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Reflection of society in literature
Literature As A Reflection Of Society
Literature As A Reflection Of Society
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Power and Authority in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men Power is a strong ability that can influence the behavior of people or current events. Those who have power in their everyday life have an advantage over those who don’t. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men his message is that characters who have power demonstrate an advantage over other characters. George has a small figure and is considered tiny against his tall and heavily built friend Lennie. However, he shows great dominance over him. He demands that Lennie hand him a dead mouse that Lennie had kept secret from George. He also makes sure that Lennie is to not talk when they first show up to the farm. George manipulates his power against Lennie to take charge in the duo. Despite the fact that Lennie’s robust body has more strength and power against George’s, he is still the one who is in command in the pair. Many characters demonstrate power in the way they are …show more content…
introduced into the novel.The boss and his son Curley are introduced with a description of their higher quality of clothing. The finer clothing the boss and Curley wear is used to emphasize the power they have towards the other farm hands. When Slim is introduced into the story, he is referred to as “Prince of the Ranch.” This is done to inform the reader that Slim should be viewed with authority. Slim uses his power against Candy to convince him to kill his beloved dog. Candy who is at an old age and is disabled has no other choice, but to listen to Slim. This examples the power these characters had over other characters in how they are introduced into the novel. Many may not recognize Curley’s wife to have any power to her name, but she does hold an upper hand against some of the farm hands.
Although she does not have a name and is referred to as “Curley’s wife,” she does hold power over Crooks the stable buck. She threatens to have him lynched because he had spoken out of turn and offended Curley’s wife. Despite the fact that Curley’s wife was a woman in the 1930’s struggling with an overly pugnacious husband, she was exposed as a superior towards Crooks. She used her racial privilege against Crooks to discipline his behavior. This is illustrated by how a white woman had more power in the 1930’s against a severely disabled African-American man. Many people who have power and authority have the ability to have a strong influence over the behavior of others. They show great dominance over them, and have a lot of say in their actions. And many characters demonstrate this in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. The novel stresses us to view the advantage power has in its characters’ actions and
appearance.
why Lennie and George Travel together and is not very understanding. Although you never find
What is power to a human? As time has gone by, there have been many forms of control and influence in the world. Many strive to achieve total rule over a society or group of individuals. Yet the question still presents itself to the average man. Why does man desire power so greatly even though there is visible trouble that follows? Shelley’s Frankenstein, Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, whether through the situation or the character themselves, depict the evils and hardships due to an imbalance and poor management of power.
As we journey through life, we must make difficult decisions, even when few options exist and the situation is grim. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the decision George faces after Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife is complicated, as none of his choices are good. The importance of his relationship with Lennie forces George to look at the big picture and act in Lennie’s best interests, even though the action he must finally take will result in a weight that he will carry forever.
The quote that inspired John Steinbeck was the best laid schemes often go off track can be seen in the novel of Mice and Men. When Curley's wife met a man in her childhood that offered her to be an actress but the chance went away and she later died. Then Curley wanted to be a professional boxer but the dream never happened and he became a farmer then got his hand broken for trying to be tough. George and Lennie were going to buy a farm to live off the fat of the land then Lennie had to get in trouble and George had to give up the dream and kill Lennie for what he had done.
Despite the perception that women are inferior and incompetent, seldom do women withstand this consistent discrimination upon their sex. Under the jurisdiction of men in their families, women are oftentimes restrained from opportunity and development. Curley, a man with an intimidating complexion, forces many, including his flirtatious wife, to succumb to his power. However, he fails to recognize his wife’s rising empowerment as she manipulates men around him into becoming her pawns. John Steinbeck’s usage of Curley’s wife in the novel Of Mice and Men delineates the desire of women to eliminate the over dominance of men through deceit in exchange for their own power.
Curley’s wife feels as if she is ‘owned’ by her husband. She is told by her husband not to speak with the ranch workers or be around them but despite this she still flirts with the other men. An example of this is when she meets George Milton and Lennie Small for the first time. She comes in “just looking for Curley”, which is her excuse for talking to the newcomers. I believe she does this out of loneliness and isolation, which had been caused by Curley and the ‘time’ they lived in. When this happens today in Western society, it is considered to be a form of emotional abuse. Although times have changed and it has been given a different name, I feel that this ...
