This story, “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, was written and set in the Great Depression, centering around two migrant workers, George and Lennie, in California who work on ranches. It details their work and dreams until tragedy strikes, which forever alters their lives, including their dream of owning a few acres of land with a shack, that they could call their own. The dream was shattered when Lennie would unintentionally kill Curley’s wife, and George was forced to kill Lennie in order to keep Lennie from a possible grisly death by a lynch mob assembled for Lennie’s blood. George, because of the circumstance outside of his own control, once again changes his outlook on life from hopeful and confident to suspicious and bitter to finally becoming morose and losing what little hope he had in life.
At the beginning of the novella, George’s outlook on life is bitter and he harbors deep suspicion towards other people due to his feelings of loneliness and feelings of alienation. When George and Lennie first arrive at the ranch’s bunkhouse, the boss conducts an impromptu “interview. Candy, the cleaner at the
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He starts the novel as a bitter man who harbors great suspicion towards other people; consequently, his bitterness was born from his feelings of loneliness and alienation. Near the middle of the novel, George is invigorated with a new and brief sense of hope and confidence for the future out of the realization that the dream is now within reach. Sadly, at the end of the novel his hope and confidence shatters with the tragedy, and he is left with feeling that he has no more reason or direction in his life. Throughout this novella, George’s sense of direction in life and confidence was based in the dream’s
George and Lennie were lifelong friends and had varying personalities even from the start. Lennie thought about how his Aunt Clara said he should have been more like George. At the time when the story took place, the two men were travelling together, and had been for some time, working and then moving on to search for the next job they could find. They were like many other men in search for work, except it was rare for men to travel together. George felt a need to take care of Lennie because he was somewhat slow. George was an average man of the time. He was a good size, nice, but firm, and he had aspirations to be more than just a nomadic laborer. Lennie, on the other hand, had always been a little different. He was big, goofy, clumsy, but sweet. They were also both good workers. George was concerned with working and getting his money before they got into trouble and had to leave camp. Lennie was the one who normally started the trouble. He was a hard worker and lived to appease George, but he got distracted easily which angered George. George told about how they would own a house and a farm together and work for themselves. Lennie loved to hear the story and think about the possibilities, even though nobody knew if any of it was a possibility. George and Lennie's differences in part led to George's inclination to kill Lennie. Despite their dissimilarity, the two men needed each other probably more than they realized.
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about loneliness and the American Dream. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It was very difficult for people to survive during this time period. A lot of people hardly survived let alone had the necessities they needed to keep relationships healthy. Of Mice of Men has a common theme of disappointment. All the characters struggle with their unaccomplished dreams. The migrant workers, stable buck, swamper, and the other men on the ranch had an unsettled disappointment of where they were at in their lives. George and Lennie, two newcomers to the ranch, aren’t like the other guys. They have each other and they are the not loneliest people in the world. Lennie has a dream though he wants to own a farm with plenty of crops and animals one day. The only problem is his blind curiosity of people and things around him. George wasn’t justified for killing Lennie because Lennie was innocent and never got the chance to find out what he did wrong.
Imagine being discriminated against because of your ethnicity; or being the only woman on a ranch, stuck in a loveless marriage, when all you really want is someone to talk to. What about having to kill that friend, and bury all chances of breaking free from the life of the average migrant worker? How would you feel? These scenarios in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men illustrate the need and desire for companionship in life. There's Crooks, the negro stable buck; Curley's wife, whose marriage to Curley hasn't exactly been lively; and George and Lennie, whose friendship is strong enough to get them to a better life and out of the negetive cycle that the average migrant worker became trapped in during the Great Depression.
Dreams and hope are all worth while but in the book it shows how hard it is to get your dreams. In the book Of Mice and Men the first scene is of them fleeing from their job. The job was contributing to the dream but since there was conflict they had to run otherwise there would be no dream. When they get to there new job a worker over hears their dream and wants to get in on it. “you know a place like that?” said candy. Said on page 29 on the ipad. So they agree and they're way closer to their dream then they ever thought they would be. “George spat on the floor disgustedly. “We got ten bucks between us.” Then he said thoughtfully, “look, if me an’ lennie work a month an’ don’t spen’ nothing, we’ll have a hundred bucks. That’d be four fifty. I bet we could swing her for that. Then you an’ lennie could go get her started an’ i’d get a job an’ make up the res’, an’ you could sell eggs an’ stuff like
Dreams give people motivation and a sense of hope to not give up when life's hard conditions get in the way of success. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, George Milton has his own “American Dream” where he will live in a house, that he bought with his hard earned money, with Lennie. They will grow their own crops and own farm animals to feed themselves. This dream keeps George motivated to find new jobs when Lennie gets them into trouble. George does not want to give up on working hard and making money on ranches.
