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Of mice and men george's perspective
Passage from of mice and men that describes george
Of mice and men character essay introduction
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I remember 20 years ago when I used to look after a guy called Lennie, he was a really nice, he was very tall with a very friendly smile. I had a slight problem though, he was a lot like a child. He would enjoy stroking things which are soft and warm. If he saw something he liked he would touch it and if he was scared he wouldn’t even let go. This meant he loved rabbits and mice but he didn’t know his own strength so he usually ended up killing them by stroking them too hard and crushing their skulls but he is really just like a big friendly giant. He has the strength of 2 men so he is usually very good at work but I always had to get him out of trouble. He would do anything I asked him to. One day a few kids were walking down the road so I thought it would be cool if I told him to jump into a river, I even knew that he could swim, so he did. When he started to drown I realized that he could die so I jumped in and got him out. He forgot that I told him to do it and was thanking me for saving him. That was just that start of it but things began to look up. We found ourselves jobs out in Weed. It was a very nice place. Nice people and nice scenery. One day we went out and he saw a lady wearing a red dress so he touched it and the girl screamed so he couldn’t let go. She ran away and he skirt was torn and she told the people of Weed that he raped her so we had to run away and hide in farms irrigation. We waited till night and left. We were back on the road to find yet another job. We found this place out near Soledad. So we got a coach there but the coach dropped us of 4 miles away from the ranch. We were expected to be there the night before and arrived there the next day in the late afternoon. When we got there and the boss wasn’t too happy about that but got on with it and took our names down. We began work straight after dinner trying to make up for any time we missed.
Lennie had a soft spot for petting animals and soft things. He is totally oblivious to the fact that he hurts almost every thing he touches. He had pet mice and ended up killing them and when he played with the 'pup' he ended up killing it too. His uncontrolled strength also caused him to kill Curley's wife. "Lennie's fingers fell to stroking her hair... he stroked harder... "Let go!" she cried... She struggled violently... and then she was still; for Lennie had broken her neck." (Page 91). With the death of Curley's wife, Lennie's innocence was taken. He had unwillingly killed. He had to pay the price, by losing his life.
Steinbeck gives a lot of reasons for George to stay with Lennie, but his critics also have some merit in their criticism that the story isn't believable. Steinbeck's critics suggest that Steinbeck is "simply sentimental in this regard." There are some very compelling reasons George would like to stay with Lennie... but being "sentimental," towards Lennie has nothing to do with it.
"In other periods of depression, it has always been possible to see some things which were solid and upon which you could base hope, but as I look about, I now see nothing to give ground to hope—nothing of man.” (Calvin Coolidge) The Great Depression was a period with high inflation and unemployment, where millions of families lost their savings and their livelihoods. During this time many men moved out west to become ranch hands, one of the few jobs available. Many of these ranch hands were fueled by a false dream, to one day own a piece of land, and start a family. Of Mice and Men is a story set in this historical era and tells the story of two unlikely companions, George and Lennie, who work from job to job to survive only to meet an unfortunate end. Using Symbolism as represented in nature, material objects, and character traits, Steinbeck explores the theme that despite the best efforts of man, sometimes the cruelty and overwhelming power of fate is too strong.
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.
To better understand Lennie Small, a poor mentally challenged farm hand’s dream, it would be a good idea to learn a few important characteristics about Lennie Small. Owens Louis states how Lennie is constantly compared to an animal or described as childlike (147), this shows that Lennie’s mind was not like most people’s mind, he was mentally ill. Lennie’s psyche results in Lennie acting as a ten-year-old child in a grown man’s body. Despite Lennie’s childlike nature he was still incredibly dangerous. Owens also states that Lennie is monstrously powerful and that he has a problem with killing things (148). What can be observed here is that Lennie is a force to be reckon with. Now that there is a better understanding of who Lennie is, it will make understanding his dream all the easier.
The novel describes Lennie as “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a beat drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely” (Steinbeck 2). Lennie is slow minded as well, but “strong as a bull.” George states in the novel, “He ain’t no cuckoo. He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. An’ I ain’t so bright neither, or I wouldn’t be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found” (Steinbeck 37). Because Lennie is slow minded, he often gets impatient with individuals around him, which causes him to have a short fuse. He expresses his anger sometimes, but keeps composer at the same time. The reason Lennie has not been in more trouble than what he has already been in is because he is protected by innocence. One reason Lennie gets in trouble is because his obsession with soft things. For example, Lennie likes to “pet” mice, soft puppies and even hair on someone’s person. Curley’s wife ends up being killed by Lennie in chapter five because she underestimates his strength when she lets him “pet” her hair.
How does John Steinbeck use the character George to illustrate aspects of 1930s American society?
