John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men features a variety of characters who found it extremely difficult to survive during the Great Depression era. In order to make even a very basic living, workers were forced to migrate from farm to farm. Steinbeck’s two central characters, George Milton and Lennie Small, are migrant workers in search of the Great American Dream. The novel focuses on their three day journey, where they encounter other men who heavily influence their lives. The most influential of these men is Slim, the “Prince” of the Soledad Ranch. Together, George Milton, Lennie Small, and Slim prove that a true friendship consists of understanding, forgiveness, and wanting the best for one another. In Of Mice and Men, …show more content…
He undergoes no significant changes, development, or growth throughout the story.”(Spark notes) Lennie Small is best described as hardworking, stout as a bull, mentally handicapped, and innocent yet guilty at the same time. He can also be described as childlike. Lennie Small is hard working because he can buck barley and load two bales at a time. He can make his fellow workers swap up and take turns stacking the bales. This also means that Lennie Small is stout as a bull. Lennie can also be very reckless with his strength. Two examples of this are “I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead”(Perrin) “Lennie had broken her neck”(Perrin) Those bales are not light at all. Another example of how strong Lennie Small is occurred when he crushed Curley’s hand with his own hand. Lennie Small is very childlike in the book because he is always into something that most children normally are into, but the main reason that Lennie Small is very childlike is because Lennie Small is mentally handicapped. A quote that describes Lennie’s inability to learn or remember things is “I forgot George”(Perrin) He just wants to do one or two things which are pet soft things and tend the rabbits when he and George get their ranch. He looked forward to having all those animals such as the rabbits and chickens and all the other animals they will have on the …show more content…
He was guilty because he killed her, but he didn’t realize that he did it due to his strength. Due to the fact that he broke her neck, some were trying to keep him from getting in trouble with George. George Milton had told him if he got into trouble that he could no longer tend to the rabbits when they got their ranch. Lennie certainly did not want that to happen. He was trying to keep Curley’s wife quiet and ended up killing her by accident. After finding out that his wife was dead, Curley and all the men went looking for Lennie Small because they were going to lynch him for the murder of Curley’s wife. George already knew where Lennie would hide out because they had a special spot to go to if they ever got into trouble. So this is where George found Lennie and George ended up shooting Lennie in the back of the head, to save him from the lynch mob that Curley was
In the Salinas River Valley, after the Great Depression, there were a large number of unemployed workers seeking jobs. In the fiction novel "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck, Lennie Small is among one of those men. Lennie and his friend George both have just received jobs on a ranch as farm workers. What brings the two together is their dream to someday own their own land. Lennie has a lot of character and personality traits that define him. One trait that he has is he is very forgetful. Another trait he has is he is very curious. A final trait he has is that he is very reliant. Although he might not be the intelligent person in the book, he has a very well developed personality. Lennie demonstrates his personality and character
Lennie Smalls is often misunderstood from his mental handicap to how he presents himself as a person. In spite of being mentally handicap, Lennie is faced with being looked to as an animal. Although,Of Mice and Men is a story about an unlikely pair of friends who have a plan to own their own acre of land and a shack to call their own. George is the guidance of Lennie , therefore Lennie needs some extra patience and guidance when he has disobeyed George’s orders. “‘Look, Lennie, if you get into any kind of trouble, you remember what I told you to do?’...’If i get in any trouble, you ain’t gonna let
John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men follows the journey of two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, who struggle through the navigation of working on a ranch in California and fulfilling their dreams together during a time of financial depression. The novel begins with George and Lennie traveling through the California wilderness to get to a new ranch just south of Soledad where they are going to begin new work. They had to leave their previous jobs in a town called Weed because Lennie had caused trouble with a girl by holding on to her red dress because he wanted to feel it, and this incident spiraled into rape allegations against Lennie. As George and Lennie make their way to the new ranch, Lennie; who is a large, but simple minded man; found a dead mouse and wanted to keep it to pet because he likes soft things. George, who is more serious and protects Lennie, takes the mouse away from him because even though it’s dead, he should not be messing with it. Lennie often does not realize his strength because of his mental incapabilities and as a result, he causes a lot of trouble and harm. George finds taking care of Lennie to be taxing, but he knows that their friendship is an important bond that he does not want to be without. In order to comfort Lennie in the wilderness, George tells the story of their shared dream to own their own ranch where they can follow their own rules and live as they please. When they finally arrive at the ranch the next day, George and Lennie
Hope and despair are major themes in Steinbeck’s novella ‘Of Mice and Men’. The novella is set in 1930’s America which was a time when the effects of the Wall Street Crash impacted many people’s lives. Due to the fact that it was so hard to secure a job, a sense of distrust and despair was present among itinerant workers. In Steinbeck’s novella, these feelings of desperation manifest themselves in nearly all of the characters. This essay will discuss Slim and Lennie; two characters that defy the widespread depression of the time by giving either the reader or other characters hope.
Solidifying the theme of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, the protagonist George expresses his significant loneliness despite a strong kinship with his friend Lennie, “’I ain’t got no people… I seen the guys that go around the ranches alone. That ain’t no good’” (41). Published in 1937, amidst the horrific turmoil of the Great Depression, Steinbeck’s novella struck a sensitive chord with readers. Set in the heart of California’s Central Valley, this story follows two men, George and Lennie, as they run from old shadows to a new farm for work. Clinging to the distant dream of owning their own piece of land, the men imagine life outside their present difficulties. Illustrating that life is varied by emotional complexities beyond black and white, George’s longing for companionship and family seep through in conversations with his new co-worker Slim. Despite Lennie’s sheer physical strength, his mental abilities are limited to that of a naïve, innocent, and very young boy; the result is a relationship akin to an uncle and nephew. Lennie, with primal-like behaviors and a gold-fish memory, struggles to adhere to George’s words of wisdom. In the end, tragedy strikes them both as George is forced to kill Lennie due to an accident with the son of the landowner’s wife – a woman who looks for trouble at the onset. Consequently, George’s state of loneliness is bequeathed to a new level as he begins to imagine life without Lennie in tow.
