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Over the course of this summer, I was assigned the to read the two novels Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and How To Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. Being totally honest, I didn't expect to enjoy this experience, but in a strange turn of events I did. Foster's novel was a great way to learn more about reading, his writing style was interesting and kept me focused on the lessons before me. Steinbeck's novel was astounding, many members of my family assured me that I'd love it, and it looks like they really do know me. I quickly discovered many elements that Foster's guide had taught me in Of Mice and Men.
The Quest, probably the most obvious lesson presented in Of Mice and Men. The book spoke of the journey of Lennie and George, and their adventure to “live off the fatta the lan’”. How To Read Literature Like a Professor speaks of quests, and their true meaning in a story. “more often than not, the quester fails at the stated task”. People go on these quests in order to gain knowledge. I could see a quest in Of Mice and Men, and had an idea. In the beginning, the two men only thought of earning enough money to finally live comfortably. To me, George didn't seem like the one who would gain knowledge on this quest, but Lennie had quite a few things in his very near future. He is a rather clueless man, and there is no doubt in my mind his intentions were always good. George himself had spoke
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of how kind his friend was, and how every bad thing he did wasn't because he was trying to be mean. In this story, Lennie seems to be at least attempting to grow as a person, learning from the world around him. His main source of knowledge came from George. George had taught Lennie everything had known, he taught him about values, and discipline. In my personal opinion, Lennie learned his biggest lesson about discipline in the very end. With every action, there is a consequence. Lennie had murdered Curly's wife, and murder, even if it was an accident, it was an unacceptable action. He couldn't be trusted to live with his unpredictable actions, so his life had to come to an end. While reading Of Mice and Men I noticed something that kept repeating, violence. Not always physical violence, but verbal as well. Curly, Curly's wife, and Crooks, all verbally hurt Lennie throughout the book. How To Read Literature Like a Professor explained that violence can set a tone in a story. It also explained that the death of a character can be used to end a plot complication and cause stress. “writers kill off characters for the same set of reasons-make action happen, cause plot complications, end plot complications, put other characters under stress.” When Curly's wife was killed by Lennie, the characters that once thought he was harmless, and tried to help him, now had a new intention in mind. All of the violence in the novel led to Lennie's own demise, it created a new story, and a new concern. Before people began tormenting Lennie, he only followed his instructions from George. “Now, look—I’ll give him the work tickets, but you ain’t gonna say a word.” Which is exactly what Lennie was doing before the plot thickened. The death and the violence literally changed the entire course of the story. There are certainly more lessons from Foster's book that can be found in Of Mice and Men, but I'd like to end with one that made me gasp out of realization while I was reading. Symbolism and rivers. I felt extraordinarily proud of myself when I noticed this, I remembered a specific part of Chapter 12 from How To Read Literature Like a Professor, “The river is both danger and safety”. The beginning of Steinbeck's novel is set at a river, Lennie and George use it for water and as a shelter, or to put it simply, they used it for safety. Also, the book ends in the exact same place. At the scene of Lennie's death, where his life is put in danger by George. I thought about the safety and danger symbolism of rivers at the beginning, but had no idea I would actually be right. Foster's book also said to be creative when looking for symbols in a story. I got to thinking about something that might not necessarily be true, but I feel like it's a rather decent hypothesis. When Lennie is down by the river before his death, he sees and communicates with his Aunt Clara. Now of course she isn't actually there, but her words did have meaning. She told him how much trouble he was to George, and how much George had sacrificed for him. I think she represents his inner guilt, he doesn't actually express this emotion in the story, but it seems like she is this guilt bleeding into his consciousness. He knows what he did was terrible, but he actually feels worse because he is once again uprooting the two and delaying their dream of owning land. Now I know it's just a theory, but I was only being creative. These books both have been very enjoyable, and I can definitely see the lessons in Of Mice and Men.
I feel like the novels have both impacted the way I will read any book in the future. John Steinbeck did an amazing job at creating characters and an even greater job at creating an intricate and charming plot. Without How To Read Literature Like a Professor, I know that many elements of Steinbeck's novel would've gone directly over my head. I know I might have missed quite a few things, but I feel like I have learned and done well after this
experience.
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.
In conclusion, the brilliant novel “How To Read Literature Like A Professor” by Thomas C. Foster is a fantastic novel that helps grasp the basic ideas and structure that makes up a work of literature. Foster’s laid-back attitude made a major contribution to the great tone of the novel, and made it easier to understand. Many connections were included in the novel, along with some great quotes. After reading this novel, I have a better idea of what to look for when reading a novel.
