“Of Mice and Men” By John Steinbeck †Coursework Essay

Of Mice and Men was set in the 1930s in North California. This was a time of economic rigourousness due to the protect Street Crash. Men were forced to leave their families and find move on ranches. Pay and working conditions were poor. Men scraped by, pass alonging any senseless property they had gambling or in one of the many whore houses. This is w here Steinbeck dis orient his inspiration from he spent time on the ranches experiencing the hardships experienced by the workers. The prevail is nigh these workers and the extremely unfrequented come up laids they led. It excessively exposes underlying themes of racialism and how badly the disabled were treated. This was a time when people livelinessed afterward bet one, as there was nobody else to do this for them. The two main characters ar roughlywhat different, as they travel and work together, looking proscribed for apiece separate.This was precise peculiar because brio would yield been hard enough with st art the extra responsibility of looking after an separate person. The two main characters spend a penny well(p) been evicted from their work in a t hold c e throed Soledad (which means seclusion). They ar the only people in the book whose c entirely Christian names are actu altogethery employ. It shows that nobody makes the effort to make tremblers enough to be on first name terms. This is symbolic of the loneliness of each of the characters and shows how unusual the two main characters are. The two main characters are called George ands Lennie. There is precise little information about them in the book. They work for their keep on the ranches. Lennie is slightly brain damaged and has a real limited memory. He is an enormous man and Steinbeck often compares his actions with those of a large, clumsy fleshly exploitation similes and metaphors Dragging his feet a little, the elan a bear drags his handwritings.These are think to subtly give the reader the impression that L ennie is big and clumsy, equivalent an animal that does not be intimate its admit strength Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water. George is exactly the opposite of Lennie. He is small, dark and quick, and is cautious about his surroundings The small man stepped nervously George is perpetually on the look out and he k at one times how to look after himself. The t throw they had unless condescend from was called Weed which could signify that they were unwanted, same(p) a weed, there they were forced out of there because Lennie make a mi gage. He had grabbed a woman and she utter that he had raped her. George is rattling much the dominant figure in the relationship and makes all the decisions. At the very start you can ascertain this because Lennie copies George in the way he looks and acts Lennie, who had been watching imitated George exactly. This suggests that Lennie looks up to George and wants to be dear like him.This is quite sad really as he has finish up nothing l ike him. Lennie hates to make George angry, like a track that hates to make his master angry. George feels responsible for Lennie. He is like a acquire figure to him, and he knows that Lennie would never be able to survive without him. He feels a sense of duty because Aunt Clara told him to look after Lennie. The different reason they travel together is George, though he doesnt like to admit it, enjoys Lennies company and he doesnt want to permit go of the American woolgather. They share the dream of owning their own place with a fewer animals livin off the fatta the lan. George knows it is very unlikely to happen save Lennie still believes and unendingly likes to hear the story of how its gonna be. This is sore for George and he is reluctant to tattle about it. You can tell it is of import to Lennie because he forgets anything he is told except he remembers the dream. George and Lennie are always conceive of of the future.When George and Lennie arrive on the ranch, the ranch hands and the boss are laughable of their relationship. They suspect that George is taking Lennies stake for himself I tell what stake you got in this guy? You takin his pay away from him? They cannot see why someone else would travel with someone who would restrict them unless they were getting paid. They are lonelier than George and Lennie, and mother no real concept of friendship. Despite having Lennie as a companion, George is to a fault lonely. He is alone in his responsibility for Lennie. In a way it is more like public speaking to an animal than a human when speaking to Lennie because George knows that whatever he says to him go out be forgotten and mean nothing. From the very beginning we get a hint of this by the way Lennie is made to seem more like a responsibility than a friend to George.Lennie is made to seen like an animal, like a terrier that doesnt want to tot his ball back to his master, maybe signifying that he is like a pet that always needs looking af ter. Steinbeck also uses George playing solitaire as a metaphor for his loneliness George cut the cards everyplace again and put out a solitaire lay, slowly and deliberately. George lays the cards out like he has done it many time before. Solitaire is a single player game (and solitaire is derived from solitary), this shows that Lennie is not capable of acting like an adult and so George must play on his own. George is held from having his own life by the responsibility of caring for Lennie. He continuously tells Lennie how life would be without him how he could restrain a girl and a prissy job God amighty, if I was alone I could live so easy The truth though, is that George would be in time lonely without Lennie. It is teetotal at the end of the book that George should be so upset by the death of Lennie, because then he realizes that he will have to spend all the rest if his time alone. You never know what you have until it is gone. superstar of the ranch workers, sweeten, features heavily in the book. He tries to join the friendship of George and Lennie. Candy is extremely lonely. He has been working on the ranch for many historic period and due to his disability. He is unable to leave because he knows that no some other employer would take him on. The only reason he has got work now, is that he suffered the defacework forcet to his hand on the ranch. He has seen many men come and go nevertheless he cannot move on. Candy knows he will belike die on the ranch. Candy is very tittle-tattleative because he is so eager to make friends. He warms to this gossip because he on his own when all the workers are in the fields. As soon as he meets George and Lennie he engages them in conversation, hardly letting them speak. He lets out all the opinions, about Curley and his wife and the other ranch hands that he has organize and never had anybody to tell them to. In fact the only sort of a friend he has is an old chase. The dog is old, has no teeth and it stinks.The dog is use to symbolise Candy