To a Mouse Text Based Response
How can someone be compared to a mouse? They may not look like a mouse but they can reflect it through their actions. The main characters in “Of Mice and Men” and “To a Mouse” can relate to one another in the same way. In “Of Mice and Men”, George can be compared to the farmer in “To a Mouse” because of the metaphorical similarity. Likewise, Lennie can be compared to the little mouse. Now although Lennie may not be the size of a mouse, he represents the viewpoint of the mouse. In similarity to this, George’s viewpoint represents the farmers. The following paragraphs will show how this metaphorical relation was applied.
Like the mouse, Lennie can be seen as “helpless”. When a person thinks of a mouse, they
…show more content…
In the poem “To a Mouse”, the farmer goes on about the life of the mouse. His point of view about the mouse changes throughout the poem. One example is how the farmer’s opinion represents one of both resentment and pity. If we turn our attention to George, it can be seen how this can relate to George’s opinion on Lennie. In “Of Mice and Men”, George says, “God, you're a lot of trouble... I could get along so easy and so nice if I didn't have you [Lennie] on my tail”. George resents his current circumstance because he is limited. He wishes he could live a normal life, but he cannot, being that he must lookout for Lennie. Be as it may, George pities Lennie too. For example, in “To a Mouse”, the farmer describes the harshness of the winter. The cold winter can represent the world, more specifically, the people in it. Some truly do not understand Lennie’s condition, such as when he tried to touch the girl’s dress. Life can be harsh for the “helpless” and in this case, George and the farmer both know this. However, towards the end of the poem “To a Mouse”, the farmer becomes jealous of the mouse. The reason for this can be found in the very last stanza, “Still you are blessed, compared with me! The present only touches you”. The mouse doesn’t have constantly worry about what’s to come, which can be likened to Lennie’s case because of his childlike behavior. For someone facing the stressful conditions of the setting in “Of Mice and Men”, it can be seen
“Of Mice and Men” is a book written by John Steinbeck about George and Lennie who after running from their previous job on a farm because of a mistake; end up working on another farm to make money for their dream of buying land and running their farm. Throughout their time working George meets new people and interacts with them such as he is to be considered as a good friend. The author uses these interactions to portray George’s characteristics and show him as a good friend. One occurrence when George is shown to be a good friend is when he comforts Lennie before they are about to eat. In chapter 1 George and Lennie are in an unfamiliar place and Lennie asks George to tell him “about the rabbits” so George does to comfort Lennie.
Many characters in the short story Of Mice and Men meet an untimely demise for reasons that were never expected. Characters in the story that met such a fate include Candy’s dog, Curley’s wife, Lennie’s puppy, and Lennie himself. These deaths and the events that lead up to them bear a certain resemblance to each other. Some of these deaths are not directly related to others, but instead use symbolism to convey the idea that many characters in the story have similar characteristics, so despite their obvious differences, the characters in the story often relate to one another in multiple ways. By using a metaphorical method of writing, John Steinbeck is able to show the reader that some characters, though physically opposite, can be very similar
In John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men”, Lennie and George travel together to work. They discuss the trouble they experience with Lennie's touching things he shouldn't and how that forces them to run, hide, and constantly search for work. Throughout the book, Steinbeck gives just a small picture of all the trouble Lennie has caused and how George continues to guide him to get by. A problem with a girl leads us to chapter 1 and 6, and how they share in setting, but George and Lennie's interactions differ. The similarities and differences of chapter 1 and 6 show how Lennie and George's cohesive friendship with a bright future develops into a loving bond that had to end.
“‘No, Lennie, I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want you to know,’” were among the last words George Milton would utter to Lennie Small before breaking the bond that the two shared with a single bullet. All throughout the course of “Of Mice and Men,” the reader is able to learn of the two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, along with their exploits before arriving at the small Californian ranch, moreover they experience the relationship between the two new hires with the rest of the ranchers, and each other.