There are several characters in Of Mice and Men who have power other others. Powers they’ve earned, and powers that they were given.In a time era where everyone abonded one other, most of these powers were used for each own’s selfish advantage. Not all characters gave up on others though, and use their powers for the wellbeing of everyone. Powers like money, authority, and fear control characters, and give other characters power over others.
Conflict, by definition, is a back and forth struggle between two opposing forces. In the literary work, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, it is clear, the protagonist, George Milton, undergoes many conflicts that lead to the novel’s overall purpose. Steinbeck weaves together George’s conflicts with others, himself, and with society to illustrate what the true meaning of friendship is.
Society has never been perfect, and it never will be, however most people have certainly tried to make the world a better place. Dr. Hannon is a person who works with hoarders to help them let go of all their strange collections that do not help the hoarder in any way. However, society in the 1930s was not the same, and people were not as ready to help others as they are now. The American Society in the 1930s was intolerant to difference because people were not ready to help people who weren’t the same as them.
John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, incorporated several themes such as the idea of being powerless or objectified. In the story, several characters projected these ideas, such as one named Lennie Small. Throughout the story, Lennie committed multiple events that showed how powerless or objectified he really was, causing his ending fate to be in the hands of his caretaker. The character Lennie wouldn’t have died if he didn’t do the killing of beings and the crushing of a man’s hand, but Lennie has the mind of a toddler causing him to not understand what he had done, which in the end led to his killing to prevent Lennie from getting himself into any more trouble.
Curley works on a ranch with all of the other men yet he acts as a superior to them and tries to hold control over them. This is seen through the way Curley acts, speaks, or even dresses as Curley “like the boss…wore high heeled boots” (Steinbeck, 25). It may seem simple, yet the fact that Curley wore boots like the boss shows he finds himself above the other workers. However, Curley did not gain dominance through hard work and respect; instead he had received it by using his father and the fact that he is “the boss’s son” (Steinbeck, 26). The other workers new that his Father was the boss and while they held no respect for him, they let him have authority due to fear of losing their own positions. They believed that Curley “won’t ever get canned ‘cause his old mans the boss” (Steinbeck, 27), because of this they understood that they had to let him have control of them or otherwise that could be in trouble with the boss. This is seen when one of the workers told George and Lennie information about Curley and then with fear in his voice said “don’t tell Curley I said none of this” (Steinbeck, 27). Same way in our society, people very often get authority or leadership not because they showed they deserve it through hard work and skill, but because others fear that if they don’t obey the person they may lose something valuable, as in the story the workers could have lost their jobs.
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a captivating and powerful novel. The book is about two men, one very short man named George who happens to be very smart and one tall man named Lennie who is strong, but has a limited mental capacity. One of the most important scenes that relates to this book is when George shot Lennie. This scene relates to the book by demonstrating the history, common dreams and friendship that George and Lennie share.
Visualize encountering a certain individual that constantly is infuriating and positions their nose in situations in which they have no authorization to be a disturbance. Specifically, in the novel Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck, who is the novelist, establishes a character that is precise as to what has been aforementioned, otherwise referred to as “Curley’s wife”. Despite the fact that Curley’s wife is scarcely in the novel, she portrays a crucial part(Sparknotes).
As they reach a clearing, Lennie stops to drink from the river, and George warns him not to drink too much or he will get sick, as he did the night before. As their conversation continues, it becomes clear that the larger man has a mild mental disability, and that his companion looks out for his safety. George begins to complain about the bus driver who dropped them off a long way from their intended destination—a ranch on which they are due to begin work. Lennie interrupts him to ask where they are going. His companion impatiently reminds him of their movements over the past few days, and then notices that Lennie is holding a dead mouse. George takes it away from him.
In the book Of Mice and Men, by George Stienback, I think that the ranch is all in a constant power struggle, and no one seems to ever come out on top. It seems like some people have a natural aura of power around them and some do not.