old and useless. The dog is also used as a foreshadowing device for Lennies death. When Carlson tells him that he should cut down the dog he tries to stop him by making up excuses mayhap itd hurt him, and tries to put the inevitable off wants to spend just one more day with the dog by depleteing it in the morning. The only reason Candy had left to live was the dog so in a way Carlson killed a part of him. The dog is also used as a second foreshadowing device for what George has to do to Lennie in the conclusion of the book. Lennie, unlike the dog, however will be killed by the only person he trusts in the world. This will come from the jam of other people. In the early 20th Century, blacks were heavily persecuted because of their colour. The stable fritter is called Crooks and is discriminated because he is a black Spose you couldnt go into the bunkhouse and place rummy cause you were black.He is kept apart from the other ranch hands because of his hasten. He is very nervous when Lennie enters his room. This is because crooks has his own living musculus quadriceps femoris away from the other men. The only people he sees are probably going to insult or hurt him so he is immediately on guard when someone comes in to his room. He is also discriminated against because of his crippled back, which means that he cant work in the fields like the other men. Crooks reveals his past to Lennie in his barn. The chaff that his father used to own his own ranch and once he used to lead a comfortable life must be extremely painful for him to relive when he thinks about his present lonely self. That is probably why he is so bitter towards the other men who are treating him so harshly. Crooks is always dreaming of the past Remember when I was a little kid on old mans chicken ranch. The other men would probably dream of having their own space but Crooks is so lonely he would rather be with other people A guy needs somebody to be near him. All Crooks has for company is a small collection of books that he reads over and over again.It must be very lonely being on your own all the time when he thinks about what it had been like when he owned his own ranch. Sometimes he almost goes crazy with loneliness Maybe if he sees somethin, he dont know whether its right or not. He cant turn to the other guy and ast him if he sees it too, He is only admitting this because he knows that Lennie is not listening, and so far if he was, he couldnt remember and repeat what was being said anyway. Crooks is proud and doesnt want to admit that he is lonely or that the men are getting to him by calling him names and abusing him, If I say something, why its just a nigger aphorism it. When someone calls somebody something enough times a person will start to absorb the names and start to believe that there is some truth to what the person is saying about them. Crooks is treated like an animal. nonpareil Christmas time they let him into the bunkhouse and made him fight. The word let is used like letting an animal in for a treat. He then leaves after his fight, for his own room. The men just use him as entertainment. His life is always under threat because he means nothing them. Curleys wife plays a very prominent role in the book as she brings the death of Lennie and herself. She is not given a name through the on the whole book. This signifies how little everyone thinks of her. She is referred to as jail bait and slut by all the ranch hands. This is due to the manner she has adopted to befriend the men. She constantly flirts with any man she meets and being pretty at the same time, she is bound to get herself into some sort of trouble. She acts like this because she is lonely and it is her way of attracting attention to herself.The puzzle is that all the workers are afraid to prate to her because they fear what Curley would do to them if they did. Curley is always looking for a fight to show how much of ma n he is. If he got just the faint scent of her cheating on him he would fight. Nobody want to get on the wrong side of Curley because they know he is a good boxer and because he is the bosss son he can probably get anyone canned if he wants, In reality, Curleys wife doesnt actually like Curley and even admits to Lennie I dont like Curley. She married him to show her vex that she could be independent and to get back at her for the letter that could have been her big break that she thinks her mother stole. Curleys wife is dreaming of what could have been, how she could have been in the movies and what a lifestyle she could have had.The marriage in the midst of Curley and Curleys wife is not based on love but on sexual attraction Curleys wife is also very lonely, that is why she is always skulking around the bunkhouse with the men. She needs someone to talk to She uses the excuse that she is looking for her husband. In the end her loneliness is the end of her when she tries to talk t o Lennie (much the same way as Crooks let out his thoughts to him). The climax of the book starts in the barn. The scene begins with Lennie worrying about his puppy which he has just killed accidentally. Curleys wife enters, as usual looking for someone to talk to. She begins telling Lennie her life story.All through the book she has been portrayed as a spiteful woman foolin around with other guys, causin trouble., but here her true character comes out. Lennie ends up telling her about his love for easygoing things so she lets him stroke her hair. The other men can resist her charms but Lennie is not clever enough to know. Lennie strokes it a bit too cleverly and her panic affects Lennie. He breaks her neck by accident, then thinks that if he hides the puppy, which is used as a foreshadowing device to Curleys wifes death George will be more likely to let him slant his precious rabbits. This is sad and juiceless, as Lennie cannot grasp the enormity of the thing he has just done. Curleys wife seemed peaceful after her death the ache for attention were gone from her face. She was realised from her prison on the ranch and was now free and happy. When George hears, he despairs, for Lennie has ended their chance of achieving the impossible American Dream.One of the themes of this book is certainly loneliness. The people are segregated into groups. Age, disabilities, race and sex separate many people. Also the time of economic hardship forced men to look after number one. It made it very hard for the men to form friendships as they have very few responsibilities. The book is about the unusual friendship of George and Lennie who have nothing in common with each other apart from they share the American Dream. That is all that keeps them going. It is extremely sad when George is forced to kill Lennie because he was all that George had left. It was ironic because George had always spoken about what life would be like without Lennie how he could be free. Now he had hi s wish he was devastated that he had had to kill the only friend that he had in the world.