...INSERT ATTENTION GETTER HERE! Friends are sometimes forced to make fatal decisions, and dreams often don’t come true. In John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice And Men, George and Candy are forced to kill their best friends, and the dreams of Lennie and Candy die out. Many times throughout the novel, friendships became fatal. In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice And Men, A frightened Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. Lennie, who recalls what George told him, ran to the spot where they had arranged to meet. George - who knows he has to kill Lennie in order to spare him a worse fate - distracts Lennie so that he can shoot Lennie using Carlson’s gun in the back of the head, so that Lennie feels no pain. To distract him, he tells Lennie about the rabbits, and then “He brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head… He pulled the trigger.” (Steinbeck 66). George doesn’t want to shoot Lennie, but he knew that it would spare him...
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...Relationships are the basis of human interaction and by far the most important in one’s life is friendship. The importance of friendship in one’s life is comparable by no other relationship. Friendship is pure, forgiving and devout. This idea of friendship is undoubtedly illustrated in John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. In the novel, George and Lennie tirelessly work to have a piece of land to call their own, traveling across the country for work. They are both truly devoted to one another and unwaveringly care for one another, and have proven so multiple times throughout the novel. Another relationship that exhibits devotion is that of the main characters in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet are two faithful star-crossed...
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...John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, set in California during the Great Depression, depicts the desire for friendships and the American Dream, held by many different individuals. Throughout the novel many characters are introduced, and their conflicts ignite trouble. For instance, the main characters, George Milton, intelligent and irritable, and his companion, Lennie Small, hefty and senseless, are migrant workers who hope that one day they will acquire the American Dream. Lennie, being senseless, makes George have a difficult time trying to find a job because of Lennie’s wrongdoings. Withal, in the Bunkhouse, many conflicts arise as these migrant workers join the ranch. Steinbeck uses the lives of George and Lennie to demonstrate the...
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...Friendship is about protecting your friends and making sacrifices so that they can be happy. The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck shows exactly this between the two main characters, George and Lennie. George is constantly protecting Lennie and making sacrifices for him. For this reason, George is a better man than Lennie because he protects Lennie and makes many sacrifices for him. George tries to protect Lennie from other people by telling him not to talk to certain people who might get him in trouble. At the beginning of the book, George tells Lennie to “ jus’ stand there and don’t say nothing”(6). When they first meet the boss. George tells Lennie that he shouldn’t talk when they first meet the boss because George believes that if he does speak, the boss won’t hire them. To make sure they do get hired, George wants to all the talking so that the boss doesn’t find out that Lennie is mentally disabled, and not hire him because of that. George tells him to keep quiet because if he doesn’t, they won’t have anywhere to go, and they will be homeless. To protect Lennie...
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...John Steinbeck showed the effect that friendship has on people, multiple ways. In this novel, Lennie shows how he has become reliant on others for everything. Lennie's face wrinkled with apprehension. "I don' know.(Steinbeck, 72)" This evidence suggests that Lennie doesn’t know what to do when he has to make decisions on his own. Another way Steinbeck shows loneliness is by showing the effect of lost companionship. In this novel, Crooks is portrayed as someone who has had to be lonely for so long that he needs someone's companionship. "A guy needs somebody to be near him." He whined "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. (Steinbeck, 72)" This quote shows how Crooks has had no one for so long that he yearns for the companionship of others. The last way Steinbeck displayed loneliness is by showing human- animal companionship. He said miserably, "you seen what they done to my dog tonight? When they can me here I wisht somebody'd...
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...Friendship is when a person is willing to do anything for someone even if they need to take a risk, in the book “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie both show the consequences of friendship they have to face in the following chapters. A theme in Of Mice and Men is friendship comes with great sacrifices. George is most important to the understanding of theme because he is always caring for Lennie and always stayed by his side. The claim character “George” is most important because of “friendship comes with great sacrifices”, he showed that he cares for Lennie even though he makes him frustrated when they are around each other. Secondly, George has to put up with Lennie but this comes in a reward by Lennie being the big, strong protector towards him. Lastly his ultimate show of friendship is when he kills Lennie. George has been with Lennie ever since the beginning. George and Lennie are complete opposites but show a strong and beautiful relationship. The support given to the claim is that George and Lennie always travel together and towards their living...
