as Curley’s wife, the bunkhouse, and Candy’s dog.

Have you ever had your grandma give you an ugly, itchy sweater that you knew you were never going to wear? Would it change your mind if you knew it meant something to her? The sweater could symbolize a special connection with grandma. Authors often use symbolism to show the readers characters stories. In Of Mice Of Men, I believe John Steinbeck’s greater message is that everyone has something that shows who they are and their story behind it. The author chose to focus on the dream and what it meant to the main characters.

The book Of Mice and Men is full of puzzling examples of the human condition, from Lennie and his mental disability to Curley only caring about his social appearance. With characters like these two, the book exploits the human condition that concerns circumstances life has given you. John Steinbeck brings to life what being a laborer in the American depression meant to the men and one woman who had enough personality to stand out. Steinbeck shows the human condition of men while they survive in the American depression.

Steinbeck shows that Lennie is facing his own problems through imagery. He makes efforts to correct his behavior because of his shared dream with George. He continues with killing small animals every time he pets them because of his size. Now he has killed a puppy and worried about what George will do. He doesn’t want

Archetypes are a manifestation of how our minds envision the roles of characters, these characters come in the form of the hero, villain, temptress, damsel, monster, and mentor. In the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, we follow the story of two men who struggle to pull through to survive horrible times, on their journey they come across other characters that fulfill the roles of the archetypes. The archetype in discussion is the villain archetype which is the evildoer of a story usually a person who commits a crime against society or against a couple of people. One character in particular that fills the archetype of the villain is Curley, he has an aura of evil that resonates from his attitude and his actions, which triggers people

John Steinbeck’s novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ published in the 1930’s employs carefully considered narrative techniques that effectively inject sympathy within the reader. The chain of events are foreshadowed through speech, Death and Lennie Small. Curlys Wife soon becomes the instrument who destroys the dream. Steinbeck demonstrates this through various techniques including of foreshadowing, realism, symbolism, circular structure, significance of the title and setting.

John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men highlights the adventures of two best friends that stimulate modern issues such as white males dominating the world. There are many themes in the book, but one that is the most eye catching is the theme of people with differences being ostracized by society. This theme of society ostracizing different people is shown through Lennie’s disability, and Crooks’ color of skin.

Anyway, this research will focus only on three aspects - conscience crisis, violence, and fate and destiny. These aspects will be discussed in three separate chapters under the umbrella of the selected novels of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men(1937) , The Grapes of Wrath(1939) , and The Pearl (1947) and Cormac McCarthy ’s Blood Meridian (1985) , No country for old men( 2005) , and The Road (2006) . The investigator has adopted the sociological methodology throughout the thesis. Furthermore , the second chapter - conscience crisis, will be divided into two parts ( man’s inhumanity to man and greed ).

In the novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck incorporates many thematic ideas into his text. He includes the ideas of dreams and reality, the nature of home, and he difference of right and wrong. He develops these ideas throughout the story.

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).