Of mice and men

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Our staff of freelance writers includes over 120 experts proficient in of mice and men, therefore you can rest assured that your assignment will be handled by only top rated specialists. Order your of mice and men paper at affordable prices with livepaperhelp.com! " Of Mice and Men " by John Steinbeck is a novel involving two extremely different main characters. George is a reasonably intelligent, hardworking ranchman. Lennie on the other hand always manages to find trouble. He is equally as hardworking and honest as George but his simple childlike mind always finds him trouble wherever he goes. However they have one thing that unites the two of them as close as any bond can. This is that they both share the same dream of owning their own ranch and after many hard working years, moving from ranch to ranch, living in complete poverty and working for next to nothing they finally try to achieve this life long dream.

OF MICE AND MEN

KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING

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This book is set in two places. It starts beside a stream, close to the Salinas River, a few miles

South of Soledad. It then moves to a ranch, where the major part of the story is set. At the end of

the novel, the setting comes back to where it started.

George and Lennie are introduced by the stream. They are on their way to a near-by ranch. The

surrounding land is thick in vegetation and has its own wild life. Men frequent it, as there are ash

piles made by many fires and the limbs of the sycamore tree have been smoothed by the many

men who have sat on it.

The ranch, where the major part of the story takes place, appears isolated and lonely. It includes

a ranch house, a bunkhouse where the ranch workers live, a barn, and a harness-room off the

barn.

CHARACTERS

Major Characters

George - the protagonist and main character of the book. He is a caring, compassionate, and

understanding human being who dreams of owning his own piece of land.

Lennie - the obedient friend of George. He has a childs mind and a giants body. It is these

contrasting qualities that cause him problems.

Old Candy - one of the lonely ranch workers. He is a cripple, working as a Swamper.

Crooks - a black ranch hand. He is sensible and neat, with a mind of his own. He is a lonely

character, who is discriminated against, due to his race.

Slim - a ranch worker with leadership qualities. He commands respect from all on the ranch.

Curley - the bosss son who is a light weight boxer. He picks fights with everybody on the ranch.

Curleys wife - the only woman on the ranch. She is very flirtatious.

Minor Characters

Carlson - a brutal man. He objects to Candy keeping his old dog.

Whit - a ranch worker. He is sent to town to fetch the Sheriff after Curleys wife is murdered.

The Boss - a mice fella (in Candys words). He is more concerned about his work on the ranch

CONFLICT

Protagonist The protagonist of the story is George. He is the kind-hearted ranch hand who is

concerned about his friend Lennie and watches out for him.

Antagonist The antagonist of the story is Georges trying to care for the handicapped Lennie.

Because he has a giants body and a childs mind, Lennie accidentally kills Curleys wife; at the

same time he kills the dream of owning a farm that has kept George and Lennie positive about

the future

Climax The climax occurs when Lennie accidentally kills Curleys wife. George knows that he

can no longer save Lennie, for Curley will want revenge.

Outcome Of Mice and Men ends in tragedy. George feels compelled to mercifully kill his

friend and companion, Lennie, in order to save him from a brutal death. The death of Lennie also

marks the death of the beautiful dream they have been nurturing

PLOT (Synopsis)

One evening, two men, on their way to a ranch, stop at a stream near the Salinas River. George,

who is short and dark, leads the way. The person following him is Lennie, a giant of a man with

huge arms. During their conversation by the stream, George repeatedly asks Lennie to keep his

mouth shut on the ranch, suggesting that Lennie has some kind of problem. After supper and

before going to sleep, the two of them talk about their dream to own a piece of land.

The next day, George and Lennie travel to the ranch to start work. They are given two beds in

the bunkhouse. Then Old Candy introduces them to almost everybody on the ranch. They meet

the boss and the bosss son Curley, who is quite rude. They also meet Curleys wife when she

comes looking for her husband. She wears heavy make-up and possesses a flirtatious attitude.

George warns Lennie to behave his best around Curley and his wife. He also suggests that they

should meet by the pool if anything unfortunate happens to either of them on the ranch.

George and Lennie are assigned to work with Slim, who is sensible and civilized and talks with

authority. George finds Slim an understanding confidante, and a bond forms between the two of them. When Curley wrongly accuses Slim for talking to his wife, Slim gets very angry. Curley

apologizes to him in the bunkhouse in front of everybody, but his apology is rejected. Curley

vents his frustration on Lennie, trying to pick a fight. Lennie does not hit back initially, but when

George asks him to, Lennie obliges and crushes Curleys hand. Curley agrees that he will not tell

anyone about his hand, for it would mean losing his self-respect.

