Of Mice and Men
General
Summery:
We all have dreams. It's some distant vision of a great utopia. George and Lennie both wanted a farm of their own maybe for different reasons but their utopia was the same.
Both these guys are close friends and have been traveling (dirt poor) together looking for work. George is the brains and Lennie is the extremely large and strong body. They have trouble keeping a job because Lennie "pets" things for to long and eventually kills whatever he is petting (rats, puppies,rabbits etc.). George is basically like a parent towards Lennie and Lennie is best described as a child. After running from their old job (Lennie pet a ladies dress so much she screamed "rape!") they have now found a new ranch to work on. Things start out a little rough with Curley the ranch owner's son insulting them and looking for a fight. George tells Lennie to stay away from him (but fight if he asks for it) and to stay away from his new wife especially The two guys meet the other co-workers on the ranch and make friends. Eventually however Curleie's over protectiveness towards his wife inspires him to fight Lennie who soon after (getting the approval from George) crushes the man's hand. This is just a sign of Lennie's crazy strength and Curley is advised not to get Lennie kicked off the farm because he would be publicly humiliated for his embarrassing defeat. Curley's wife is not the most loyal (she wants men's attention a lot) and eventually meets Lennie alone and asks him to pet her hair. As you might have predicted, Lennie out of panic and his absurd strength manages to break the women's neck just from "petting" her hair. Lennie freaks out and goes to a safe place George instructed him to go in case of an emergency. After finding the body, Curley filled with rage concludes Lennie is responsible and starts a hunting party for him. If caught he will be most likely hanged or tortured and if he manages to escape Curley's wrath, be put in an asylum. George make the toughest decision in his life and steals one of the workers guns. He finds Lennie at the safe area before everyone else. He talks about their dream farm again and Lennie thinks about all the rabbits he could pet and take care of. And as Lennie wishes they could just go to that farm now, George pulls the trigger and kills his best friend. The party finds him soon after and they conclude George wrestled the gun from Lennie and shot him. George doesn't deny it and leaves making everyone wonder why he's so gloomy.
Theme:
Dreams are what keep us going. Even when the goal seems almost impossible just the hope and idea of our potential future, is enough to keep us going. This also makes us vulnerable disappointment however. And that kind of vulnerability can destroy our lives.
Tone:
Steinbeck's tone is very realistic and objective throughout the book. George loves Lennie but that doesn't mean he's perfect to him. He yells at Lennie when he losses his temper (shown at the beginning of the novel) which is a realistic picture of how a frustrated man would act. Steinbeck never judges the characters and doesn't put pressure on if this was wrong or not (like when Lennie kills the women, he doesn't say it was murder). He looks at the characters objectively based on their actions towards themselves and one another.When George kills his friend he doesn't focus on if the action was wrong or not but he does let Slim (a co-worker, friend to George) say he thought George did the honorable thing.
Literary Terms:
foreshadowing: Before many of the events on the ranch take place, George tells Lennie to run to a riverbank in case of an emergency which as we find out is where George finds Lennie after the murder happened.
foil: Its no mystery that George and Lennie are pretty different people and they contrasts in a very clear way. George is very parent like and treats Lennie like a child and is also the one that does all the thinking for both of them but has average strength. Lennie has some kind of mental disability that makes him very child like and has a large amount of brute strength that sadly cant be controlled on his own.
metaphor: One of the co-workers (name is Candy) is basically forced to put his dog down (old, crippled, and smelt horrible) but he doesn't have the courage to do it himself. This is a situation similar to how George has to kill his friend for his own good but unlike Candy he is able to do it himself.
antagonist: Curley from day one is out to get the two friends and is the ultimate reason for Lennie's death. George knew he had to kill Lennie or else Curley would "gut" him, himself.
flashback: Lennie is constantly asking George to tell him about their dream farm and before George finds him at the river he is has a hallucination basically of his old aunt and a big rabbit that's mad at him.
irony: Lennie acts and talks like a gentle child yet his inability to control his strength makes him a very brutal person.
connotation: Curley is mentioned by one of the co-workers to wear gloves coated with oil (not care oil) to make his hands soft for his wife. This idea of soft hands doesn't just mean he's doing something for his wife it also means he's not that hard of a worker and is some what of a high-hoarse.
protagonist: George is main character in the story because he's the one to make most of the tough decisions. He's the one that does most of the talking and choice making, not Lennie. The biggest one of course to save his best friend from a painful future.
setting: The whole novel takes place in only 3 days. It is all happening during the Great Depression and the ranch is in Northern California.
allusion: The title is an allusion to the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet in 1785. The poem is about a man who ploughs through a mouse nest accidentally and wonders about the difference between man's suffering from animals. Men (thinking, George) and animals (unthinking, Lennie) suffer in the end according to the poet.
Theme:
Dreams are what keep us going. Even when the goal seems almost impossible just the hope and idea of our potential future, is enough to keep us going. This also makes us vulnerable disappointment however. And that kind of vulnerability can destroy our lives.
Tone:
Steinbeck's tone is very realistic and objective throughout the book. George loves Lennie but that doesn't mean he's perfect to him. He yells at Lennie when he losses his temper (shown at the beginning of the novel) which is a realistic picture of how a frustrated man would act. Steinbeck never judges the characters and doesn't put pressure on if this was wrong or not (like when Lennie kills the women, he doesn't say it was murder). He looks at the characters objectively based on their actions towards themselves and one another.When George kills his friend he doesn't focus on if the action was wrong or not but he does let Slim (a co-worker, friend to George) say he thought George did the honorable thing.
Literary Terms:
foreshadowing: Before many of the events on the ranch take place, George tells Lennie to run to a riverbank in case of an emergency which as we find out is where George finds Lennie after the murder happened.
foil: Its no mystery that George and Lennie are pretty different people and they contrasts in a very clear way. George is very parent like and treats Lennie like a child and is also the one that does all the thinking for both of them but has average strength. Lennie has some kind of mental disability that makes him very child like and has a large amount of brute strength that sadly cant be controlled on his own.
metaphor: One of the co-workers (name is Candy) is basically forced to put his dog down (old, crippled, and smelt horrible) but he doesn't have the courage to do it himself. This is a situation similar to how George has to kill his friend for his own good but unlike Candy he is able to do it himself.
antagonist: Curley from day one is out to get the two friends and is the ultimate reason for Lennie's death. George knew he had to kill Lennie or else Curley would "gut" him, himself.
flashback: Lennie is constantly asking George to tell him about their dream farm and before George finds him at the river he is has a hallucination basically of his old aunt and a big rabbit that's mad at him.
irony: Lennie acts and talks like a gentle child yet his inability to control his strength makes him a very brutal person.
connotation: Curley is mentioned by one of the co-workers to wear gloves coated with oil (not care oil) to make his hands soft for his wife. This idea of soft hands doesn't just mean he's doing something for his wife it also means he's not that hard of a worker and is some what of a high-hoarse.
protagonist: George is main character in the story because he's the one to make most of the tough decisions. He's the one that does most of the talking and choice making, not Lennie. The biggest one of course to save his best friend from a painful future.
setting: The whole novel takes place in only 3 days. It is all happening during the Great Depression and the ranch is in Northern California.
allusion: The title is an allusion to the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet in 1785. The poem is about a man who ploughs through a mouse nest accidentally and wonders about the difference between man's suffering from animals. Men (thinking, George) and animals (unthinking, Lennie) suffer in the end according to the poet.
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