John Steinbeck †“Of Mice and Men” Coursework Essay

‘Of Mice and Men’ written by John Steinbeck set in California near Soledad in the 1930’s on two men called George and Lennie who travel together from ranch to ranch trying to make their life like the † American Dream† what Lennie shares with George. During this time there was a depression in America, which meant unemployment and Racism was high so men had to go to different ranches. Racism and bad employment at this time in the United States was called â€Å"The Great Depression.† After The Great Depression, World War 2 had started and John Steinbeck decided to write the book â€Å"Of Mice and Men† what was influenced also by a poet called Robert Burns who was Scottish and also had released a book in the past. Later â€Å"Of Mice And Men† was published in 1937. The American Dream in the U.S.A is thought to be for any American to go through hard work and courage to achieve the goal of their life leading them to success. Lennie and Georges Dream was to own a farm house with lots of chickens and rabbits. â€Å"The American Depression† what had been the harshest depression ever what was from 1929 leading to 1939. This Depression started in North America what went on to Europe and other areas of the world. Although it was started in the united states because of the fast economic growth, it lead the whole world to a disaster. This was originally started because of over production in agriculture what lead to rising debt with farmers. The ranch where Lennie and George end up working for was near Soledad, which is south east of Salinas, Weed was nearby. Soledad what meant lonely was an ideal setting to the story for people who could translate Soledad into English. All of the ranchers with them are lonely with no family and never have anything to look forward to just their daily routines and also just thinking of â€Å"The American Dream†. After the ranchers do their routines the only kind of entertainment what they do is play cards. The ranchers belong to no – one what everyone knows â€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches are the loneliest guys in the world . . . They got no family†. This also adds to the fact that the ranchers are missing out from a lot in their life’s as they have no family or friends to share their fun with and they have no life only sadness. Ranchers don’t seem happy as they never have any fun entertaining things to look forward to like normal people so they just carry on with their lives in loneliness and misery. George Milton who is a small and intelligent man with sharp feutures. He is Lennies carer as he always has to take care of him and be beside him through everything as he is, his only friend. After George’s aunty died he had to look after Lennie as he was the only one he could talk to, but got fed up as Lennie talked like a child. Even though George leads Lennie out of problems what he gets him self into accidentally he loves him a lot but doesn’t like to show it. Lennie Small is large and has a shapeless face. He drags his feet when he walks, and lets his arms hang. He has a child’s brain as he doesn’t really remember anything and looks up to Lennie as he leads him in the right way and always helps him in bad situations. Lennie in the story gets compared to an animal more than a human as he is a really big man who is mentally retarded â€Å"Dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws†. George and Lennie relation differs from the other ranchers as they travel together where ever they go and are not lonely as the other ranchers as they have got each other. Crooks is an old black man, he is called this because he has a crooked back he is the stable worker, with a personality just like Candy’s. Crooks doesn’t like company like candy and also wants to live for George and Lennies dream. He has a small place where he lives by himself because of his color as he can not stay in the bunk-house. Lennie gets along with crooks more than anyone else as their resemblances are the same. Crooks is one individual who spends most of his time reading and is a fairly clever person, he lives in a small space, with no one with him. He is segregated because of his color. â€Å"Crooks said, long as you won’t get out and leave me alone.† He is not allowed in the bunk-house to play cards as the other ranchers say he stinks, but he tells Lennie â€Å"You all stink to me† Candy is an old man with one arm who works as a swamper. Candy had an old dog but agreed to kill it as the entire ranch workers were complaining that it smelt â€Å"we can’t sleep with him stinkin around in here†. Candy is very attached to his dog which he had since it was a pup, and was the only thing he could really talk to. When he hears about George and Lennie’s dream of getting their own place, he asks them to take him with them and offers them his savings to help. He offers his money to them as he doesn’t have any other family to share his savings with. Candy becomes very happy, as he thinks he will not be lonely again, but these dreams are broken in the end. Curley the bosses’ son who was a welt weight boxer. He is short and wanted to prove that he wasn’t a laboring man. He acts as he is superior to anyone else in the ranch. He goes around like he is the boss but no one dares to go up to him as he is a strong boxer. Curley is quite a violent man and in the story he ends up getting in to a fight because he thought that Lennie was laughing at him â€Å"No big son-of-a-bitch is gonna laugh at me†. Curleys wife who is always left lonely and no-one respects her, Curley never pays attention to her She is forced to flirt with other ranchers to get attention however, she does not get it as everyone knows Curley will be furious if he finds out and any one who will try it with Curleys wife will get into very big trouble with the boss. She is one of the loneliest people in the story as everyone neglects her and never pays attention to her so she is forgotten out from everyone else. Even though she dresses up like a tart she doesn’t achieve anything wit the other ranchers. Even when she tells Curley â€Å"I never get to talk to nobody, I get awful lonely† she still gets neglected. The people who are most lonely in the story are Candy, Crook and Curley’s wife. Candy is lonely because, he has no family or friends. His only friend was his dog who he could talk to. â€Å"I’ve had his since he was a pup.† This shows that the main people who are lonely are really different from normal people as they never have anything to look out for. George and Lennie’s relation is very strong unique friendship as none of the other ranchers travel with anyone else or share experiences traveling together or either copeing with life together. They are good friends because they share the same dream of owning a farm. George wanted to be his own boss. Lennie wanted, to pet animals all day long and they both believed that it will come true and even when George has doubts he encourages Lennie. They both know how important they are to each other and Lennie likes it when George tells him that â€Å"I got you and you got me†. They both look out for each other as they depend on one and other, they haven’t got no one else like friend or family † Ranchers are loneliest guys in the world they got no family†. In the end George has to kill Lennie to save him from being killed by the other ranchers what would have been twice as bad seeing a close friend die. â€Å"The American Dream† was something what George and Lennie truly believed in. Without the dream no – one would have nothing to look forward to but George and Lennie were well in way of thinking about their future. This was their main objective through out the story of owning a big farm together even crooks and candy got involved in with the dream John Steinbeck wanted each characters individual self to have some thing to look forward to in their up and coming life. To the end of the story Lennie goes to the place where George told him to go if he got into any trouble near by the river. Then Lennie began to think and imagined a rabbit who told him that George would get rid of him because, he is sick of him. And when George comes to the place where he had told Lennie to wait Lennie asks that if he would leave him and George replies back no. Then Lennie decides to leave but George says no and reminds him of the Dream they had planned of them two owning a farm with Furry rabbits and lots of land. But then George tells Lennie to look across the river and Shoots him with the gun to the back of his head. Slim guesses what had happened and reassures George that it had to be done in the end for the best. This was very important for George to do as he can live a life where he doesn’t have to look out for some-one else rather than him self. But also George will become really lonely without Lennie besides him and also their Dream of being together in a big farm had been destroyed. But now George can settle down and think about how he is going to go on with the rest of his life and what job to do without him keeping to move. The thing that has died with Lennie is everything that George and Lennie had. George had done everything for Lennie and could take no more. He had protected him so much an always encouraged him to the max. George killed Lennie as a good friend to save him from harsh misery. The theme of loneliness in this book is important If the characters in the book weren’t lonely then they wouldn’t have done the things that they did and so there wouldn’t have been the same. Curley’s wife and Lennie die because of loneliness which causes George to be even more lonely. If Curley’s wife hadn’t been lonely she wouldn’t have started the conversation with Lennie which caused her death.