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Comparison Of John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The novel Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck as a novella or a book that could easily be adapted to a play. Knowingly or not, within his book, "Steinbeck creates a world where people are prevented from being their true selves, and in the rare instances when they reveal a more authentic self, they face negative consequences"(McMurray). Elizabeth McMurray has written a literary criticism to prove this thought process and in my opinion, her essay was correct. The way the book was written, including setting and dialogue styles, proves that the characters in the classic novel are playing characters similar to actors in a play, rather than acting as themselves. One of the many reasons that the characters Of Steinbeck's novel can be …show more content…

Not even George can escape acting as somebody who he is not. "George also takes a part in the play. Even in front of his traveling companion, George preforms, acts as if Lennie is a burden"(McMurray 1). George acts as though he resents Lennie and the tasks he must undertake to keep him around, "God A'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work an' no trouble"(Steinbeck 11). He may do this to avoid revealing his real feelings of friendship towards Lennie, as well as repress the knowledge that without Lennie, the American dream is unattainable for George. As well as pretending not to care about Lennie, George also plays a role for others, "On the ranch with the other men, George plays the part of a guy just bucking barley all his life"(McMuray 1). In reality, George has dreams and ambitions, like most if not all the men on the ranch, but he keeps this concealed so none of the others can do anything to sabotage the dream. Even when Candy offers to fund the majority of the ranch required to complete the dream, George is skeptical whether or not to let him

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