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...In the story Of Mice And Men, two young white men named George and Lennie who only want to make a living off of working the land move from ranch to ranch in the 1930’s. One of the men are very different though, as he has a mental problem that causes him to think like a little boy, yet he’s a big strong man. His name is Lennie. These two men have already ran away from a ranch when the book starts because Lennie got himself into trouble by touching and feeling on a woman’s dress, not knowing he was doing something wrong. When they get to the new ranch they meet new people who will affect them drastically throughout the story including another woman, who is the wife of a cocky little man named Curley. This story is arguably one of the best and oldest examples of true friendship and it displays it numerous times in the passage. But I’m only going to give you three events that show friendship. The first when they run away in the beginning of the book together, the second when George tells Lennie he needs him, and the third at the very end of the book when George infamously ends Lennie’s life. The very first example of friendship is on the second page on the book, where it explains them running away from people with guns. Later on in the book you discover why they were running and hiding from them, which is because...
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...Through a list of harsh truths, John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men casts humanity in an unfavorable light. These include loneliness, oppression, and imperfection. The grim realities of the hardworking characters are revealed through their actions to rise above challenges and in the end their defeats These truths are all used to build the complex main theme of friendship and the effect it can have on an individual's life. Of Mice and Men exposes the validity,loneliness, of people during the Great Depression. For instance Curly’s wife seeks attention ,positive or negative, from anyone on the ranch because of her isolation being the only woman present. When confronted with her isolation she says,“Wha’s the matter with me?Ain’t I got...
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...Of Mice and Men is one of the most widely assigned modern novels in high schools because of both its form and the issues that it raises. John Steinbeck’s reliance on dialogue, as opposed to contextual description, makes the work accessible to young readers, as does his use of foreshadowing and recurrent images. Equally important is the way in which he intertwines the themes of loneliness and friendship and gives dignity to those characters, especially Lennie and Crooks, who are clearly different from their peers. By focusing on a group of lonely drifters, Steinbeck highlights the perceived isolation and sense of “otherness” that can seem so overwhelming when one is growing up. Of Mice and Men is also important because it explores the way in which events can conspire against the realization of one’s dreams. It pits a group of flawed individuals against a set of circumstances that they are unable to master or, in the case of Lennie, even to comprehend. This is a theme that Steinbeck also explores in his classic novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939). When Steinbeck began Of Mice and Men, he was planning to write a children’s book called Something That Happened. His intent was to demonstrate that events often have a momentum of their own and need not reflect the existence of a higher power that is exacting punishment. Perhaps it was for this reason that he decided to retitle the book, drawing from Robert Burns’s oft-quoted poem “To a Mouse,” which contains the line “The best-laid...
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...FRIENDSHIP IN STEINBECK'S OF MICE AND MEN A Sermon by Dean Scotty McLennan University Public Worship Stanford Memorial Church July 25, 2004 There are two different accounts in the New Testament of Jesus' disciples asking him how to pray. What has become known as the Lord's Prayer comes in two different forms, this one in today's gospel lesson from Lukei being shorter and less familiar than that in Matthew.ii They seem to stem from separate liturgical traditions in the early church. Matthew has seven petitions, while Luke has only five.iii But Luke alone follows the recitation of the Lord's Prayer with a fascinating parable about the potential limits of friendship in the middle of the night. The point of the parable seems to be that if one is persistent in asking something of a friend, even when it's very inconvenient, one's petitions will be answered. How much more will one be blessed, then, if one is persistent in praying to God, our heavenly Parent?iv John Steinbeck's short novel Of Mice and Men is all about friendship in the middle of the night -- that is, under very difficult circumstances of rural poverty during the Depression. Following my sermonic theme of the last couple of weeks -- not only loving God with all of one's heart, mind and soul but also loving one's neighbor as oneself -- I'd like to explore Steinbeck's understanding of friendship with you this morning. Ultimately, I hope it will illuminate what it means existentially to knock at the door and then have it...
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...Some may view the Great Depression as the loneliest and most isolated period in American history for the people who experienced it first hand. It can be difficult to really capture the essence of the need for companionship that was immensely present in the Great Depression. However, when John Steinbeck uses the dialogue of Crooks, the actions of Curley's wife, and multiple characters undergoing major inconveniences for friendship it openly depicts the need for companionship in his novel, "Of Mice and Men". The primary way that Steinbeck portrays loneliness and the need for companionship, is through the articulation of the character Crooks. Initially, this can be viewed when Crooks expresses that he feels unheard and that nobody listens...
