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Essay / Analysis of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck, detailing the lives of two farm workers who share a common dream: to one day run their own farm. Achieving this may have seemed an easy task to our protagonists, but it turns out to be much more difficult than expected. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The novel is set in the Salinas Valley of southern California during the Great Depression. This is all the information we know about this time period, but since they mention the Great Depression, it should have taken place in the 1930s. When looking for something indicating what type of weather or season the novel takes place, I I found two clues on the first reading page. On the first page of the novel, the writer says: "in the evening of a hot day, a little wind began to move among the leaves" and also "the water is warm too, because it slid sparkling over the yellow sand in the sun before reaching the narrow pond,” which would give me the impression that the novel takes place during part of the summer. Early in the novel, we learn that two farm workers are migrating from one ranch to another because they were evicted from the old ranch. And I think that's an important part of the novel because the Salinas Valley was home to a lot of farmland during the Great Depression. The writer begins by describing the landscape in which the two main characters find themselves. The novel begins at a creek near the Salinas River in the Salinas Valley. But later in the novel, they leave the creek to settle on their new ranch. This new ranch seems very isolated from the outside world. It is described as including a ranch, a bunk house, and a barn. All the ranch workers live in the bunkhouse except one. While all the workers try to make the bunkhouse feel like home, Crooks is the only worker who doesn't live in the bunkhouse – he lives in the barn with the animals. He leads a solitary life inside the barn and also has no connections with the other workers. Since Crooks is African American and he is the only worker living in the barn with the animals, this simply shows the opinions of people at the time of the Great Depression. The barn is also the scene where Lennie accidentally murders Curley's wife at the end of the novel. I would say there are two main characters that are very important to mention. One of them being George. George is described as a short man, very intelligent and is Lennie's traveling friend. Even though George sometimes mentions how much better his life would be without Lennie, he is still very happy to have Lennie for company during his migration and he feels obligated to protect Lennie and help him achieve their goal that they have in common. The second main character is Lennie. Lennie is described as not being very intelligent, but he is described as being big, strong, aggressive, angry, and childish. The writer compares him to a horse because of his strength, but Lennie is also compared to a bear because he walks like a bear, dragging his legs like a bear drags his paws. He is said to be childish because of the way he acts and because of his behavior and I would have to assume that has something to do with possible mental illness on his part. I found a few other characters that I thought were worth mentioning and one of them is Candy. Candy is one of the oldest workers on the ranch, and one of her biggest worries is being kicked off the farm when they no longer haveof use to him and therefore no longer have a place to live. But later in the novel, when George tells Candy about their dream, Candy offers all of her savings to George only if George lets him live on their farm. The last character worth mentioning is Curely. In my opinion, Curely is the main antagonist of the novel. He is the son of the ranch boss and from what I understand, he runs the ranch in a very arrogant and lackadaisical manner. Curely is described as being very short and he gets angry very easily at anyone who poses a possible threat to him. The plot of the novel revolves around the Great Depression in the Salinas Valley of southern California. At the beginning of the novel, you learn about the two main characters migrating from their old ranch to a new ranch where they hope to find employment. As they head to the new ranch, George warns Lennie not to do anything stupid that could get them kicked out of the new ranch. When they arrive at the new ranch the next morning, they meet the ranch's oldest employee named Candy. Candy leads George and Lennie to the dormitory house where they will live with the other workers. After being in the bunk house for a while, Curely walks into the bunk house and he is immediately annoyed by the way Lennie acts because he doesn't say or do anything. And right after Curely leaves the bunkhouse, George warns Lennie not to have anything to do with Curely because he knew Curely just wanted to cause trouble. Later in the novel, George meets the unofficial boss of the farm workers and explains how they were kicked out of the old ranch because Lennie wanted to touch the dress a girl was wearing without asking if he could first. After reading the novel, a farmhand named Carlson convinces Candy that his dog should be put down because he stinks and because he has no use on the farm. After being shot, Candy is devastated. Once Candy and George speak for the first time, George tells Candy about the dream he and Lennie have in common, to one day buy their dream farm. To George's surprise, Candy offers George all of her savings if he could live on the farm with George and Lennie. A few days later, Lennie is sitting alone in the barn looking at the dead dog when Curely's wife comes into the barn and wants to talk to Lennie. Lennie is very hesitant to talk to him, but when Curely's wife puts Lennie's hand on his hair and tells him to stroke it, he does so. But after petting him for a while, he accidentally petts him too hard and Curely's wife tries to get up to get out of there - Lennie freaks out. He grabs onto her hair even tighter, and because of this, he accidentally breaks her neck, killing her. Lennie realizes that he has done something very bad and tries to hide his body behind the pool, but despite his attempt to hide his body, Candy ends up finding it and brings the body to George, who immediately realizes what Lennie had done. Curely eventually finds out about this, and when he does, he gets very upset and starts a lynch mob to try to find and lynch Lennie. George asks if they couldn't just put Lennie in jail instead, but they tell him it would be even crueler to leave him in jail rather than lynching him. George and Lennie decide to meet at the swimming pool. Lennie arrives at the pool and waits patiently for George who finally arrives. George tells Lennie that they are very different from the other workers on the farm because they are together and the other workers are all alone. Lennie is very happy when George tells him this. After speaking,.