In the late 1930 unemployment rates were dropping at exponential rates, people were traveling west looking for jobs, hoping to gain even the smallest amounts of money. They were struggling to survive, fighting for jobs and living in horrible conditions. The Dust Bowl had wiped out most of their homes and many were desperate, people referred to them as migrant workers. The story Of Mice and Men revolves around the adventure of two migrant workers, George and Lennie. The book begins with a scene of nature, calm and beautiful yet cruel and complex. Much like nature, John Steinbeck's book tells the dark side of our nation and it’s people. Because of this, Steinbeck's book is still valuable to teach students. His simple yet complex story characterizes
Man found dead shortly after killing woman A woman was found in the stables of her husband’s ranch a few miles south of Soledad lying half covered by hay, her neck broken. According to witnesses, it was immediately assumed that one Lennie Small was the culprit, due to his size and tendency to violent outbursts. Because of this assumption the men of the ranch, following the boss and husband of the womans orders, grabbed weapons and went out looking for Lennie Small. Lennie Small was killed soon after this by George Milton, who shot him in the back of the head at the banks of a river.
The purity of a child’s mind is like a person’s life; when it is taken, it can never be brought back. Lennie Small is a man who, despite his large and intimidating appearance, is much like a young child. He adores animals and their soft coats, and is the most fearful of upsetting his friend and authority figure George Milton. One instance of Lennie’s innocence standing out is when he touched a girl’s dress because its soft look reminded him of mice fur, which George disciplined Lennie for: “‘Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress—jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse— Well, how the hell did she know you jus’ wanted to feel her dress?
In my opinion, Lennie Small is the most interesting character in Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck does a very good job describing and characterizing Lennie's personality. Lennie's character is, indeed, quite unique. A large man with enormous strength, yet kind and childlike, he seems to find joy in simple life pleasures like petting a furry animal and making the water ripple. Lennie's greatest difficulty seems to be remembering; and it is the lack of the ability to remember that ultimately leads to his tragedy at the end of the book. In the novel, Steinbeck seems to reinforce Lennie's characteristics of strength, kindness, childlike manner, and somewhat animal-like personality.
John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men is an extraordinary novel with unique characteristics. The novel is about an uncommon friendship between two extremely different individuals who are living and working together. This story belong to the genres tragic realistic fiction, historical fiction and drama. The linking between the novel and The Great Depression emphasizes throughout the story, which makes the novel very realistic and down to earth. The author touches on several themes such as: the unreachable American dream, the economic injustices, loneliness, friendship and people’s propensity for cruelty. In this book review, we will get into a deeper understanding of what the actual story means.
‘Of mice and men’ is a tale of loneliness and hardship felt by the people living in America during the 1930 's. Written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937, it tells the heartbreaking story of two ranch workers during the depression; George Milton and Lennie Small. At the time America was very poor, with a shortage of jobs so people had to travel in search of new jobs. As many people were constantly moving, lasting friendships or relationships were hard to come across. People became scared to have friendships, scared of each other making them lonely and isolated. Most of the characters lived by ‘every man for himself’; only having to care for themselves, not having to worry about others and therefore
Lennie is certainly strong; in the very opening of the book he is described as a bear and is constantly referred to in animal terms. He enjoys "pettin'" soft things, puppies, rabbits, and mice but, he is so strong that he kills them with his fingers as he did in chapter one while George and Lennie were walking. In chapter three, Curley starts a fight with him but after George tells Lennie to fight back Lennie easily crushes Curley's hand. Lennie is physically well coordinated and is capable of doing repetitive manual jobs with skill. This makes things a little easier for George to find them jobs. In chapter two George has to convince the boss to let them stay and work, he states that Lennie is "as strong as a bull" and is "a good damn good worker". However, it is this strength that was the reason why they had to leave Weed. Lennie would not let go of a girl's dress he wanted to pet because he panicked when the girl started to panic, which led to the pair leaving town under a possible rape charge. Again, it is not like Lennie could and would have ever been able to control the strength he has. He cannot have the understanding that he hurts people or
John Steinbeck wrote ‘Of Mice and Men’ to show how hard life was for migrant ranch workers during the time of the Great Depression and how they were often exploited by their employers. In showing how George and Lennie’s dream of owning their own piece of land did not come true, Steinbeck explores a wider theme, criticising the idea of the American Dream. The American Dream tells people that there is ‘opportunity for each... regardless of the fortuitous circumstance of birth and position. Steinbeck criticises this as these ranch workers were given few opportunities. Settings play a very important part in the novel as they pinpoint clear times and places giving a sense of realism to the story, but they are also used to create atmosphere.
The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.
In the novella Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, the relationship between Lennie Small and George Milton is complex. Lennie and George are two companions who look for work and brave the hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression together. Although Lennie and George are both grown men, their relationship resembles more of a child and a single parent, or a boy and his dog. Lennie is portrayed as animalistic and childish through his behavior and Steinbeck’s comparisons. This reveals the crucial power dynamic in George and Lennie’s relationship.