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...Lennie developed through IMAGE and DIALOGUE in the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck? The novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ written by John Steinbeck, during the depression era, set in America (1920’s) traces the elusive quest of George and Lennie, two drifters, as they attempt to be successful in their dream to own their own farm. Steinbeck portrays descriptive, word images and dialogue to create a realistic image of the hardships people faced during this time period. The description and the conversations employed by Steinbeck give the novel its appeal and add to your response to the novel and the characters. George and Lennie are the two main characters in the novella ‘Of mice and men’ which rely upon their friendship to survive: Lennie depends upon his friendship with George to make the correct decisions. George relies upon the friendship with Lennie to plan for the future; this is differed from the other men on the ranch. At the beginning of the novel, the characters are wondering in an idyllic environment – “Willows fresh and green with every spring” Much like George and Lennie’s dream the scenery is perfect and un-spoilt, this is significant because their dream seems possible and obtainable in this perfect setting as a story can seem like reality. The imagery of their perfect surroundings is also a metaphor for their idealistic friendship and perfect dream. Steinbeck idealizes the concept of male friendship, which is shown through the perfect setting, however ultimately...
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...Of Mice and Men Theme Essay For many it is hard to live life without a dream or goal to work towards. For George and Lennie, two characters in Of Mice and Men,by John Steinbeck, the friendship and dream shared between them is crucial to their survival. Without each other they would be lost in a cruel world. In Of Mice and Men, a historical fiction novel by John Steinbeck, the theme, everybody needs something to believe in, is supported by Steinbeck's use of writing structure. At the beginning of every chapter, Steinbeck describes the surroundings in immense detail. This structural aspect of the book remains constant throughout the novel. The description of the outside world helps readers understand why George and Lennie need something to hold onto, such as George and Lennie’s dream of surviving on their own and not having to depend on someone else to give them money. In the beginning of chapter one, the surroundings are described as “... beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening to jungle- up near water.”(pg 2) This quote shows that Lennie and George are walking down the same trodden path that many others have...
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...A major motif of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is the American dream and the drive to attain it. The life of a ranch hand is grim, yet the characters in the novel are still vulnerable to dreams of a better life. The dream of owning land, called the American dream by some, is what motivates George and Lennie in their work on the ranch. It is their friendship that sustains this dream and makes it possible. While the dreams are credible to the reader, in the end all dreams are crushed, and the characters are defeated by their circumstances. The characters in Of Mice and Men have very little to look forward to as migrant ranch hands. They travel from ranch to ranch with all of their possessions in a bundle, looking for work for fifty dollars a month, and that work does not usually last very long. If a man is a good worker, he might be kept on at the ranch indefinitely and wind up as Candy does, old and crippled, just waiting until he is no longer useful. George explains the despair of a ranch hand to Lennie: Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. They come to a ranch an' work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they're poundin' their tail on some other ranch. They ain't got nothing to look ahead to. (Steinbeck 13-14) Despite their destitute state, many of the characters in Of Mice and Men are prone to dream. George...
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...John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men In John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men, one of the predominant themes that govern the story and characters in the book is friendship. One of the ways in which friendship plays a large role is in the area of mercy killing, which affects the main characters as well as the supporting ones. The two major mercy killings that occur in the book are those of Carlson's killing of Candy's old dog, and of George's killing of Lennie. In both of these examples, the killer kills the other out of mercy and love, not for the usual motives of hatred, rage, anger, etc. The killing of Candy's dog is an excellent example of mercy killing in the aforesaid novella. Candy's dog was in terrible condition, and it could barely be said that the ratty old thing was even alive. It stunk like a dozen skunks, was nearly blind, could barely hear, had arthritis that was so bad, the old mutt couldn't sit down, had no quality of life, and probably had urinary and bowel problems, a miserable condition that is almost assured in old dogs. This instance of mercy killing, however, was more driven by peer pressure than the typical case of mercy killing. When someone kills another loved one out of mercy, it is normally done to put the afflicted one out of their misery, torment, anguish, distress, etc. The other ranch hands thought that the dog reeked more than any of its other conditions, which was the only one that they, too, could experience. Candy's dog loved its master...
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