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The free essay of loneliness and isolation in of mice and men
The free essay of loneliness and isolation in of mice and men
Of mice and men portrayal of women
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Who’s to Blame?
Life for ranchers in the 1930’s was very lonely. They have no family, and they do not belong anywhere. They come to the ranch, earn their pay, go into town, waste their money, and start all over again at another ranch. They have nothing to look forward to. But George and Lennie are different; it is not like that for them because they have each other. It was George and Lennie’s dream to own a piece of land and a farm. That dream is long gone. In the story, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley caused the death of his wife and Lennie’s death; Curley also shattered George and Lennie’s dream.
In the same way that George and Lennie had a dream, Curley’s wife had one too; for Curley’s wife, living on farm with a bunch of men that loathe her, and an annoying husband who she hates, is not exactly what she hoped achieve in life. If she was treated better, she would not have wanted someone to understand and care for her, because Curley would have done that for her. But since Curley did not do that, she wanted to get attention from anyone who would listen to her, and that is where Lennie got involved. When Curley’s wife enters the shed and starts speaking to Lennie she says something very important: “… seems like they ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live (88)”. When Curley’s wife says this, it shows us how much she is craving for someone to listen and care about what she has to say. It also shows us that she wants someone to listen to her so badly that she is willing to talk to someone that does not comprehend what she has to say. Since Lennie does not really understand or care about what she has to say, she gets the attention back on her by getting Lennie to focus on her soft hair. Lennie strokes her hair t...
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... to his best friend, than die at the hands of a cruel stranger. To put it in another way, Lennie was going to die no matter what, he could be happy for his last few seconds in life, or he could be petrified, and Curley was the one that put George in charge of this harsh decision.
In other words, Curley did not only shatter the dreams of George and Lennie, his also killed his wife and Lennie. Curley had never cared for his wife. He only cared about himself and his reputation. Curley has wanted revenge on Lennie ever since Lennie crushed his arm. By forcing George to kill Lennie, Curley did not only kill Lennie, he killed a part of George too. If truth be told, life in the Great Depression was tough, but it appeared that George and Lennie were different than the rest of the men, that they could survive because they had each other; that was true until Curley appeared.
Curley and the others were looking for Lennie and wanted to exterminate him; they were angry and hated Lennie. If Curley would have found Lennie, he would have shot him. But that way, Lennie would have died afraid and sad. His death would have been very violent.
George felt though an extremely difficult choice, killing Lennie himself was the right decision. Curley was gonna get his revenge and George did not want that because he did not want Lennie to die painfully. “‘I’ll kill the big son-of-a-bitch myself. I’ll shoot him in the guts.’”(Steinbeck 96). When Lennie killed Curley’s wife, Curley wanted to give him the most painful death. Curley wanted to shoot Lennie in the stomach which wouldn’t kill you at first, Instead you would bleed out slowly and painfully. George didn’t want Lennie to suffer so he knew he had to get to Lennie before Curley did and kill Lennie the fastest and least painful death he could which he did. Lennie would be arrested and thrown in jail for
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.
After Lennie makes his mistake of killing Curley's wife the other characters want to brutally kill him being led by Curley but George who realises that this is a cruel way for Lennie to die and that he can’t save Lennie he decides that Lennie must have a merciful death. The reader infers when Curley says “ ‘I know who done it,[...][It was lennie].I know he done it. [...] I’m gonna get him. I’m going for my shotgun[...]I’ll shoot him in the guts’ ” ( 96). In this quote we understand that Curley plans on killing Lennie but in a more painful way than Lennie deserves. Thus George realizes that Lennie is about to be killed in a horrific way so he intervenes and kills Lennie in a peaceful way. This shows that mercy killing is to be done over the horrific way that Curley wants to take out Lenie. Because Lennie would have a much worse death than needed and Lennie could have put up a fight, George completes a mercy killing as the safest
The moment that Curley's wife was introduced, an ill feeling overcomes the atmosphere indicating that Lennie will be getting into a mess with her. George states in the very beginning that he is always getting into mishaps, "You do bad things and I got to get you out," (p.11). The situation in Weed involved a girl and Curley's wife just happened to be the only girl on the ranch. Connecting ends with ends, there is a sense of insecurity between these two people. Later on, there was an intimation that she was going to be killed by Lennie because he killed the mouse and the puppy, leading to bigger deaths such as Curley's wife.
In fact, near the ending of the story, he unintentionally snapped Curley’s wife’s neck trying to quiet her (91). Failing to recognize his own strength, Lennie accidentally took her life, proving that he was perilous. By shooting Lennie, George prevented Lennie from accidentally injuring or killing anyone ever again. His verdict was correct in view of the fact that he sacrificed his friend’s life with the intention to protect the lives of others. Furthermore, George’s decision protected Lennie. As a punishment for his deeds, The workers wanted Lennie executed. George realized this and told candy, “Curley’s gon’ta wanta get ‘i'm lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed,” (94). In consequence of killing Curley’s wife, Lennie unknowingly put himself in harm's way. Curley’s motive for wanting to kill Lennie was spite and revenge. So, instead of allowing Lennie to be murdered alone and afraid, George took matters into his own hands and made sure his friend died knowing he was cared for and full of hope. Through it's ironic, George’s choice protected Lennie from the malice of others, thus keeping him unafraid and unharmed. However, others may believe
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
Throughout the novel, Curley’s wife interacts with the characters in a flirtatious manner that is intended to grab attention, thus making the others distrustful of her. It’s fascinating to note that the way others treat her determines how she treats them back; for example, Lennie is the only man to regard her positively, calling her “purdy” (Steinbeck 32), so she behaves empathically towards him, whereas Candy refers to her as a “bitch” (Steinbeck 84) and she’s rather vile towards him. This point is further supported
First, Curley is an antagonist that complicates George and Lennie’s dream. Curley is the boss’s son, a skillful boxer who hates big guys. That is the reason why he wants to fight with Lennie. Because of the hostility Curley takes out on Lennie, it
“‘…That was your own Aunt Clara. An’ she stopped givin’ ‘em to ya. You always killed ‘em.’” (Page 9, Paragraph 7) George also knows that there is nothing he can do for Lennie’s mental and physical state. After they learn about Curley’s wife and meet her, George warns Lennie to stay away from her: “‘Well, you keep away from her, ‘cause she’s a rattrap if I ever seen one. Glove fulla Vaseline,’ George said disgustedly.” (Page 32, Paragraph 11) George is probably worried that Lennie might want to touch her and be accused of rape again. However, George is aghast when he sees Curley’s wife dead on the ground. He knows that Lennie did not mean to kill her, but he also knows that accidentally killing a human is still an unforgivable crime. George probably thinks of Lennie as a danger to him, to his future ranch, and to other humans as
The last responsible person for Lennie’s death was Curley. Curley was very mean to Lennie and was picking on him for only the reason that Lennie was bigger than Curley. Curley was also very possessive over his wife, which lead her to look for other men.
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.
"OF MICE AND MEN IS A NOVEL WHICH EXPLORES THE BURDENS OF RESPONSIBILITY AS MUCH
Curley makes sure his wife doesn’t talk to anyone. She is a victim of herself because she married a man that she hardly even knew. She married him though, to have a companion. She killed herself and Lennie because of her need for companionship. She craves companionship because she is an attractive woman with a need for interaction.
George and Lennie’s struggle for their tiny piece of the American Dream is best summed up by Crooks when he said that he’s “seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their hands. Hundreds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head.