Life for ranchers in the 1930’s was very lonely. They have no family, and they do not belong anywhere. They come to the ranch, earn their pay, go into town, waste their money, and start all over again at another ranch. They have nothing to look forward to. But George and Lennie are different; it is not like that for them because they have each other. It was George and Lennie’s dream to own a piece of land and a farm. That dream is long gone. In the story, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley caused the death of his wife and Lennie’s death; Curley also shattered George and Lennie’s dream.
Hope-an illusion. Hope-something to be seen but never achieved. Hope-something to look forward to, never a reality. Reality comes from action, not wishes. Hope-a thing with feathers, flighty, beautiful, unreal. In both “Hope is the thing with feathers”, by Emily Dickinson, and Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, hope is portrayed as keeping up one’s spirit, and welcome when times are grueling, and sounding promising but not always making sense. Curley’s wife dreams of being a movie star, and this keeps her married, if unhappily, to Curley, but her dream is actually a delusion, and while promising much, never actually delivers. George and Lennie are sustained throughout their troubles by their dream of a farm and escape from the migrant worker’s life, and while it could have happened, Lennie kills Curley’s wife, thus making their dream impossible. The poem describes hope as a tangible thing that is constant in the soul, and attracts people to it, but isn’t based on reason.
To begin with, when George and Lennie entered the farm looking for a job, they were viewed as lower class ranch workers. In Chapter 2 George and Lennie just entered the farm and are having a talk to their boss about getting the job. “‘So you wasn’t gonna say a word. You was gonna leave your big flapper shut
In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck reflects the conception of the fleeting American dream in the characters of George, Lennie, and Crooks. Steinbeck depicts the harsh reality that migrant workers, most likely, would not achieve their dream through George and Lennie’s failure to gain
"Come on George, tell me, like how you done it before .". "You get a kick out of it don't you; well here it goes like ." (13) George has told Lennie about their dream many times and yet Lennie always wants to hear it one more time. It was been told to Lennie so many times that even he can memorize the dream, meaning Lennie really loves the dream and even want to hear it more. Dreams can give people the will to live and the will to fight. People can lose their will to live or to achiever their goal if the dream is lost. Dream is the most important thing for George and Lennie because it's the only thing they can depend on to live.
Men and women who are discriminated by society feel alone and afraid because they have nobody to talk or turn to. Of Mice and Men, a novel written by John Steinbeck, conveys the feelings of discriminated farm workers in the 1930’s, and how they yearned for a friend. The marginalized characters in the story were Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife. often found themselves feeling lonely and excluded because the other farm workers thought of them as their inferiors. These characters were beaten, scoffed at, or even avoided entirely. The book follows the lives of two men who travel together and earn their money by farming. The two men, named George and Lennie, went to a new ranch where they witnessed, and even partaken in the cruel judgment of others. Throughout the novel, the author demonstrates how unfair men can be to one another through Crooks’ experience with racism, Candy’s experience with ageism, and Curley’s wife’s experience with sexism.
The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is about two ranch hands, George and Lennie. George is a small, smart-witted man, while Lennie is a large, mentally- handicapped man. They are trying to raise enough money to buy their own ranch, by working as ranch hands. During the setting of the story, they are at a ranch whose owner’s name is Curley. It is in this setting that the novel reveals that the main theme is death and loss.
George’s struggles with himself become apparent at the beginning of the novel. Steinbeck clearly lets the reader know that George has conflicting feelings about Lennie. He believed, “ ...if he was alone he could live so easy. He could go get a job an ' work, an ' no trouble” (11). George is basically telling Lennie that sometimes, he wishes he could live
Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck. It is set in California during the great depression. The story follows two ranch hands who travel together and are very poor. Throughout the novel we witness many different philosophical references. Many different types of characters from this novel are reused in today’s society. Steinbeck also writes eloquently about the many different emotions, aspirations, and dreams of man.
Lennie to take care of. The next day George convinces the farm boss to hire