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Literary analysis on mice and men
Literary analysis on of mice and men
Literary analysis essay of mice and men
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Tam Kevin Do English AP – Period 4 Ms. Ridley January 6th, 2014 Winter Break Assignment: Of Mice and Men Title: Of Mice and Men Author: John Steinbeck Period/Settings: 1930’s / Soledad, California Narrative Stance / Point of View: Third Person Omniscient Brief Description of Main Characters: George: George is a small man with restless eyes, strong hands, slender arms, and a thin nose. Although he expresses a tense and grumpy attitude most of the time, he never backs away from his duty of protecting his friend, Lennie. Lennie: Lennie, in contrast with George, is a large man with pale eyes, wide shoulders, and a shapeless face. He possesses physical strength of monstrous proportions and he is fond of petting small creatures. Because he usually finds trouble from his words and actions, he allows his partner to do all of the talking for him. Brief Description of Minor Characters: Slim: Slim is a tall skinner who is well known in the business. He is the person to go to when there are conflicts because the rest of the workers view him as the leader. Crooks: A black man who goes by “stable buck”. He is often alone in the stable due to his skin tone and is isolated from the rest of the men. His name originates from obtaining a crooked back by being kicked by a horse. Candy: An old worker who lost his hand in a farm accident. He has a weak voice and cannot stand up for himself or for others. Carlson: A powerful, big-stomached man who has a short temper when it comes to smelly dogs. Curley: An aggressive son of the boss that owns the ranch. Curley is thin young man who has a brown face, brown eyes, and curly hair. He loves to pick fights on innocent people to boost his ego. Curley’s Wife: She is a character that doesn’t... ... middle of paper ... ...d hit to the blacks. Steinbeck attempts to convey the theme: segregation leads to insecurity and loneliness. Implied in the passage, Crooks had more space than the other men but this space makes up for the isolation between him and the white men. Instead of feeling grateful for have a room for himself, he expresses loneliness because he is not allowed to spend time with the other men. Steinbeck utilizes setting in this passage to parallel the lonely lives of others such as Candy by giving insight to Crooks’ life of abandonment. In addition he uses imagery to depict the simple yet incomplete life of Crooks by mentioning the scattered personal possessions of his. The dominant impression that Steinbeck conveys is that discrimination leads to a life of imprisonment and loneliness. He also exposes a tone of solitude to help reiterate Crooks’ diminishing lifestyle.
Crooks is an older black man with a crooked back, who lives by himself in
Crooks is a character who is mistreated in many ways because he is black. Crooks is the stable buck of the barn. It’s not certain whether Crooks is his name, or his nickname, but we know he got kicked in the back by a horse and had a crooked back ever since. Nevertheless he gets yelled at by the boss every time something’s wrong. " ‘The boss gives him hell when he’s mad. But the stable buck don’t give a damn
Crooks, the black stable buck, is isolated from the community of migrant workers because of his racial status. When Lennie goes into the barn to see his puppy, he and Crooks have a conversation. “'Why ain't you wanted?' Lennie asked. 'Cause I'm black. They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black'” (68). Lennie is too kind-hearted and intellectually slow to visualize the apparent racial boundary that sets Crooks aside from Lennie and the rest of the workers. Crooks is so isolated from the rest of the workers that he says he “can't” play cards, not that he isn't allowed to, which means that the racial boundary is like a wall Crooks cannot cross. Because he is black, Crooks believes that he cannot play cards with the white men. He can't get over the racial boundary, and believes he will be forever separated from the white men. In the beginning of chapter 4, Steinbeck describes Crooks' living space. “Crooks, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the...
Lennie was not very smart and couldn't do much by himself. He had to be told what to do or he wouldn't do anything at all. He fits all the profiles for a retarded person. He doesn't have any self-control. When he starts to panic he gets out of control and even kills Curly's wife because she starts to scream. Lennie loves animals and can't stop talking about them. He always says that when they get their own place that he wants lots of rabbits, his favorite animal. To him George is like his father figure, since Lennie never really had any parents. He is easily amused and panics quickly.
Steinbeck expresses the theme of loneliness in the character of Candy. Candy is lonely because his is missing half an arm. Candy?s disability separates him from society, an example of Curley being set aside is when everybody else goes to town he is left in the barn with Crooks, Lennie, and Curley?s wife. Candy?s only friendship was with his old, smelly dog. Candy?s dog was a symbol of himself (old, and useless). When Carlson kills Candy?s dog he kills Candy on the inside as well.
Crooks suffers from loneliness, because he is black, not because he is an unfriendly person. Crooks, though, may seem mean, but he is just tired of being rejected and disrespected by everybody around him. Crooks has a horrible life. He will never have a companion or anybody that will respect him unless he meets another black person. Crooks says,” I’ll tell ya a guy gets too lonely an’ he gets sick. (Pg. 73)” He doesn’t even have the opportunity to have a companion, and that is sad.
