The characters in Of Mice and Men face real and imagined obstacles in combination with their flaws driving them toward solitude and self-defeating behaviors that are reinforced through the stereotypes of society and keep them from achieving success. The characters in Of Mice and Men are bound together by the unpromising situations they encounter which due to their various disabilities become insurmountable obstacles to achieving their dreams. Steinbeck does this to show how, for many people, it is easier to accept their “lot in life” or the cards they are dealt, rather than to try harder for a better future. Slim manifests some of the obstacles Steinbeck sees in this world when Slim is moving away from the light. “Slim moved back slightly so …show more content…
the light was not on his face” (Steinbeck 39). Slim prefers to remain hidden in the shadows. Throughout the novel Steinbeck uses light to symbolize hope.
For example, during the first parts of chapter 6 the light slowly starts to crawl up the mountains till its at the top of the peaks. “Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains” (Steinbeck 99). In this instance the light represents hope and how it's slowly moving out of reach. In Slim’s case when he is stepping out of the light, he is symbolically showing that he is giving up on any hope in becoming something besides a ranch worker. Furthermore, Slim steps out of the light because he doesn’t wish to be blinded by a false and unrealistic goal like the other ranchers that he’s seen. “Funny how you an’ him string along together”(Steinbeck 39). Steinbeck does this to show the irregularity of Lennie and George travelling together in a world where everyone only cares for themselves. This is in stark contrast to what Slim has seen in the past which has caused him to believe that the cycle of worker’s traveling alone full of hope and energy before dying out in hopelessness is definite. This mentality of Slim’s is what truly limits him as he is not motivated to chase any of his dreams. So with the combination of this mentality and his confrontation with something that is …show more content…
different than the norm, Slim is unable to see the hope in Lennie and George’s situation. He will never be able to escape from this mentality forever binding him to being a ranch worker. Candy is also disabled by a combination of flaws and discouragement. Candy’s biggest flaw is that he is naive and unable to learn from his mistakes. In the book the ranch workers are usually referred to as ranch hands. The hand is symbolic of usefulness so when the workers are referred to as ranch hands it is to show that they are useful. Candy's missing hand is symbolic of the helplessness of someone who is deemed useless. This in a combination with his old age and his fear that he will be fired is what ultimately disables him. After he decides to work with Lennie and George. Candy begins to feel that he will be able to achieve something so it cures him of his disability. Steinbeck does this to show that when characters are given any sort of opportunity they courageous until something goes wrong and they end up returning to their disabled state. Through the stereotypes that the characters face, the other characters’ prejudices and discriminations cast them deeper into hopelessness and solitude causing them to have no hope for a better future.
A good example of this is the events that occur in the bunkhouse which is symbolic of life in general and shown by Steinbeck to be a bad place. “At about ten o’clock in the morning the sun threw a bright dust-laden bar through one of the side windows, and in and out of the beam flies shot like rushing stars”(Steinbeck 18). In general flies are looked down upon by society as lowly, dirty, and opportunistic creatures. This is the same as the workers in Of Mice and Men who are treated very poorly and at the bottom of society and are constantly seeking instant gratification in the form of gambling, drinking and women. In the quote the light represents opportunity and as there's barely any light this shows that those that live in the bunkhouse may have a bad future devoid of any hope. The metaphor of the flies to rushing stars is to show that the workers just like stars are only bright for a short amount of time before they flicker out or explode just like workers only stay at ranches for a short amount of time before they move on in a continuous cycle. The bunkhouse is a manifestation of the powerlessness that the characters will experience if they ever hope to achieve a better life. Within his house Crooks is suppressed by Curley’s wife as seen when he tries to speak up for
Lennie. “Listen, Nigger,’ she said. ‘You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” (Steinbeck 80) She is implying how much power she has over him. Yes, ma’am.’ ‘Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tee so easy it ain’t even funny.” (Steinbeck 80-81). This shows how submissive Crooks is towards Curley’s wife because she occupies a position of power within the ranch. It also accentuates how bad Crooks’ position is in society and suggests that he has been traumatized throughout his life causing him to permanently be unable to stand up for himself. This is a disability that he may never overcome. Another example is Curley’s wife, who comes up to Lennie and complains. “I get lonely,’ she said. ‘You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody?” (Steinbeck 87). This shows that Curley’s wife is bound to conform with societal regularities such as obeying your husband. This prohibits her from trying to accomplish anything that Curley might disagree which severely limits her future and causes her to be powerless to change her situation. Curley's wife is The second disability she has is that she is delusional towards her dreams and tends to act irrationally and on impulse. This is shown when she talks to Lennie about her dream before blaming her mother with no evidence. “I lived right in Salinas,’ she said. ‘Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me. She says because I was on’y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet,” (Steinbeck 88). This is a passage that shows a dream that went wrong, but from this we can see that she doesn’t consider all her options or possible outcomes which can easily cause her to act out of spite without considering her situation. Overall, Steinbeck is trying to show that the powerlessness that the characters feel is caused by the combination of their flaws as well as society's prejudices that isolate them for a particular reason. All of this cause them to be unable escape from their endless cycle of discrimination and solitude.
Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinbeck, is a book that can be analyzed and broken down into a vast majority of themes. One of the predominant themes found in this book is loneliness. Many characters in this book are affected by loneliness and they all demonstrate it in one way or another throughout the book. Examples of these characters are Curley’s Wife, Crooks, and Candy.
First, Steinbeck uses the character of Slim to describe that helping others makes that individual feel gratitude towards the individual who helped
Steinbeck uses the text Of Mice And Men to emphasise the importance of persistence in situations of struggle, however the main message sent forth by Steinbeck is mainly showing how persistence affects opinions and actions that span over time which is shown many times in the text. Such as when George and Lennie are conversing at the green lake on their way to the ranch and George begins to explain their dream which results in “... Lennie’s face broke into a delighted smile” (5). This shows how Persistence and adaptation can affect situations, because if George was made unable to adapt or remain persistent the conversation would have kept a more intense or serious tone instead of changing into a upbeat or happy conversation which results in Lennie
As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.
This could be for many reasons, but the most probable might be that Steinbeck wants us to delve deeper in the story, and make our own inferences. Because of this concept, the character might be a bit “fuzzy”, meaning that because he is not described directly, there can be many interpretations to just one common character. This indirect characterization of Slim is on page 46, where it reads, “A young laboring man came in. His sloping shoulders were bent forward and he walked heavily on his heels, as though he carried an invisible grain bag” (Steinbeck 46). We know that Slim is a young man, however from the quote above, some might be led to think that he his a bit elderly because of the “weight he carries”, infering that he has a laborious life. Nonetheless, from the information we know and the quote above, it is probably safe to assume that in the short life Slim has had so far, he has worked during most of it, but is a kind
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
“Of mice and men” is about people who are lonely, sad and in search of
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses stereotypes and discrimination to convey a message of how the characters feel. A lot of the stereotypes and clichés are just common beliefs of the times, but a few are situational. To quote a quite distinguished reader, "Characters are ‘trapped’- either by what others think of them, or by their situation." A lot of the character’s feelings about themselves and what others think of them will lead to loneliness.
In Of Mice and Men, the author attempts to portray the hardships that a man attempts to face yet fails to withstand. Set in the post-depression era, the book depicts the harsh truth of the
Several characters in the novel Of Mice and Men are presented with additional obstacles throughout the book. Whether because of color, sex, or disabilities, John Steinbeck purposefully did this to illustrate oppression. Of Mice and Men explores the
John Steinbeck explores human experience in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ in friendship, loneliness and marginalisation. He does this through the characters as explained thought the paragraphs below.
MOST, IF NOT ALL, OF THE CHARACTERS IN OF MICE AND MEN CAN BE SEEN AS
In the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck brings out the themes of Lonliness and companionship, and strengths and weaknesses through the actions, and quotations of the characters. Irony and foreshadowing play a large roll on how the story ends. Lennie and his habit of killing things not on purpose, but he is a victim of his own strength. George trying to pretend that his feelings for Lennie mean nothing. The entire novel is repetitive in themes and expressed views.
The daily struggle of the working class, fear of loneliness and the reality of putting all your energy into plans that fail are the different themes relating to John Steinbeck's novel, "Of Mice and Men". The characters depicted by the author are individuals who are constantly facing one obstacle after another. The book illustrates different conflicts such as man versus society, man versus man, man versus himself and idealism versus reality. The book's backdrop is set in the Salinas, California during the depression. The two main characters include two men, George and Lennie. Supportive characters include a few ranch hands, Candy, Crooks, Curly, Slim and Carlson.
Conflict, by definition, is a back and forth struggle between two opposing forces. In the literary work, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, it is clear, the protagonist, George Milton, undergoes many conflicts that lead to the novel’s overall purpose. Steinbeck weaves together George’s conflicts with others, himself, and with society to illustrate what the true meaning of friendship is.