Of Mice and Men Novel by John Steinbeck Analysis - Coursework Example

DEVELOPING READING STRATEGIES Chapter One According to the novella, George and Lennie are fleeing from their country where they used to work in a ranch. In fact, they were forced to hide in irrigation ditches for a whole day to escape the anger of the other workers whole were desperately looking for them, with bad intentions to hurt the, of course. Trouble rose in their work place when Lennie took hold of a woman’s garment and fondled it like he often deed with mice and perhaps the other workers took this as lack of respect for the lady who was screaming and turned their anger to Lennie. Since George as per the story is Lennie’s keeper, he opts to run away with him and seek for a job elsewhere George George is a hardworking character who loves working as he does in the ranches even if Lennie has always been causing trouble that makes them to run away time and again. He is also caring and patient as he cares about Lennie despite the fact that he is crazy and keeps on causing him trouble. Lennie Lennie is depicted as a crazy character that keeps on forgetting things told to him by George or even events that occur during their lifetime and some of which are important. Despite his mental disability however, he is also very hard working. Moreover, he is patient and hospitable because despite all complaints that George stated out of anger, he did not actually do anything stupid; he hang on and maintained friendship with George. Nature The story begins by giving a brief summary on the landscape of Soledad and especially the location of Salinas River. The river is said to be located between the mountain ridges and along the Valley of Gabilan Mountains. The river banks and the area in general is characterised by brush and huge trees, in this case referred to as gigantic whose leaves are dry and fall under the trees. Most of the trees in this area, and especially along the river are sycamore trees. The America Dream This is a national ethos belong to the United States of America consisting of a group of ideologies such as the opportunity for success and prosperity. In a society that has fewer barriers, the country has an aim of improving the social mobility of the citizens through encouraging hard work in individuals. Meanings Recumbent as used in the novella refers to something that is lying down; in this case the limbs of the sycamore trees were lying down. A bindle is a bag that most of the time is used by the American hobos and in this story the bag here contained the personal items and food for George and Lennie. Morose according to this story refers to an ill-humoured character that is almost always gloomy and bad-tempered explained by the sudden change of behaviour by Lennie. A work card is a document considered to be an identification that an individual can perform a particular type of task assigned. These are the documents carried be George and Lennie that they intend to use for identification if they are to get employed in the next ranch that they are going to visit. A jack in this novella refers to the lowest face card in a deck of cards played in casinos that George wanted to go and take part in. Brush in this case refers to a large area surrounded by huge trees and a mixture of natural landscape; it almost resembles a forest and this is the area that George and Lennie camped overnight. Chapter Two George and Lennie arrive at the ranch and they are welcomed into an old room that is made to be their accommodation for as long as they will stay working in the ranch. The old swamper at least shares some facts about the ranch with George and Lennie who only participates as an inactive listener as earlier advised by George. He explains to them that the boss is generally a nice man although he is short-tempered and may turn out to be harsh sometimes. George and Lennie get to meet the boss who agrees to put them into his payroll and since they had come while others had already reported for work, he promises them that they would get started immediately after dinner. After work, Slim also comes to see the two new men in the ranch and warmly welcomes them, hoping that they would be assigned to his team. Colloquial Language When the characters speak by themselves as happens in this chapter, the character traits reveal themselves and it becomes easy for the reader to get to understand the true character traits by analysing what the characters say. Curly This character is one difficult person to deal with, always appearing troublesome and lacking respect for both the people he lives with and visitors like George and Lennie. He is does not embrace peace since he always loves fighting people, especially those that are big-bodied such as Lennie. Curley’s Wife In addition to being described as a tart by Candy, Curley’s wife is also described as a rattrap, a bitch and jailbait by George. Lennie describes her as being pure. Chapter Three George and Lennie get through with their first day or work that involved bucking barley and returned to their bunks. Carlson suggests that Candy’s smelly dog should be killed by shooting with a gun and despite pleas against the act by Candy; nobody in the bunks speaks against killing the helpless dog. Unwillingly therefore, Candy allows Carlson to kill the dog, living him so stressed up and unwilling to speak to anybody. Slim accompanies Whit to apply tar on the hoof of a horse that had gotten split when Curley