Crooks is a black stable hand who has been called Crooks due the hunched back he has after a horse kicked him. In the 1930’s, being black was an extreme disadvantaged. You would be discriminated for your colour and this would lead to loneliness. Crooks was always being blamed for everything that went wrong even though he was hardly involved. The boss picked on him because of his colour “An’ he give the stable buck hell” (page 21) “Ya see the stable bucks a nigger” (page 21). Candy says this when George and Lennie arrive at the ranch and after Candy said that Crooks was a nigger, George accepted the boss’ treatment of Crooks. Another time Steinbeck talks about Crooks being discriminated was when he writes about the Christmas party where Smitty took after Crooks and the men did not stop the fight because Crooks was black, but did not allow Smitty to use his feet in the fight due to Crooks’ disability.
An example of how the men are discriminative towards Crooks is that he is forced to live in a shack away from the bunkhouse and also Crooks says that "They play cards in there, but I can't play because I'm black. They say "I stink" and "I ain't wanted in the bunkhouse." An example of when Curley's Wife is critical towards Crooks is when she looks into his room to see what Lennie and Crooks are doing and then she states, shaking her head, that they left the weak ones behind. Also, she threatens to have Crooks hanged because a black man should never talk to a white woman the way he just had. As a result of all of these discriminatory acts against him, Crooks feels unwanted and lonely because of his color and placement on the farm.
Historically, the black American solution to racially imposed loneliness and homelessness was to embrace the structure of family. White characters in the novel appear without families, for whatever reason. However, black Americans were compelled to come together as a people despised by others, to shelter and protect, even to the point of the creation of extended families, much as George assumes a protective all four. Significantly, Crooks does not receive an invitation to join George, Lenny, and Candy on the farm, even though he broaches the subject. Racial and ethnic minorities in America in the 1930s understood the importance of this strategy for survival because otherwise they would not have survived. Crooks gets described by Curley’s wife as “weak” because he is crippled and a Negro, two conditions which Steinbeck conflates into being synonymous in the novel. He functions in the role of a victim-savant. Acting as an insightful thinker and clarifying the meaning of loneliness for the reader, he remains an “outsider,” someone for whom the reader feels more pity than respect.246 By remaining on this ranch, experiencing unfair treatment, Crooks chooses his own racial victimization each and every day.246
Although Lennie is strong physically, he is not strong mentally. Because of Lennie’s mental weakness, he is unable to survive in society or on the ranch. He is constantly getting himself into trouble, such as the time he accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Lennie’s mental weakness ultimately leads to his death, much like the downfall of other weak links on the ranch and in society.
Racial discrimination has been around for a long time, judging people for the color of their skin. Crooks is affected by this because he is black. Blacks in that time were thought as lesser than the white people. The racial discrimination affects Crooks' life in only negative ways. He is plagued by loneliness because of the color of his skin. His lack of company drives him crazy. Only when Lennie comes in to his room does he feel less lonely. He talked of his loneliness using a hypothetical scenario of George leaving Lennie. Crooks' responds to this discrimination by staying in his barn and being secluded. He doesn't want anyone to be in there but deep down he does so he can have some company. He isn't wanted in the bunk house or to play cards with the others because he is black. This effected the story by letting people walk all over him, letting them think they can do whatever they want, and ultimately making the people think they have a lot of power when really they do not.
The central element of this novella is its symbolism. This novella has plenty of symbolical forms, such as people, creed, and some of the animals. Candy has several terms of symbolism, for example his disability is a symbol of the migrant workers who are just literally forgotten about, they are forgotten when they are no use to the owners. Candy’s dog is a symbol of a life only for advantage to others Lennie also for shadows this, he is belittled of his mind but enormously commented for his strength. Also he is compelled to lie about the fight he had with Curley, this is a symbol of typical male society in the, “Depression era”.
1.) George- A small man who travels with, and takes care of, Lennie. He frequently talks about how much better his life would be without having Lennie to take care of. George's behavior is motivated by the desire to protect Lennie and, eventually, he wants to lead them both to the farm of their dreams.
Near the beginning of the book George is described as, “ small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin bony nose” (Steinbeck-2). George is portrayed as this small yet defined man but as shown earlier he is nothing of the sort. He is ruthless and when he puts his mind to something he goes through with it. George’s tough personality is shown when he and Lennie stop to get water at a pool, “ ‘Uh-uh.
John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, obtains a simplistic structure of plot elements, yet the characters are filled with complexity. The novel focuses on two migrant workers who are trying to achieve their “American Dreams,” while experiencing difficulties along their path. Of Mice and Men is written in several qualified aspects including an organized sequence of events, followed by a purpose, and strong development of characters with descriptive details. Steinbeck’s use of third point of view allows the audience to get a closer understanding of the plot and all the characters. The narrator of the story builds the novel by indirect commentary, such as, exposing characterization through their words and actions, rather than simply stating the