How does Steinbeck create for the reader a harsh world and culture on the American Ranch in Of Mice and Men? In chapter one of "Of Mice and Men", Steinbeck first of all describes the beautiful scene, then the characters are introduced, Lennie and George. The reader learns that they are on their way to a ranch to work. They are making camp before they will go to the ranch the next day. Lennie and George have hurriedly left their last ranch following an incident involving Lennie. The next day they arrive at the ranch where they meet the other characters, the old swamper Candy, The Boss, the boss' son Curley, Curley's striking wife who flirts with all the men. Also Slim the respected worker on the ranch and Carlson, another worker. The ranch is obviously a harsh, uncomfortable place to live and chapter two gives evidence of this. Steinbeck begins to build up the harsh culture of the ranch by building up a beautiful scene in chapter one. In the first chapter of "Of Mice and Men", a scenic, calm and almost heavenly picture of the surroundings is built up for the reader. He uses almost two pages of the book in order to do this, describing the atmosphere about the place: " The water is warm to, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight," This creates a very sleepy and relaxing picture for the reader. The fact that the "water is warm" and it "slipped twinkling" are important in this sentence. They are peaceful words and help create the most beautiful picture that can be created in the readers mind. However by the end of chapter one, the picture of the beautiful atmosphere is starting to slip unconsciously away: "Up the hill from the river a coyote yammered, and a dog answered... ... middle of paper ... ...rsh environment. His sleeping place is also in worse condition than the others'. It is "a little shed". This builds a picture in the readers mind of a ramshackle, leaning, hut, whereas the bunk house is not brilliant but the picture built up is not as derelict as Crooks' hut. In conclusion I think that there is two main ways that Steinbeck builds up tension on the ranch to make a harsh environment. One is contrast. Contrast between things that go on outside the ranch and then similar things that go on inside the ranch, but they just happen worse. The second thing is discrimination and hierarchy around the ranch. It makes it seem to me like an unfriendly place to live. I would not like to live there. The hostile ness is built up well in the story and I definitely thought that the ranch was an unsociable harsh place before we started to analyse the story.
The area is neither scenic nor remarkable in any way. No stoic landmasses rise up from the ocean depths to form islands. Essentially, to the naked eye, there is nothing that may be seen. Actually, it's rather boring.
Nearing the end of his life, Otto von Bismarck said, “One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans,” (History.com Staff 1). As it so happens, Mr. von Bismarck was correct. The first World War was triggered by the unmerited assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke. The day Ferdinand was killed, was his and his wife’s wedding anniversary (History.com Staff 1). The couple was visiting Sarajevo in a open car, a rarity at the time (Ben Cosgrove 1). Unfortunately, this city held threatening nationalists and terrorists. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a young man named Gavrilo Princip. Princip had been trained in terrorism by the Black Hand, a Serbian secret society (The Editors of Encyclopedia
the most hated by the people who inhabit it. One would imagine that in a place where the
The American Dream is a dream that everyone imagines to be picture perfect. The American Dream means having freedom, equality and opportunity’s to achieve the dream that you conceptualize to be right by you. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck did not want to just illustrate the American dream as being easy, but he wanted to point out the American Dream as being difficult too. Steinbeck made a work of art by composing a great novel to make the reader understand that life can be difficult and at times dreams are hard to achieve. Of Mice and Men was written and based on the settings of the Great Depression (Anderson). The Great Depression was a very dire time that left multiple of people despondent and the unavailing to move on with their lives. The Great Depression created a world where everyone had to seek and survive for themselves. In the novel Steinbeck wanted to explore and point out how powerless people where during the time of the Great Depression. Steinbeck purposely incorporated his characters to depict the life struggle of what people go through during grim times. In the novel, Steinbeck illustrated a great set of characters Lennie, George, Candy and Crooks. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck discusses handicaps, hardships, and friendships of the characters.
As Mark Twain once stated, “The more I know about people, the better I like my dog.” This sentiment is often echoed by general society; people seem to have lost faith in humanity. However, John Steinbeck illustrates his more optimistic opinion about “the perfectibility of man” by suggesting how man can improve. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, two tenants called George and Lennie go through many hardships all while chasing their dream of possessing their own farm. While they work at a farm, they meet an old swamper called Candy who offers to help them achieve their dream; he does so to ensure that he will have a future after he is fired for being too old. On page 60, Candy discusses the recent death of his dog and asks to join in on George and Lennie’s dream. Through this passage, Steinbeck proves that humans have an animalistic tendency of eliminating those who are weaker than them. This is depicted through the details connecting Candy to his dog as well as Candy’s diction when describing his potential future life. Steinbeck’s negative attitude towards man’s predatory nature implies that society needs to improve and prevent such oppressive behavior from occurring.