arrives in the bunks demanding to know about his wife’s whereabouts. He is obviously suspecting that she is with Slim and when he later returns to the bunks with Slim and minus his wife, he breaks up a fight with Lennie who only defends himself by hurting Curley’s hand. Slim advises Curley not to tell anyone unless he wanted to be laughed at. Contradiction This behaviour is contradictory to George’s behaviour towards Lennie in that despite the fact that Lennie does not benefit himself much, George still cares for him. Even after causing him lots of trouble including running away from a ranch they were working, he still shows concern for Lennie. Aunt Clara and other Brothel Workers Clara is pictured as a woman who does not attract customers since she does not entertain men with women like Susy does. Susy’s behaviour depicts moral decadence in that she keeps girls to entertain men who come to her brothel for drinks. Some other moral decadence is seen in the behaviour of Curley’s wife who despite being married still hangs out with other men and rarely stays with her husband. Dust Bowl in America a) This was a time when America experienced great dust storms; its impacts were destruction in America’s ecology including poor agricultural produce in Canada and California. Moreover, there was increased drought that affected the entire America in the dirty thirties as commonly known. b) In their hope for obtaining a home, George and Lennie talk about having lands for farming and animal keeping as if there was no any disaster that affected the land as it occurred in the 1930s. Chapter Four A clean picture of Crooks the stable bucker and skinner is created and lots of loneliness are depicted in his life. Lennie comes to keep him company as he looks for the puppies and Crooks tries to know how Lennie would live without George. Candy also comes looking for Lennie and is invited into Crooks house and they discuss having their own ranch. In a short while, Curley’s wife comes pretending to be looking for Curley and she emphasizes on the unworthiness of the three men in the society. Chapter Five Lennie, out of his increased stroking to the puppies kills his puppy and decides that it may not be such a big mistake that should make him run into hiding. Curley’s wife finds him stroking the dead puppy and tries t explain how lonely she feels alone in the room and explains that she goes looking for people so that she can talk to them. Lennie explains to her how he loves stroking good things and Curley’s wife allows Lennie to stroke her hair. Lennie strokes it so hard that Curley’s wife starts screaming and this scares Lennie. He decides to cover her mouth to ensure she doesn’t scream and get him into trouble; as a result he strangles her to death by breaking her neck. Candy informs all other men as instructed by George and the men, including furious Curley, Slim and George also go hunting for Lennie. Excerpt Candy was angrier with Curley’s wife more than he was angry with Lennie because it was clear that the dream of ever living together with George and Lennie was slowly fading away and all this was because of Curley’s wife. Questions a) Steinbeck wants the reader to see how unreasonable the people are not to understand that Lennie was just a crazy man who couldn’t do anything bad out of will. He also shows that Lennie was not as much of a dander as he was thought to be, he could still remember some things. b) Steinbeck shows this through the unwillingness of George to accompany them and involve himself with the murder of a friend. He also shows Lennie as one man who could remember the place they agreed to meet. c) Steinbeck is able to achieve this because Slim agrees with George that Lennie should be arrested and Slim also tries, though in vain, to convince Curley to remain with his wife. Chapter Six 1. Lennie finally gets to the clearing where the story had started and there his aunt Clara appears and accuses him of failing George even after all that George had done for Lennie. Moments later, a huge rabbit appears before him and it assures him that he was never going to take care of the dream rabbits as he would always forget to take feed them when the rabbit disappears, George appears from the brush. As George gives the story of their ranch, he stands behind him and shoots him on the head. The rest of the men find Lennie dead; Slim tries to make George understand that he did the right thing. 2. The imagery used in this except is that of the water snake that was hiding in the pool of water looking here and there and being convinced that it would not be harmed. The heron however appears and kills it. This predicted what finally happened to Lennie, in his hide-out, he was killed by the person that he absolutely trusted. 3. The end of this chapter leaves the reader unsure whether what George did was the right thing a friend would do to another friend. Steinbeck achieves this through bringing up episodes of Aunt Clara and the rabbit, both reasoning that it was no use living with a person like Lennie. Bibliography Mead, W.R. 2013, "Recent Books: The United States: Barack Obama: The Story/The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power/Obama and Chinas Rise: An Insiders Account of Americas Asia Strategy/The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court/Obamas America: Unmaking the American Dream", Foreign Affairs, vol. 92, no. 2, pp. 190-193. 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