In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck, people are portrayed to not work hard enough to achieve long-term goals or dreams that they have set for themselves. This idea is shown multiple times throughout the story. It starts with Lennie and George wanting to purchase their own farm, to do this they will need to make enough money to get the farm started. They show no effort to make progress on this dream of theirs, they spend all the money they make on women and beer. Lennie’s dream is to tend to and take care of the rabbits on the farm they hope to one day own, his problem is that he has a problem with animals. When Lennie pets an animal he usually ends up killing it, and he makes no effort to show a little more care for the poor creatures. Curley’s wife also had a dream to become a movie star but did not because she decided to marry Curley instead. People now are very similar if not different at all. Today people still of course have dreams and long term goals that they give up on or don’t want to work hard enough to achieve because they are so worried about the future that ...
In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays dreams as being unattainable. Most of the characters in the book want to have something of their own to be happy but most of their dreams are never fulfilled because of different factors. Even Crooks the stable buck knew that dreams are never really attainable. After lennie tells crooks about the land crooks says “Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’... and nobody gets no land”(pg 74). Crooks who as seen many men with the same dreams as george knew it was never really attainable.
John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.
John Steinbeck explores human experience in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ in friendship, loneliness and marginalisation. He does this through the characters as explained thought the paragraphs below.
In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie have a goal to buy a farm with the money that they have saved up, but their plans fall through when Lennie kills the wife of the boss's son. This goal is motivation for all of Lennie's actions because he repeats “I can still tend the rabbits, George”(Steinbeck 65) many times throughout the story. Junior has a similar story in the book Absolute true story of a part time Indian. When his dog is sick Junior has to kill the dog because his family doesn’t have the money to take the dog to the vet. He later says “But we reservation Indians don't get to realize our dreams. We don't get those chances. Or choices. We're just poor. That's all we are” (Alexie 2.52) about dreams. This shows even in more modern times people still need money to be able to follow their
Dreams give people motivation and a sense of hope to not give up when life's hard conditions get in the way of success. In the novella, Of Mice and Men, George Milton has his own “American Dream” where he will live in a house, that he bought with his hard earned money, with Lennie. They will grow their own crops and own farm animals to feed themselves. This dream keeps George motivated to find new jobs when Lennie gets them into trouble. George does not want to give up on working hard and making money on ranches.
When asked about John Steinbeck’s career, people often refer to Steinbeck as a playwright, journalist, and a well-known novelist. The book Of Mice and Men is a popular novel by John Steinbeck and a required read for most high school students. Most of Steinbeck 's novels have a central theme focusing on the relationship between man and his environment. The American dream for George and Lennie, two of the main characters in Of Mice and Men, is to have a place of their own, to be respected, and to work hard for everything they earn and deserve. In Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, the land and a hope of a better life becomes the talisman of an American dream for Lennie and George that is left unfulfilled.
In the novella Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck, one of the most important themes is how the lack of self-control can have unfortunate consequences. George and Lennie, two best friends, are striding to salvage enough money to buy themselves a farm in the middle of nowhere with rabbits, dogs, and chickens. George, a man who was burdened with taking care of a man-child, is Lennie 's brother but in a way his primary caretaker. He has to stop Lennie from doing simpleminded actions for Lennie does not know the power of his own strength. Every Time they get a job and try to settle down, Lennie messes up, and they have to move on to the next town. Lennie has no self control whatsoever. He
As Mark Twain once stated, “The more I know about people, the better I like my dog.” This sentiment is often echoed by general society; people seem to have lost faith in humanity. However, John Steinbeck illustrates his more optimistic opinion about “the perfectibility of man” by suggesting how man can improve. In his novel, Of Mice and Men, two tenants called George and Lennie go through many hardships all while chasing their dream of possessing their own farm. While they work at a farm, they meet an old swamper called Candy who offers to help them achieve their dream; he does so to ensure that he will have a future after he is fired for being too old. On page 60, Candy discusses the recent death of his dog and asks to join in on George and Lennie’s dream. Through this passage, Steinbeck proves that humans have an animalistic tendency of eliminating those who are weaker than them. This is depicted through the details connecting Candy to his dog as well as Candy’s diction when describing his potential future life. Steinbeck’s negative attitude towards man’s predatory nature implies that society needs to improve and prevent such oppressive behavior from occurring.
Thomas Hobbes in his Leviathan states that, "in the state of nature mans life is nasty, brutish and short". In depression era America, no greater truth could be said. There were millions unemployed, largely unskilled and living on the margins of society. The lowest of the low were the migrant labourers travelling from place to place trying to scratch a living. They often had to travel illegally by freight car with all its consequent dangers. Their life expectancy was low, crime was rampant and despair was a fellow traveller. This is the setting of John Steinbeck's, 'Of Mice and Men'.
The first focus of living is surviving. Therefore, it does not follow logical reasoning to explore other aspects and enhancements of life until one establishes a sense of security in one’s ability to survive. Survival starts with an individual’s ability to endure, and ultimately progresses to an entire species’ ability to subsist. Selfishness is often viewed as morally wrong, however it may be necessary for individuals to think of themselves before others, in order to put them in a position to be able to help the others. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, this selfishness is demonstrated by the characters who are struggling to better their own lives; therefore, helping to better the lives of others is a secondary thought if it exists
The book, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck may have many themes present in the book. However, I think that there is only two. Those two themes are friendship and human nature. These two subjects play a recurring role throughout the whole book to make it what it really is.
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.
The point of living is so that you can accomplish something by the time you die. Therefore hopes and dreams are the driving force of life. Hopes and dreams are exactly what kept the two migrant workers, George and Lennie, going on in life. Their ambition of one day having a farm of their own is what makes Lennie and George work as hard as they do. The theme of these ambitions being deleterious is what makes up the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Even though the ambitions that the characters of the story have could show to be better for them and be their fresh start if proven pointless, the theme of the book Of Mice and Men is that ambitions are deleterious because for Lennie and George their hopes of one
The theme that John Steinbeck amits from the novel Of Mice and Men is not everyone’s american dream can come true because one wants it to. This alludes to a famous poem by Robert Burns called “To a Mouse”. The theme of this poem is the greatest schemes of mice and men often go astray. Meaning that things do not always go as one plans it to. The novel is set in the Great Depression (1929-1939) in Southern California (near Soledad). Characters in the novel such as George and Crooks have obstacles that hold them back from achieving their own american dreams. George is held back from his by having to care of Lennie, who cannot take care of himself. Crooks is held back from his american dream because of his skin color.
There is only one way an author can get their readers to cry, laugh, and love or just enjoy their master pieces. That one way is through the uses of literary devices such as similes, metaphors and personification. These are the small things that brings the author`s thoughts and ideas alive. The author`s ability to use literary devices through the book helps in direct characterization and lets readers get a better understanding of Lennie and George, the two main characters Of Mice and Men. It also helps in keeping readers thinking on their feet and constantly questioning George and Lennie`s next move while in Salinas, California. John Steinbeck, in his novel Of Mice and Men, makes use of similes and foreshadowing to keep readers in touch with the characters and at the edge of their seats throughout the story.