The setting of "The Crucible is in the year 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, where the Salem Witch Trials occurred. Many innocent people were hung due to the actions of one person, Abigail Williams. Abigail had an affair with a married man, John Proctor, and, having fallen in love with him, wanted to get rid of his wife, Elizabeth. Obsessed with John, she was intent on becoming John 's new wife. As part of an attempt to make John fall in love with her, she participated in pagan traditions, with her uncle 's slave, Tituba. When her and the girls were discovered by Revered Parris, Abigail invented the idea of witchcraft afoot in Salem to avoid punishment. Abigail is the ring leader of the teenage girls that live there, and she manipulates them to make the trials more dramatic, and more believable. She does not like being controlled, and instead she insists on being in control and power. She therefore leads a rebellion against adult authority in order to obtain her goals. Unfortunately, however, she fails in obtaining the one thing she desired most: the love of John Proctor. In the process, Abigail is
Abigail Williams was the person who was most responsible for the boisterous witchcraft situation in Salem. Abigail was in the forest dancing when Parris caught the girls. In The Crucible, act 1 page 1093, Abigail says, “ We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it”. This quote is Abigail admitting to Reverend Parris that she was dancing in the forest. Reverend Parris assumes them of practicing witchcraft. Dancing in the forest at night in Salem because they were strict. This creates the topic of witchcraft in act 1 of The Crucible. Abigail accuses Tituba of calling the Devil. In act 1 of The Crucible page 1108, Abigail says, “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba …” . This is important because it brings another character into the situation. Tituba is accused of being a witch. This is going to cause her to act chaotic because she is going to be denying it. Being accused will also lead to her being whipped or killed. It will also lead to her accusing other women. Abigail accuses more girls to be witches. in act 1 of The Crucible page 1111, Abigail claims, “ I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil!... I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!... I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!”. This brings more chaos to the situation. The girls accused of witchcraft will accuse others which will lead to
1: The very beginning of the play opens up at Parris’s house in Salem, Massachusetts during the spring of 1692.
The falling action in The Crucible, Hale's plea to be signed with Proctor testifies that he himself is a witch while also condemning six other prisoners of witchcraft. To repeat the ritual of distracting the guilt by accusing someone else - the same cycle that occurred during the game. The scene in which Hale will talk with Proctor leads to the result and possible resolutions for the main danger of the climax. The falling action of Hales's plea sets the resolution, which will be the answer to this decision. Will Proctor blame the innocent to keep his name clean? More importantly, will the protagonist continue the cycle of false accusations? During the falling action, Hale is frantically looking for people to confess to the accusations of the court. Danforth and Hathorne are not in a position to accept that the judgments are erroneous, for the integrity of the court would be crushed and the theocracy would be questioned, and the religious order of Salem would be
For most people, prolonged social isolation negatively affects their health. Psychological experiments on the effects of isolation have been conducted by multiple universities and scientists, all of which have come to the same conclusion; isolation is physically and mentally detrimental. Some of these experiments had to be called off due to the extreme and bizarre reactions of those involved. The experiences of people held in solitary confinement—the despair, the disorientation, the hallucinations—are well documented. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck implies that when people live in solitude, they become desperate for companionship. Human nature can be better understood by this theme and is developed through the thoughts and feelings of the
Even though Abigail is a "strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling," she is still at the bottom of the social latter (Miller, 9). However, she gains power through the role of the accuser. Abigail is the primary person who uses fear to manipulate the other girls of the community. The narrator states that the witch-hunt was "not a mere repression…It was also a long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express his guilt and sins publicly, under the cover of accusations against the victims" (Miller, 7). Abigail uses the witch trials as an opportunity to gain social power by playing the role of the accuser against anyone who opposes her. She abuses her power through the act of playing the victim. Abigail states, "[She] will come to [the girls] in the black of some terrible night and [she] will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder [them]" if the other girls of the community told the truth that they were all messing with magic (Miller, 19). At first, the children are depicted as innocent, and that the adults must protect them from the illusions of the devil, however, Abigail later appears only to be acting out of malicious pleasure. Ultimately, the adults acknowledge the fear created by the people of the village. The adults are the ones who use the trials to justify their violence in protecting the children. The violence resulted in the adults believing they had power over the devil that had come to
The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller shows the dire and unnerving events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts during seventeenth century. The actions partaken by the Character Abigail Williams which she choose to do was responsible for the mass hysteria in Salem. Abigail demonstrates several reasonable actions such as lying and giving false accusations that give significant evidence that she is the most responsible for the hysteria of Salem.
When Hale first arrives in Salem, he is utterly committed to God and his beliefs. He sees the Christian religion as “a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small” (67). With this metaphor of Christianity and theology, Miller shows how deeply Hale values his beliefs, and how he views any wavering “cracks in the fortress” as a renunciation of God. His faith caused him to disregard even reason and logic in his thinking. When the court accuses Rebecca Nurse of witchcraft, Hale had little doubt in the validity of it, saying “If Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing’s left to stop the whole green world from burning” (71). Miller uses this hasty generalization to demonstrate how strongly Hale believes in the courts and in God’s power to bring justice. Hale, upon hearing that the courts accused Rebecca of witchcraft, uses this example of a moral citizen to deem that anyone can come under the power of the devil. By doing so, Hale ignores that fact that Rebecca, like so many of the others accused, has been a pillar of the Salem community for many years and is known to be a moral person. However, as the courts accuse more and more citizens of Salem, these ridiculous accusations cause Hale to waver in his beliefs, which tests his faith in the power of God and all that is good. As John Proctor prepares for his
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife were shot and killed. The attack was perpetrated by a Serbian Nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The Bosnian student acted alone, but the events sparked debate as to whether the assassinations were a political conspiracy involving the Serbian government. Austria-Hungary’s government regarded the slightest chance of political conspiracy as a reason for action. The assassinations and the response it conjured became the most significant event in the path to the war to end all wars.
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife was definitely the most significant cause of the calamity that is World War I. Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro- Hungarian throne, was simply visiting Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately, a secret Serbian society known as the Black Hand awaited the Archduke’s arrival. This nationalist group targeted Ferdinand due to the feeling amongst Serbians that once appointed to the throne; Ferdinand would uphold the persecution of Serbs inhabiting the borders of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. Gavrilo Princip was one of eight members of the Black Hand chosen to execute Franz Ferdinand. Unloading two shots, Princip had assassinated both Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Seized by the police, he was beaten and put into prison, and there he died. The shots of this young man echoed all over the world to initiate the explosion of World War I.