Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

1369 Words3 Pages

Life Is Not A Bed of Roses

Life is not a bed of roses. People use this expression to stress the fact that there are and will be difficulties in life. John Steinbeck, in his novella Of Mice and Men, does not fall short of the same views. It takes place in the year 1937, a period associated with the Great Depression, and illustrates the hardships of the time, and more so those that laborers such as George and Lennie experience. Life proves to be full of disappointments for both men who are victims of harsh circumstances in more ways than one. The two have a dream to own a farm of their own but circumstance and fate robs them of their dream for a better life. This is a depiction of the lost American Dream during the Great Depression which lasts between 1929 up to the 1940s. The poem titled “This Is Not The Life” further depicts the hardships found in life. It clearly portrays the uncertainty and struggle associated with living during the Great Depression. Thus, both the novella and the poem explain that human dreams for a great future are subject to circumstance and fate, which most of the time collude against human success in life leaving only a trace of broken dreams, pain and misery.

Steinbeck inclines to unravel the plight of two migrant workers with a dream to purchase their own land in the future, where they plan to rear rabbits and keep livestock. As reality dawns on the two men, their lifestyle proves not to be as easy as they think. George states, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some oth...

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...rrows than joys in life. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men validates this saying by following the lives of two migrant workers, Lennie and George, who toil on ranches for a living. They have nowhere else to go. “This Is Not The Life” helps exaggerate the point as well. Furthermore, they both explain that dreams and aspirations fall prey to circumstance and fate, which may strike at any point in one’s life. This will only leave humans drowning in misery, as their dreams have been shot down. Although discouraged, both the novella and the poem show signs of perseverance. This characteristic is also seen in the words of the poet Robert Frost: “In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.”

Works Cited

Shelton, Students. “This Is Not The Life.” CT: 2014.

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.

Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis
477 Words | 1 Pages
Many characters have hopes and dreams which they wish to accomplish. Of Mice and Men has two main characters that go through obstacles to get what they want. In the beginning it is George and Lennie running away trying to get a job. Once both George and Lennie have a job they try to accomplish their dreams. Unfortunately they both can't get their dreams to come true since lennie does the worst and George has to shoot Lennie. Steinbeck uses characterization, foreshadowing, and symbol as rhetorical strategies to make George's actions justified.
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The Blindness on John Stienbeck´s Of Mice and Men
545 Words | 2 Pages
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about loneliness and the American Dream. This book takes place during the Great Depression. It was very difficult for people to survive during this time period. A lot of people hardly survived let alone had the necessities they needed to keep relationships healthy. Of Mice of Men has a common theme of disappointment. All the characters struggle with their unaccomplished dreams. The migrant workers, stable buck, swamper, and the other men on the ranch had an unsettled disappointment of where they were at in their lives. George and Lennie, two newcomers to the ranch, aren’t like the other guys. They have each other and they are the not loneliest people in the world. Lennie has a dream though he wants to own a farm with plenty of crops and animals one day. The only problem is his blind curiosity of people and things around him. George wasn’t justified for killing Lennie because Lennie was innocent and never got the chance to find out what he did wrong.
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Themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men
1108 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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False Hope In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
714 Words | 2 Pages
This piece of literature portrays that false hope is a part of everyday life especially during the great depression. Every influential character in this novella seemed to have some sort of goal in their life that was discontented by the harsh reality of their life and the economy of the United States. George Milton expected for things to get better if he kept working hard, but then Lennie killed Curley’s wife, resulting in George euthanizing Lennie. Working hard and praying that life will get better isn’t always enough, which is the message of harsh reality that Of Mice and Men sends to the novella’s readers. Like everybody, George had a dream of happiness and comfort, which never became reality because of
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Conventions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men
824 Words | 2 Pages
Novels that exhibit what the life is like for the people at ranch can help readers reflect on how they might react in comparable situation. George and Lennie who struggle to transcend the plight of inerrant farmworkers are followed by the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck. Readers are positioned to respond to themes through Steinbeck’s use of conventions that are dispirit. Themes such as Freedom and confinement, loneliness, and racism are pivotal in the novel and draw out a range of responses from the readers.
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Comparing 'Of Mice And Men And To A Mouse'
1020 Words | 3 Pages
The authors John Steinbeck and Robert Burns approach their ideas in very different ways, while having the same themes the reader comprehends key concepts in a different light. Throughout the short story “Of Mice and Men” and the poem “To a Mouse” the theme of hope is a key concept, even though while in both stories their hope did not bring them their happiness, friendship brought them together. Correspondingly while having similar themes of friendship, loneliness, and hope, this all takes place in different settings with different characters.
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sibr
554 Words | 2 Pages
In Of Mice and Men, it seems an incontrovertible law of nature that dreams should go unfulfilled. From George and Lennie’s ranch to Curley’s wife’s stardom, the characters’ most cherished aspirations repeatedly fail to materialize. However, the fact that they do dream—often long after the possibility of realizing those dreams has vanished—suggests that dreaming serves a purpose in their lives. What the characters ultimately fail to see is that, in Steinbeck’s harsh world, dreams are not only a source of happiness but a source of misery as well.
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John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
1096 Words | 3 Pages
This is a novella written by John Steinbeck in 1937, about two men that lived during the depression. They were migrant workers, who wanted to buy a farm. ()
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John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
678 Words | 2 Pages
Man needs companionship and has difficulty maintaining it because no humans think the exact same or have the exact same beliefs. To maintain a companion you must have things in common, you must be able to disagree with a sort of respectful understanding, and finally you must care legitimately about that person. These three requirements to preserve a companionship are at times arduous to keep true. Some people do not have the time, concern, or the ability to sustain a veritable friendship with a companion or companions.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
1081 Words | 3 Pages
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Hopes and Dreams Help People to Survive, Even if they can Never. Become Real How is this true for George and Lennie/ the characters in ‘Of Mice and the.. Men’. An important theme in ‘Of Mice and Men’ is that of hope and dreams. The main dream is that of George and Lennie to own a smallholding and work self-sufficiently.
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
4582 Words | 10 Pages
By then there was no more land to be claimed and America had built up
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Of Mice And Men
1098 Words | 3 Pages
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.
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Of Mice of Men
492 Words | 1 Pages
The novel Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, is about two ranch hands, George and Lennie. George is a small, smart-witted man, while Lennie is a large, mentally- handicapped man. They are trying to raise enough money to buy their own ranch, by working as ranch hands. During the setting of the story, they are at a ranch whose owner’s name is Curley. It is in this setting that the novel reveals that the main theme is death and loss.
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The Unattainable American Dream
750 Words | 2 Pages
In the novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck illustrates the dreams of George,Lennie, and other characters and how these dreams are unrealistic and unattainable .Their dreams were the reason that these characters kept moving forward but because of difficult circumstances the dreams of George,Lennie,Candy and Curley's wife are shattered , they knew that their dream was never really attainable but they still had hope but because they were so greatly impacted by Lennies actions their dreams are never accomplished.
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Essay On The Relationship Between George And Lennie
1124 Words | 3 Pages
One critic recognizes Steinbeck’s approach to the futile dream of achieving the happy medium by comparing George and Lennie’s relationship to the psychological components of the appetite and reason (Goldhurst 57). Hadella reinforces this idea, suggesting that as the appetite, Lennie acts without reason, thus explaining the violent outbursts and feats he performs throughout the novella (152) whereas George acts as Lennie’s guide and ensures the safety for the two of them. Through Lennie’s death, the author illustrates that the relationship between appetite and reason are not of equal standings and that, in the end, one eventually domineers over the other. The death of Lennie as the portrayal of man’s relations could also be seen as a continuation of the curse as Owens suggests (“Bloom’s Guides” 84). Companionship is essentially unattainable within the setting of the novella Of Mice and Men suggestively due to man’s desolate fate based on the story of Cain and Abel. Due to the impossible obtainment of a compromise between companionship and independence, fate conclusively takes its toll on Lennie, doubling as the
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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis

The Blindness on John Stienbeck´s Of Mice and Men

Themes in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men

False Hope In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Conventions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Comparing 'Of Mice And Men And To A Mouse'

sibr

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men