Lennie’s inability to see the effects of his actions makes him unable to achieve his aspirations. In of Mice and Men Steinbeck illustrates how no matter the situation of each character, they’re unable to achieve their dreams even with good intentions, and the outcomes of their actions contradict them. Lennie dwells on the dream of the farm, he yearns for the day that he and
Steinbeck alluded the title to foreshadow the event in which George and Lennie’s plans go askew and they will never get their own land. One line from the poem “Small, sleek cowering, timorous beast, O, what a panic is in your breast” could be compared to George in a way. Towards the end of the book Lennie kills someone and George panics because he knows his future, or his house compared to To a Mouse, is destroyed if he doesn’t do something. Steinbeck uses allusion from To a Mouse in the title of the book and lines from the poem to foreshadow the events in which George’s and Lennie’s plans go askew and they will never get their farm
As previously mentioned, the portrayal of George is through his strengths, but as Steinbeck sinks deeper into the story, his flaws start to appear, leading to the climax. Steinbeck begins every chapter with descriptive and vivid diction to set the scene, one that will become blemished by the contrast of the continued story. One could compare George to a mouse, just as the title of the novella, Of Mice and Men. A mouse, compared to Man, retains innocence, just as George is at the novella's beginning. He notices Lennie is not improving because of his continuous errors, causing them to flee and find another job.
There are striking similarities between the types of violence humans inflict in Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men and Robert Burns’ poem "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”. In the poem, Burns narrates a situation where, while plowing, accidentally destroys a mouse’s home for the winter. So even though he was unintentional in the causing of distress, it still happened. This situation draws parallels to Lennie inadvertently making George’s life hard and hurting those around him in Of Mice and Men.
When seeking contrast between two different pieces of literature the themes can be used to find a shared message in the writing. “Of mice and men” by John Steinbeck and “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns share a theme of longing for a better life. In “Of Mice and Men”, the characters have a vision of the perfect life; it’s this vision that makes their misfortune so heartbreaking. In Robert Burns’ poem, his tone of envy towards a life without worry shows us he to has a vision of a perfect life: A life of
No matter if a mouse or a man their dreams and whims can fail or go askew. John Steinbeck is a famous writer that wrote a book called, Of Mice and Men, and in this book it showed how people's dreams don't always go their way. In John Steinbeck's book, Of Mice and Men, he uses a lot of foreshadowing to allow the readers to predict what was going to happen next to the main characters Lennie and George. In the book Lennie was a mentally handicapped man and George was his friend that had to take Lennie after his aunt died. They live in California during the 1930’s which was the time of the Great Depression, while they are working on a ranch and struggling to remain with their jobs.
The book, Of mice and men, was made by the author Steinbeck. In the book it shows how two long term close friends try to find work, but it is very difficult for them. As they were doing well at the job they are at, they are forced from the job because of a horrible accident. In of mice and men, the author uses foreshadowing in when they are running away from the people, when lennie like to touch nice things, and how lennie reacts when he is hurt to achieve that lennie will make a mistake, and have to be brought down.
By giving Lennie these childish and animalistic qualities, Steinbeck is illustrating how his immaturity causes him to get into trouble and distances him from the other workers. Although, through all of Lennie’s mistakes, George stays with him because he needs his companionship as much as Lennie does as it brings them both hope and strength in their desperate situations as migrant workers during the
In Of Mice and Men, George demonstrates that you can be friends with who ever you want which can make unique friendship and being open minded, because he has a friend that has trouble controlling himself, but George still continued to help him and stay beside him. The story takes back in the day during the American great depression and people struggles to live in America. The two main characters in the story are George who is the sharp eyed hard worker and Lennie who is handicapped and has bad control of himself. George and Lennie are searching for work and Lennie who happens to cause trouble for George which gets in George’s way a lot and because of Lennie they had to leave the town, because they were interviewing job with the manager
However, the way in which Steinbeck implements this “colorful language” is key to understanding why he used it at all. Ordinarily, an author would describe a character by their physical human traits rather than accentuating animal-like characteristics, which is how Steinbeck depicts Lennie. As a result of the utilization of Lennie’s animal-like depiction, Steinbeck subliminally dehumanizes Lennie in the reader's mind and justifies the death of animals at the hands of their masters. Ultimately, in Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck dehumanizes Lennie to the reader through the use of animal imagery, in order to allow the reader to justify Lennie’s death at the hands of his best friend, George as a warranted act of
The novel, Of Mice and Men, has several characters in it that I have noticed have similar characters as myself. These characters that I will write about are Lennie, George, and Slim. These characters are very important to the plot and are very important to me as well. Lennie has similar qualities to me because he is always trying to please his friends. Other similar qualities he has is being a good worker and follower.