Archetypes In Of Mice And Men

709 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Symbols and meanings of men

Through the ages, archetypes have constantly shown up in all forms of literature. One specific classic, the quest, is most notably known from many literature novels. The character Lennie in the novel Of Mice and Men demonstrates the archetype of the quest by facing trying challenges, and the goal of a peaceful life. During the course of the novel, Lennie is faced with a variety of challenges. The first impediment he encounters is remembering everyday things in general. For example, at one point he thinks he has lost his working ticket when he was never in possession of it in the first place. George and Lennie are run out of the town of Weed because Lennie had once again gotten himself and George in trouble. He saw a girl wearing a soft …show more content…

Lennie dreams of living on a wide open ranch with George where he tends to the fluffy little rabbits he loves so much. Nevertheless, Lennie sadly never reaches his ultimate goal as his flaw finally becomes his fatal flaw. Lennie kills Curley 's wife by shaking her so hard that her neck breaks. He does not kill her on purpose but Lennie does not know his own strength. He is only shaking her like that because he wants her to stop yelling. Curley 's wife observes that Lennie is "jus ' like a big baby" (Steinbeck 99) and invites him to stroke her soft hair. Lennie begins to feel her hair and likes it very much indeed, which leads him to pet it too hard. When she started to complain, he panicked and started to try to silence her. He was afraid that George would not let him be part of the dream anymore if Curley 's wife got mad at what he did. So he 's shaking her to try to protect his part in the dream but he kills her and the dream too. Lennie observes that he has "done a bad thing" (Steinbeck 100) and covers her body with hay. Lennie is hiding in the brush where George had told him to hide when he got into trouble. George finally emerges to get Lennie while he is an emotional mess. He then tells Lennie to take off his hat as he continues to recount "how it will be" (Steinbeck 104) for them. He orders Lennie to kneel and pulls out Carlson 's Luger. As the voices

Show More
Related

  • Why Is Lennie Wrong

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    George really helps him through problems that keep happening during the book. Lennie is incapable to live because he does not know his strength and George has to play the role as a living assistant for Lennie. Lennie does not mean to harm but because of his condition he essentially harms people. In the book it explains the trouble in weed and George explains “Well he saw a girl in a red dress and a red dress and he just wanted to feel it and when he touched it the girl just starts yelling and all he can think to do is hold on” ( Steinbeck 41). The quote states or explains how Lennie can scare or harm people.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Dreams In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Curley’s wife represents her broken dreams of becoming an actress. Lennie and George represent a dream in progress, it is uncertain if their plans will work out as intended or plummet before takeoff, even Crooks and Candy see the appeal in Lennie and George’s fantasy and join them. The dream in progress gives hope to Lennie and George and continued to even after losing previous jobs. Curley’s wife is constantly restricted, she married Curley so that she would no longer be alone but now is in the same state as before, just on a ranch of men. She tries to talk to the other men but she is then seen as "jail bait" and avoided, making her even lonelier. Her dream of being an actress has failed because she chose a quick way out and married Curley. She is now living in her failure and has no longer a dream to aim for. Perhaps the most important part of the story is the the part in which Lennie has accidentally killed the puppy given to him by Slim, and is grieving over him in the barn, “This ain’t no bad thing like I got to go hide in the brush. Oh! no. This ain’t. I’ll tell George I foun’ it dead.” He unburied the puppy and inspected it, and he stroked it from ears to tail. He went on sorrowfully, “But he’ll know. George always knows. He’ll say, ‘You done it. Don’t try to put nothing over on me.’ An’ he’ll say, ‘Now jus’ for that you don’t get to tend no rabbits!” (Steinbeck, 85) He feels powerless to his own strength, he believes that he will never achieve his dream because of his mistake. George and the other men are out once again and the only person who comes to his emotional aid is none other than Curley’s wife. “Don’t you worry about talkin’ to me. Listen to the guys yell out there. They got four dollars bet in that tenement. None of them ain’t gonna leave till it’s over.” “If George sees me talkin’ to you he’ll give me hell,” Lennie said cautiously.” (Steinbeck, 85) He

    Read More

  • The Role Of Torture In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    Firstly, if George did not kill Lennie, Curley would have inhumanly killed Lennie. Curley plans to torture Lennie because he has killed his wife and wrecked his hand in the fight earlier in the book. For example: Curley says, “ I’m gonna shoot the guts out of that big bastard myself even if I only got one hand. I’m gonna get im” (98).

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men: Four Major Themes

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    excited one. He now has hope of doing something and it came from the "dream

    Read More

  • Lennie Unintelligent Quotes

    458 Words  | 1 Pages

    Another trait of Lennie’s is that he is often forgetful, he can’t even remember anything that was told to him twenty seconds before. “‘You remember where we’re goin’ now?’ Lennie looked startled and then in embarrassment hid his face against his knees. ‘I forgot again.’” This quote shows that George repeatedly tells Lennie things but he forgets them from one minute to the next. This happened several times such as the time when he forgot how he got kicked out of Weed. This trait effects Lennie because he often forgets important

