Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis

“The only folks who really wound are those we love the best,” Ella Wheeler Wilcox writes in her poem Life’s Scars. Wilcox depicts the close similarity between love and harm. “A thoughtless blow to those who love us best,” Wilcox describes how people give little attention to the little things that hurt close ones gravely. “The only folks who give us pain, are those we love the best,” Wilcox also states that if anyone, the ones “we love best are the ones we” are most vulnerable too [ADJSV]. Wilcox is clearly using the rhetorical appeal of both pathos, dealing with emotion, and logos, dealing with logic. In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, the repetition of love leading to violence begins with Lennie’s uncontrollable affection with soft

things, which follows Candy’s dog’s death to end its misery, and ends with George’s fatal decision to commit his final act of love [PrPP]. In John Steinbeck’s Novel of Mice and Men, Steinbeck suggests that violence can sometimes be a result of love.
Lennie’s affection often turns into brute violence.

His mental disability makes him innocent and oblivious to his strength. In Weed, after feeling the “girl's dress”, Lennie grips tighter and the girl “jerks” back ripping the dress (12). Lennie's affection for the soft dress happen to be misunderstood by the girl, who thinks Lennie is trying to rape her. Thus Lennie’s love and violence are juxtaposed [PaPP]. Trying to convince George in letting him keep the animal, Lennie states, that "It's on'y a mouse.” Lennie doesn’t understand why the mice keep dying, he’d “pinch their heads a little” and then they would die. (7)”Lennie can’t comprehend that his strength can be overwhelming to the mice. In being over-affectionate, Lennie causes harm towards animals. When deciding what he should do with the puppy- Lennie “looked at the little dead puppy…in front of him." (85). Everything that Lennie tries to care for becomes ruined. A repetition of Lennie’s affection ending in violence reveals a pattern of a tragedy. Lennie’s love for soft things proves to be his

downfall.
There are many ways violence can be a result of love.

Many other characters display their love through harm. Candy’s unproductive dog leads to Carlson’s compelling offer to “put the old devil out of his misery (47).” Carlson ends up shooting the dog because Candy couldn’t bring himself to end his best friend’s life. Out of love and sympathy, Candy’s dog is shot. After killing his pup, Lennie just wants to touch Curly’s wife hair. He ends up being to over affectionate and Curly’s wife pulls away and screams, threatened- Lennie accidently brakes “her neck" in attempt to quiet her (89). Even though both characters were beginning to enjoy each other’s presence, it ends in a brutal violent fiasco. Following Lennie’s encounter with Curly’s wife, and the fact that a monolithic lynch mob could find and torture Lennie for his actions. George is faced with the painful decision of killing his best friend Lennie. George, taking the shot caused Lennie’s body to “jar”, and “lay without quivering" (104). In shooting Lennie in the back of the head, George saved Lennie from being lynched or worse. George finds that his final act of love to Lennie would be by killing him. George’s attitude towards Lennie shifts in the

end.
In Steinbeck’s Novel of Mice and Men, Steinbeck asserts that love and harm go hand in hand. It is important because the theme of the book happens to occur a lot outside the world of literature (i.e. reality). This novel’s theme illuminates a deeper understanding of love and the pain that follows. Just like the characters in Of Mice and Men, they find that the only option to show their love is by hurting, or even killing. Of Mice and Men, and the poem Life Scars, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, both exhibit the irony in the fact that the “ones we love the best,” tend to be the ones that “we really wound”. The moral of the novel and poem, is that the cause and effect of love and violence happens to be inevitable, and the irony in how no one can refrain from injuring loved ones.