The job wasn’t what I wanted to be doing but it was able to get my mind off not being in school, not having my own place and again being back in Las Vegas. At the end of 2007, right when started to get comfortable and used to being back in Las Vegas, I was told yet again that I would be moving back to Las Vegas with my family in Palmdale, California. That seemed to be the worst news I heard and the worse decision for myself. Although I would have loved nothing more but to move back to California but Palmdale, I knew that I wouldn’t be happy. Sad to say, I was right, very right! I became lost again, very suicidal and nothing seemed to go right after I moved back to California. My only option was to visit Las Vegas as much as I could. I began to refer as having an affair with Las Vegas, Nevada as I broke away from
Set in the farmlands of the Salinas Valley in California, "Of Mice And Men" is based on the 1930's Great Depression. This novel shows the struggle of two migrant workers, George Milton and Lennie Small in fulfilling the 'American dream'. The dream shared by many of owing "a little house and a couple of acres". From the onset of the novel, it becomes crystal clear that Lennie is heavily reliant on his companion, George. What's more, Steinbeck portrays the two by juxtaposing them to a father and son figure. In this assessment, I plan to clearly deconstruct and explore some of the ways Steinbeck leads up to George's final decision to shoot Lennie.
With his disability, he needs something to feel connected to. He loves to pet furry and soft things. In chapter one in “Of Mice and Men”, Lennie and George are walking along a dirt road, on there way to a ranch. George discovers Lennie playing with something in his pocket. Lennie states to George before the dead mouse was taken away. ““ I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along”” (Steinbeck 6) . In order to prove that Lennie is not smart enough to fulfill the American Dream, Steinbeck creates Lennie to seem as not normal as possible. Steinbeck places Lennie in a state, where he does not understand right from wrong. He does not know nor understand, that playing with a deceased critter is not only gross but unacceptable as a
In ending of "Of Mice And Men", George kills Lennie after he killed Curley's wife. However, I can still feel sympathy towards George, and see his action as justifiable. In the beginning of the book I had sympathy towards George. The book starts with George talking to Lennie and from this you learn a lot about their relationship. After Lennie asks for ketchup, which they can't get, George gets angry at Lennie and says, “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an’ no trouble" (6). This shows the reader that George has given up a lot to take care of Lennie. He has given up his job security and a lot of his happiness because he takes care of Lennie. In chapter 3, the reader finds out how George and Lennie started traveling together, and from this the reader can infer that George travels
We lived way out in the sticks in a trailer park community it was a nice community my uncle had lived there for many years. Its 2007 and I already took and passed my GED with flying colors I needed to find a job and I really didn’t know much so I asked a friend of mine who worked for this guy named frank. Frank had a business where he would install granite counter tops and tile floors he was looking for someone to help remove and install the counter tops and tile. I was nervous I had never done anything like this before I was only use to either cutting grass or construction jobs with my dad that only pertained to nailing wood and sheets of plywood up. I had worked for frank for about a year and a half before I had to quit I missed California too much I wanted to move back I missed the warm air and the smell of the dairies and that breeze from the ocean air when it hits you I missed all of that so I moved back and I moved in with my dad. I have had a few jobs in my life that didn’t last very long either the time wasn’t right or whatever but I ended up getting hired at the Walmart distribution center and it was a blessing in disguise because now we can get by. Even though we still have to live paycheck to paycheck we can now not stress as much as how we were going to make it work, how we were
John Steinbeck, the author of the novel Of Mice and Men uses many stylistic devices and description in chapter one to give the reader a deeper understanding of what may occur throughout the novel. Firstly, the name of the city the two protagonists, Lennie and George, are heading to is called “Soledad,” which means loneliness in Spanish; this is symbolism and foreshadowing because it can mean that as they get closer to the city, their relationship as friends may deteriorate and they may end up alone towards the end. Furthermore, this could also mean that there can be major problems in further chapters because of Lennie’s unpredictable behaviour due to his mental disabilities. In relation to Robert Burns’s poem, “To a Mouse,” the author may be
Even from the very start of John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, the uniqueness of George, as a character, is already noticeable. He is described as “small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features” and has an obvious dominance over the relationship between Lennie and himself. This lets the reader know from a very early stage in the book that George is different, and probably the essential character. George’s character seems to be used by Steinbeck to reflect the major themes of the novel: loneliness, prejudice, the importance of companionship, the danger of devoted companionships, and the harshness of Californian ranch life.
Even though Lennie's last name is Small, he is, physically, just the opposite: a large man with great strength. This strength is represented numerous times throughout the novel. We first read about Lennie's strength in the opening scene, when Lennie accidentally kills the pet mouse in his pocket by petting it too hard. We also learn that, in fact, Lennie has killed other pets in the same manner in the past.