What goes through your mind when you read? Do you read deliberately, looking for certain aspects, or do you read as a blank slate? When reading, professors expect a deliberateness that will help you to uncover meanings that are not readily apparent. Thomas C. Foster in his book “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” expands on this concept. He endeavors to instruct his readers in the way he believes they should read, in order to get the most out of each book. He concedes that, “When lay readers encounter a fictive text, they focus, as they should, on the story and the characters” but to truly read like a professor you must also divert a portion of your attention on “other elements of the novel” such as “memory… symbol… [And] pattern” (Foster, 15). Foster clarifies
This passage comes from the fourth chapter in Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. George and the other workers are “gone into town” (69). Lennie, Crooks and Candy are the only men remaining on the ranch. This excerpt characterizes Crooks and promotes the themes of loneliness and dreams. In addition, this passage characterizes Lennie and reinforces the theme of companionship.
Through the ages, archetypes have constantly shown up in all forms of literature. One specific classic, the quest, is most notably known from many literature novels. The character Lennie in the novel Of Mice and Men demonstrates the archetype of the quest by facing trying challenges, and the goal of a peaceful life. During the course of the novel, Lennie is faced with a variety of challenges.
John Steinbeck was perhaps the best author of all time. He was the winner of a Nobel Prize, and among other accomplishments, Steinbeck published nineteen novels and made many movies during his lifetime. All of his experience and knowledge are shown through his novels. A reader can tell, just in reading a novel by Steinbeck, that he had been through a lot throughout his life. Also, Steinbeck worked very hard to accomplish everything that he did during his lifetime. Nothing came very easily to him, and he had to earn everything he owned. This helped him in his writing, because he was able to write about real people and real experiences. John Steinbeck got his inspiration from life experiences, people he knew, and places he had gone.
Disappointment is someone being sad or mad about something they have done or failed to do. Disappointment can be caused by other people’s actions. In the book “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck, the characters of Crooks, Candy, and Curly’s wife all suffer from disappointment of life. Crooks suffer from disappointment from how nobody wants to play or talk to him just because he is black. Also Curly’s Wife suffers because women don’t have that much of rights so she gets treated badly. Candy gets also treated badly because he is old and only has one hand to use so he can’t do that much work. All of the people in the book get treated badly because the book “Of Mice and Men” is made during the time period that the great depression was so there wasn’t that much of rights towards women and black people.
Should George have shot his friend Lennie? George probably did the right thing by shooting Lennie. How can we condemn George for sparing his friend Lennie the pain and fear of being killed by someone else? He did something society sees as wrong, but he did it for a good reason. Lennie didn’t deserve to die, but there was no other alternative. Curley wanted to kill Lennie, and since George cared for Lennie, he figured the best thing would be for him to put Lennie out of his misery.
Richard Wright, in his essay “Discovering Books,” explains how reading books changed his outlook on life and eventually his life itself. The first book that widened his horizons was an overtly controversial book by H. L. Mencken. I have a story not so dissimilar from his.
Warren French writes, “The world just hasn’t been made right, so that dreams are the only things that can keep men going.” Agree or disagree with this statement.
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.
I have been analysing the novella ‘Of Mice and men’ by John Steinbeck, which was published in 1937. Steinbeck wrote the novel based on his own experiences as a bindle stiff in the 1920’s, around the same time when the great Wall Street crash happened, causing an immense depression in America. Throughout the novel he uses a recurring theme of loneliness in his writing, which may have reflected his own experiences at this time. This is evident in his writing by the way he describes the characters, setting and language in the novel.
images he leaves the reader with is George and Slim walking off as Curly says “ Now
Scarseth, Thomas. "A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice and Men." Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints. Ed. Nicholas J. Karolides, Lee Burress, and John M. Kean. Scarecrow Press, 1993. 388-394. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 11 Jan. 2012.
Written in 1937, Of Mice and Men, by John Adolf Steinbeck Jr., American author and Pulitzer Prize winner, follows the lives of downtrodden farmhands, George and Lennie. As with many of Steinbeck's books, the themes in Of Mice and Men include his favored themes of class warfare and oppression of the working class. Steinbeck also focuses his literature on the power of friendship and the corrupt nature of mankind. In 1993, Professor Thomas Scarseth wrote a critical analysis of the novella analyzing many aspects of Steinbeck’s work including the presentation, themes, and writing style. In his essay, Scarseth explains the key themes of the Novella. He noted that the corrupted nature of man, the injustice of life, and the power of friendship were three important themes of the book. Much of Scarseth’s analysis contained numerous thoughtful insights. Were his insights and opinions valid, or were his, and Steinbeck’s, perspectives on these issues flawed?