Of Mice And Men

Of mice and men coursework

The story of mice and men is the tail of two men George the leader of the two and some what the smart one, and Lennie his companion whose child like behaviour gets him and George into trouble. At the time of this story in America in the 1930's is the great depression, a time where if you weren't rich or didn't have some kind of trade that will earn you money then you were living below the poverty line which many Americans were doing for most of the 1930's. The story has an up and down rollercoaster plot as one paragraph it will tell of the pairs hopes and dreams and the next paragraph it will bring it back to the cruel reality of life.

The title of the story is significant because it sums up the theme of the story, Mice is describing the doom and gloom of the story and Men is the hope of the future, what is round the corner, the light at the end of the tunnel. At every stage of the story John Steinbeck hints at trouble even from the start there is an element that something will go wrong as one of the first things you hear about Lennie is that he doesn't remember where or what he has been doing and George has to remind him, in the first chapter George and Lennie are hiding from angry mobs of people this being because of Lennie and his child like ways.

The hope that Lennie and George can achieve there dream of owning there own ranch is reiterated throughout the story at every stage of the story there is a small hope of this dream that George and Lennie have of owning there own ranch, they continuously look to forward to the future because of this dream that George creates for Lennie to keep out of trouble, in a way it is sort of bribery as George tells Lennie if he doesn't behave himself then he can't tend to the rabbits. During this period of history money was pretty much worthless because of the great depression during the 1930's, like most Americans George and Lennie were living below the poverty line and working long hours just to earn the small amounts of money that would mean they could get there ranch. Like George and Lennie other people on the ranch where they work also have dreams two characters who have dreams are Candy and Curley's wife. Candy is an old man with one hand he is told by Lennie that he and George are going to buy a ranch and Candy immediately wants to be a part of this dream he adds to the hope that they can achieve this dream of owning a ranch by adding a large sum of money to what George and Lennie already have.

Curley's wife had come to the ranch having married Curley out of spite for being given false hope over a film career, although she stills holds on to this dream throughout the story she confides in Lennie and tells him of her hopes and dreams because she believes that Lennie is stupid enough not to remember anything she has told him and she can get things off of her chest that she couldn't do with any other of the men on the ranch. Hopes and dreams in this story are important to the plot and its makes things seem even more dramatic when things do go wrong because the reader really believes that the dream of owning a ranch could happen.

The way the story is written is very unique; Steinbeck uses a lot of description at the beginning and end of each chapter to set the scene, Steinbeck paints a picture of the scene which is about to unfold in front of the reader, this put an image of the scene in the readers head and gets them into the story because they know precisely what is happening.

This describing of the scene helps with telling the story because Steinbeck will hint at what will happen next if the start of the scene is dark and grim then something bad is going to happen for example when Carlson kills candy's dog. In this scene Carlson insists that it is in the dog's best interest to be killed so he doesn't suffer anymore, Candy puts up some fight to keep his dog although eventually gives up as he runs out of ideas and looks to others for help "Candy looked for help from face to face" Its seems that Carlson had been thinking about killing the dog for a while as he knew where and how to kill the dog "The way I'd shoot him, he wouldn't feel nothing. I'd put the gun right there' He Pointed with his right toe." This adds to the sense of tragedy in the story as Carlson comes across as a bit sadistic as he's been thinking about killing this dog and is extremely eager to kill the dog as he keeps on insisting throughout this section of the story.

At the start of the story Lennie is concealing a mouse in his pocket which he found at the side of the road, although the mouse is dead Lennie is insistent that he didn't steal the mouse nor did he kill it either. George discovers the mouse in Lennie's hand, Lennie gets on the defensive and starts being clever, when asked what's in his pocket Lennie says "Ain't a thing in my pocket" but George is quick to catch on what Lennie is up to by saying "I know there ain't. You got it in your hand. What you got in your hand - hidin' it?" This is a sign of things may go wrong in the future if Lennie can kill a mouse by accident just by stroking then you can only imagine what he can do when he angry or doesn't realise he is using excessive force. Lennie's child like behaviour makes him unaware of his actual strength, he doesn't realise that he is a big and physically powerful person and can do someone a lot of harm.

In the first chapter George tells Lennie if he should ever get into trouble that he should return to the brush where they're hiding until George comes for him " Lennie if you jus' happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an' hide in the brush"

The key words in this sentence are "like you always done before" this suggests that this isn't the first time that Lennie has got the pair into trouble and it won't be the last time neither, this tells the reader that at some point the story is going to return to this place again because of Lennie's doing tendency to get himself into trouble.

When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch that they will be working at they're quickly introduced to Curley who is the bosses son, Curley is a lightweight fighter and who likes to pick fights with 'big fella's' simply because he doesn't like them, Curley instantaneously goes for Lennie because he is a big guy "Well, nex' time you answer when you're spoke to" Although it isn't Lennie's fault he is in for trouble with Curley because of the way he is this being tall add to that the fact