Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel

The film is severely different from the novel, as the director, Gary

Sinise, made deliberate changes to influence the audience's feelings

and reactions. He has altered and added scenes as he saw this as

necessary to create the right kind of atmosphere and to keep the plot

flowing.

The whole story is about two men, George and Lennie. These are very

two very different characters; the novel describes them as opposites.

Lennie is a very large and burly while George is 'small and quick'. In

the book they wear exactly the same thing, but as the film has to rely

on devices and stereotypes to pass the message across quickly, they

dress Lennie in dungarees to show how different they area and to show

the childlikeness of Lennie.

There is a problem with Lennie; he has a child's mind. This causes

many problems for the pair and results in Lennie's unavoidable death.

There are two things that cause these many problems- one being the

fact that Lennie likes to stroke soft things. When he was young, his

aunt Clara had given him a piece of velvet (it only makes you wonder

if he hadn't have lost that, his life might have been saved.) Because

of his "condition", he likes to keep mice. But once again his strength

is a problem. When he's scared he holds onto things, so, when the mice

bite him he crushes them to death.

These problems echo through the story, Curly's hand, the pup and

ultimately Curly's wife.

There are three particular differences, the beginning and the end and

Curly's wife.

In the beginning of the novel, the author sets the scene quite

vividly, and explains it in explicit detail.

In the beginning of the film there are white credits on a black

b...

... middle of paper ...

...r if she deserves it.

In the novel she walks in uninvited to join Crooks, Lennie and George

in Crook's room. She threatens Crooks with being lynched and the way

she does this makes her come across as vile and bitter. In the film

she doesn't; she catches the men outside and talks at one point. She

says Curley became mad and smashed all her records, this immediately

makes you feel sorry for her as she is clearly vulnerable. All doubts

are erased as you listen to what she says next and sympathise with

her; this is something the novel tries to avoid doing.

Her death scene is exactly the same, showing that whatever the

character may be like, we all sympathise with her tragic death.

Although the novel and film have the same story line, just by altering

certain things you get a whole different aspect and create a totally

different effect on the audience.