While working on the ranch, George and Lennie continue to dream about owning their own piece

of land and make plans accordingly. Old Candy, one of the ranch hands, overhears their planning

and asks to join them. He even offers to contribute all of his savings to purchase the land. George

and Lennie accept his proposal.

One evening, Lennie, looking for his puppy, enters the room of Crooks; since he is the only

black man on the ranch, Crooks lives alone, segregated from the other ranch workers. Candy

enters, looking for Lennie; the two of them tell Crooks about their dream of owning their own

ranch, but Crooks tells them that it will never happen, foreshadowing the truth. Curleys wife

comes in and interrupts them. When Crooks objects to her presence in his room, she threatens

him with a false rape charge.

Later on, Lennie is seen alone in the barn, petting his dead pup. He has unintentionally killed it

by handling it too hard. Now he is grieving over the loss. Curleys wife walks into the barn and

strikes up a conversation with Lennie. As they talk, she asks him to stroke her hair. She panics

when she feels Lennies strong hands. When she raises her voice to him, Lennie covers her

mouth. In the process, he accidentally breaks her neck and she dies. Knowing he has done

something terrible, he leaves the ranch. When the ranch hands learn that Curleys wife has been

killed, they rightly guess the guilty party. Led by an angry Curley, they all go out to search for

Lennie. They plan to murder him in retribution.

George guesses where Lennie is and races to the pool. To save him from the brutal assaults of

the ranch hands, George mercifully kills his friend himself. Hearing the gunshot, the searchers

converge by the pool. They praise George for his act. Only Slim understands the actual purpose

of Georges deed.

THEMES

Major Theme

The major theme of the book, Of Mice and Men, is that a dream, no matter how impossible to

obtain, can forge friendship and give meaning to life. George and Lennie dream of owning a

little farm of ten acres, with a windmill, a little shack, an orchard, and animals. The dream keeps

them going and lightens the load of their work. It also solidifies their friendship.

Minor Themes

One of the minor themes is the tragedy of mental retardation. Lennie never intends to harm

anything, neither the puppy nor Curleys wife. He is simply too slow to realize his own strength.

His retardation is the cause of his downfall and death, in spite of Georges trying to help him stay

out of trouble.

The pain of loneliness is another theme of the book. All the main characters, including George,

Lennie, Candy, Crooks, Curleys wife, and Slim, express the sadness caused by their feelings of

loneliness. The craving for company and the longing for sharing real emotions make these

characters very human.

Loneliness and friendship

To the people on the ranch, even the broad-minded Slim, Georges and Lennies partnership is very unusual. It is clear that most of them are lonely. Some, like Whit, feel the loneliness and remember wished-for friends with affection. Others learn to be self-sufficient emotionally, or just plain selfish. Crooks insists on his right to be alone even though he dislikes it, while Carlson seems incapable of actually sympathizing with anyone elses viewpoint. Curley can only communicate through aggression. He marries to impress the men with his sexual prowess and to boast to his wife about how he will give "the ol one-two" to his opponents. Slim enjoys respect and a friendly manner, if not actual friendship, from the others on the ranch. He is welcoming and sympathetic to George and Lennie, and forces Carlson to consider Candys feelings he allows the dog to be shot, but Carlson must bury it; Candy should not have to do this. Candy is desperate for companionship, and readily discusses the proposed ranch with Lennie ("I been figurin how we can make on them rabbits") without any sense that Lennie is too simple to follow his conversation.

Crooks astutely notes that Lennie cannot remember what he is saying, but points out that most people in conversation do this, that being with another is what counts; and so he talks freely to Lennie, who has the same effect on Curleys wife. She cannot speak to her husband but pours out her troubles to Lennie. It is ironic that the retarded man should be taken into the confidence of these supposedly normal characters. It is unfortunate that the rare relationship of friends should be ended by one of them; in killing Lennie, George knows (and tells Candy) he is condemning himself to the life of working for a month, then blowing his pay in the pool-room and "lousy cat-house". And the detailed references to the two brothels in Soledad remind us both of the lack of opportunity for the ranch-hands to have a lasting sexual relationship, and the absence of opportunities for women to work in respectable jobs.

The authors technique

Structure

Steinbecks narrative method is unremarkable but effective in a simple way; for this reason it is not an obvious subject for study. The structure of the novella is clear and quite simple each chapter is an extended episode, in the same place. Some things happen while others, which have happened, are re-told (George tells Slim about Weed; Whit tells the hands about Bill Tenners letter; Curleys wife tells Lennie about her past).

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