To What Extent is The Ending Inevitable?
The tragic novella Of Mice And Men was written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937. The text is set in the context of The Great Depression when the world was going the a global economic recession. The Great Depression began after the stock market crash on Wall Street which caused companies to lose billions of dollars, triggering unemployment to rise significantly. During The Great Depression, there were dust storms known as the Dust Bowls that destroyed the agricultural industry in California. Throughout The Great Depression, people were lonely and pessimistic. This context and flawed protagonists make this novella a tragic genre. Lennie and George, the protagonists, have an ambitious dream that
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In fact their reality was quite the opposite, George killed Lennie in the very place they began their adventure. Steinbeck is trying to convey a message that dreams like their’s are unachievable during The Great Depression. George being forced to kill Lennie is significant because the death of Lennie represents the death of their dream. They created the dream together and Lennie was a major part of the plan to own land. George and Lennie were going to combine both of their income to pay for it. Lennie dying destroys that dream. The failure of the American dream is also expressed in Curley’s wife. She dreamt of being independent and famous. However, she could not achieve her dream and became married to someone she wasn’t happy with. She meets her demise having her dream far from being realised. “Coulda’ been in the movies, a’ had nice clothes.” In these texts of the novella, Curley’s wife vents to Lennie about her dreams and anger at its almost predestined fate.Curley’s wife said. In addition, Lennie and George would constantly naively tell each other how they will achieve their dream. That they will be different because they got companionship. “An’ live off the fatta the lan’” Lennie and George would say to each other. Steinbeck had to end the novella with these character’s dreams unrealised to convey his message, The American dream was unachievable during the …show more content…
Because of this, it led to people becoming untrusting of each other and putting up artificial barriers. No one trusted each other which led to loneliness and to people barricading themselves from other people for reasons such as their ethnicity, intelligence and usefulness. This is reflected in the surprise people have when they find out about the relationship between Lennie and George. They don’t understand their relationship because they don’t have have that kind of trust and companionship themselves. The only person who understands their friendship out of the ranch workers is Slim. After George is forced to kill his friend Lennie, he understandably becomes quite depressed. Slim notices that and offers to take George to the bar. Curley and Carlson look at them with confusion and say “Now what the hell you suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” They are confused because to them, killing Lennie was just getting a liability out of the way. Another instance of people putting up artificial barriers is Crooks being snubbed by the rest of the ranch workers and him sharing reciprocal contempt for them. Crooks is not allowed to sleep with the other people in the bunk house and has to sleep with the animals in poor conditions. People treat Crooks disrespectfully making him resentful and hostile. When Lennie wanted to come into Crooks’ room to chat with him “His eyes stiffened and a
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.
Steinbeck uses foreshadowing throughout the story that hints on them not achieving their dream. Crooks one of the workers, predicts that Lennie and George will never get their own farm. Also, George looses hope and stops talking about the dream. As Crooks and Lennie discuss the plan to get a farm, crooks docent think that Georges and Lennies dream will become possible.’‘I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, …’em has a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever get it…” In other words Crooks has seen many people with the same dream as George and Lennie that haven't come true. Crooks says that none of the peoples dreams come true, this foreshadows that Georges and Lennies may nit come true. As a result, The failure of dreams creates an effect creates an uncertainty that their dream will come true. Not only does Crooks think that their dream will not come true, but George lost hope in their dream too. While George and Lennie are sleeping by the water, George tells Lennie a story about what their farm would be like, but George breaks down and doesn't want to talk about it. While George and Lennie are sleeping by the water, George tells Lennie a story about what their farm would be like, but George breaks down and doesn't want to talk about it. “I aint got time for no more…” in other words, George is tired of having dreams he doesn't think he can
As the story continues on and the pair arrive at their job, the character chart begins to branch as we are introduced to Slim, another worker on the farm. After learning of the two’s past together, he openly expresses, “Ain’t many guys travel around together... I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other” (Steinbeck 35). There is a unique value to George and Lennie’s relationship which the world lacks. Rather than combining their might, people would rather watch their own back with one set of eyes than having a second set to keep watch. There is mistrust between people and the idea of backstabbing and swindling is very present due to the economic decline and the loss of wealth for all social classes. Due to Lennie’s mental decline, however and the fact that if it were not for George, Lennie would not be alive, there is a strong bond apparent. To be separated from one another would mean becoming the rest of the world, sad and lonely. Neither of the two would like to bring sorrow to one another or let each other go through
When Lennie and George encounter Slim, another ranch hand, they automatically respect him and react positively towards him. “This was Slim, the jerkline skinner. His hatchet face was ageless. He might have been thirty-five or fifty. His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.