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men Lennie's Downfall

    426 Words  | 1 Pages

    Throughout the novel, Lennie's actions tend to be the cause of many events including his own downfall. This is shown in George's conversation with Slim when George says, "Well the girl rabbits an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie" (Steinbeck 42). This quote shows how Lennie's action to grab a girl's dress results the guys in Weed chasing him and George out. This is significant because through this one action, Lennie ends up working at the ranch setting himself up for his eventual death. Unlike George who is

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men Take Care Of Lennie And George

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie often asks George to tell him of their plans to eventually own their own ranch, as soon as George mentions the rabbits Lennie turns giddy with anticipation. Just the thought of caring for those fuzzy little animals filled his heart with joy. All he ever really wanted was a place where he belonged and had a purpose at. At one point in the novel, when George is telling Lennie of the farm, Lennie chimes in buoyantly saying, "I get to tend the rabbits," (pg.105). This was said in the final moments before Lennie was shot in the back of the head by George. Even with his last few breaths Lennie was optimistic to get away from the hardships and finally settle down. Little did he know that was all a deception planted in his mind to ease George from the battle of reality. George unfair to deceive Lennie this way and heartlessly get Lennie's hopes up right before he pulled the trigger that seized Lennie's

    Read More

  • Body Paragraph Analysis: Of Mice And Men

    570 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lennie is day dreaming/laughing about the dream farm, but Curley gets the wrong idea from Lennie laughing. He thought that Lennie was laughing at him. The scene of everyone laughing at Curley made him furious and he went for the easiest target to take his anger out on. Lennie. We already know that Curley hates big guys and that he doesn’t joke around when he fights. As shown in the second part of the quote, Lennie “helplessly looked at George, and then he got up and tried to retreat” meaning that Lennie was confused and forlorn. Steinbeck uses “helplessly” to show how Lennie feels about Curley approaching to him and that he doesn’t know what to do thus looking at George. In other words, because of his size and his dream not being a reality, Curley can’t stand people that are bigger than him. Towards the end of the story, Curley’s wife comes inside the barn where Lennie was and tells him what her life was before she married Curley. “Well, a show come through, an’ I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol’ lady wouldn’ let me. She says

    Read More

  • The Role Of George And Lennie's Dream Realism In Of Mice And Men

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the story focuses on two friends in a time of hard labor and low pay. They struggle in their daily life, and have many obstacles to overcome to achieve their end goal; to have their own farm. The story directly correlates to Thomas C. Foster’s words in the first chapter of his guide, How To Read Literature Like A Professor. One of the two main characters in Of Mice and Men, George, is a prime example of someone who goes on a quest, as he fits all 5 of Foster’s criterion to consider his journey of self-discovery a quest. At the beginning of the story, George wants to achieve a happy life working on a ranch with Lennie, his companion with a mental disability. But by

    Read More

  • Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

    489 Words  | 1 Pages

    He only thinks “George is going to give me hell” and is devoted to George like a dog with his owner. Lennie feels secure when he pets soft things and it makes him feel safe from the cruel world he is living in. He starts out petting a dead mouse in the novel and feels safe. Although people will disapprove of his actions, he does not see anything wrong in what he is doing. Lennie’s outrageous size and strength along with his lack of intelligence makes him dangerous to others. George is there to keep him in check and make sure he stays out of trouble. Lennie soon finds himself in trouble once again when he kills Curly’s Wife by snapping her neck on accident trying to keep her quiet when he was trying to help her. Lennie runs away to the riverside where George told him to hide if he was in any trouble. George and all the ranch workers go on a search for him. George knows exactly where Lennie is so he strays off from the rest of the men and finds Lennie. George tells Lennie to look into the river and imagine their rabbit farm he wishes to have

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men: Mini-critique

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    Curley's wife lets Lennie feel her hair, but he strokes it too hard and she

    Read More

  • Stereotypes in Of Mice and Men

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book Of Mice and Men, the author,John Steinbeck, uses stereotype characters to convey his message. He wants to empathize with his characters as human beings. He uses stereotype characters such as Lennie, George, Curly, Slim, Candy, Crooks, and Curly's wife. Steinbeck's goal is to inform people how life was like for a migrant worker in the 1920's to 1930's.

    Read More

  • Peaceful Execution in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    When Lennie died, he was thinking about the dream.  This made Lennie happy because he was "gonna tend the rabbits".  That means his last thoughts before he died were happy ones of a farm, a little shack and rabbits eating the alfalfa.  If Lennie didn't shoot George and Curley did, George would be thinking about how he killed Curley's wife and that Curley was really mad at him.   That thought wouldn't make Lennie happy and Lennie knew that so he shoot him.

    Read More

  • Of Mice And Men Symbolism Essay

    395 Words  | 1 Pages

    Lennie kills Curley’s wife, and George tells him the “dream farm” is no longer a reality, he sit’s

    Read More

  • Lennie's Passion for Soft Objects in Of Mice and Men

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Curley's wife, an accident that seals his own fate and destroys not only his dreams but George's and Candy's as well. In the beginning Lennie used to pet mice that his Aunt Clara used to give him, he would always end up killing them because he didn't know his own strength. Lennie never killed any pet or person purposely; he pets too roughly and kills them accidentally. An example of his rough tendencies is in the first chapter (page7) when Lennie wants to keep a dead mouse and George wouldn't let him Lennie says" Uh-uh. Jus' a dead mouse, George.

    Read More

More about Archetypes In Of Mice And Men

Open Document