An Ethical Dilemma. People were terrified and disfranchised, John Steinbeck created Of Mice and Men, which set place during the dirty thirties (time of the Great Depression), a time where strength could not overcome aloneness and alienation. The child-like character Lennie was one of the most misunderstood characters, even with his best friend and caretaker George. In the beginning, they were uncanningly together in a society of loners during the time, having only each other, so close many assumed they were brothers. Throughout the story George had vowed to take care of Lennie, however under the circumstances he faced he chose to shoot his best friend.
The characters understood this and tried to appear stronger and more powerful than each other to get by. Curly fights larger men, to appear strong. Crook threatens Lennie with the thought that George will leave him, and this is meant to scare him because Lennie has a special relationship with George that is irreplaceable. Carlson shoots Candy’s dog to show masculinity in a way and strips Candy of the one thing he really loves. And Curley's wife threatens to hang crooks to prove that even though she is a woman, she still has a voice on the farm.
In the novel, “Of Mice and Men”, Candy is one of the main characters, who symbolizes some major themes. He is the oldest worker and his job as a ‘swamper’ who cleans the bunkhouse. He has spent majority of his life in the farm, working for someone else. He also has his dog, his best friend. He is usually described as “careful” “shuffled” and “slow”. This shows that he is a very slow and thoughtful man. Candy symbolizes several things about America in the 1930s.
excited one. He now has hope of doing something and it came from the "dream
Being lonely causes people to turn mean and cranky, those subject to loneliness are prone to treat others cruelly, and have the urge to fight constantly. George realizes this, and talks to Slim, another one of the ranch workers there, about why he and Lennie travel together, and how he does not want to end up all alone. He tells Slim about the ranch workers he has seen passing through various ranches, and says “‘I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time’”(41). The men that travel between ranches alone, have no one to confide in, or keep them company, so after a while they become so used to being alone, that they just snap at people, and think everyone is cruel, so there is no point in being nice. Since they have no one who is there for them, they end up picking fights with everyone, thinking the whole world is against them. This idea is demonstrated in the book by Crooks. Crooks...
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, first published in 1937, one of the main ideas present is sexism, particularly directed at women. We see many examples of this throughout the text mostly shown through Curley’s wife, such as the idea of objectification and over sexualizing women. The text shows the extremity of this viewpoint in the early 20th century, although this way of thinking still exists in our world today.
‘Of Mice and Men’ is based on the experiences of a migrant farmer, set in 1930’s America. The characters are also symbolized as realistic people, but influenced by the issues and circumstances based on the Wall Street crash, the American Dream and being set after WWI. I empathies for these characters for the consequences of these historical events are what to have made ‘Of Mice and Men’ a tragedy in relation to loneliness.
This is the main conflict. As the two men move throughout the novel, it is apparent they are clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. George and Lennie are insecure, with no permanent jobs, no real home, and separated from their families. Also, in the end, it was society which leads to George into killing Lennie. After Lennie gets into the debacle with Curley’s wife, he runs to the oasis described at the beginning of the book. George fears the men will tear Lennie apart and murder him. He also knew he would be institutionalized, or “caged” if he survived the attacks. He had the moral clarity that lets him see that killing Lennie is the what is best for him. When George kills Lennie, it’s a kind of mercy killing. It’s clear that killing Lennie is the right thing to do, and George is manning up by pulling the trigger. We know this because Steinbeck gives a contrasting example of Candy, who says that he "shouldn 't ought to of let no stranger shoot [his] dog" (39). Second, Slim says, "You hadda, George. I swear you hadda" (107), and Slim is the novel 's ideal man. His Struggles against society carry on even after Lennie’s death. He now faces living alone without friendship or hope. It is also the death of his dream; owning a shack on an acre of land that they can call their own.
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.
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.
The connection between George and Lennie illustrates the adversity during their course towards achieving the American dream. Things Lennie did, either on accident or purpose, foreshadowed what was going to happen in the book and the way people acted impacted this. Like millions of other people, George and Lennie were affected during the great depression heavily, and dreamt of owning land of their own. They worked from place to place making barely any money, and didn’t have a real home. To add to this, Lennie got in trouble a lot and in the end George had to make the crucial decision to shoot Lennie so he wouldn’t have to deal with any more difficulty. George knew he had to do what was best for Lennie and himself.