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Good Intentions In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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“There are no purely bad people in it. Conversely, there are no purely good people in it either. All the characters are complex mixtures of good and bad, or rather of bad results from good intentions. They are all—in their ability and in their outlook--limited. And they live in a gross and dirty world.” Good intentions cannot always lead to a good outcome. Very often the path a person may be stuck on simply does not have a good end, and it may be impossible to swerve off into a different path. In George’s and Lennie’s case, they were limited by a society which would not cooperate with many people, there would be people who would be looking for trouble. This quote plays a theme during the entire novella, especially in Lennie’s character. After …show more content…

One’s fantasies usually end up as just that, fantasies. In Of Mice and Men both Lennie and George have the same fantasy, one which seems great and to an extent even seems achievable, but due to the nature of Lennie and George, it simply cannot be reached. These limitations range anywhere from Lennie’s lack of intelligence and excessive strength to the scarcity of jobs in the area. Although both George and Lennie truly believed in their dream and did their best to achieve it, it was just not reachable. Sadly, these limitations are not always visible to the human eye, this means people will work hard, and work for a long time when a path will only ever lead them back to the same spot where they were before. This theme is seen through the entire novella, George and Lennie end up the same way the book started, Lennie’s lack of self-control caused Lennie to make a mistake once again, and again it made Lennie’s life be threatened. Lennie’s and George’s dream was not an uncommon neither, as Crooks states, "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an ' on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an ' that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an ' they quit an ' go on; an ' every damn one of 'em 's got a little piece of land in his head. An ' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it.", and by the end of the novella, both George and Lennie are doomed to the same fate as anyone who has had the same dream as them(74). Just as anyone in this age as time, their fantasies were limited by

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Although George and Lennie frequently talk about their dream of owning their own land, it is foreshadowed that this dream will never materialize. While the rest of the ranch hands are in town for the night, Lennie goes into Crooks’s room and he tells Crooks about their dream of

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Due to Lennie’s mental disadvantage, George has felt responsible for him. Because of Lennie, the two of them had to flee their old town of Weed. Whatever dreams George has in mind, Lennie is a part of. George has come to admit that to himself. George recognizes that Lennie is dependent on him.

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George realized Lennie would never get better and their dream would never come true. “ I think i knew from the very first day. I think i knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much i got to thinking maybe we would.” George wanted a good life we wanted to get somewhere in life someday, he wanted this for both of them.

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Steinbeck once again returns to his biological perception of the human. “The attack on us set in motion the most powerful species drive we know - that of survival” (Steinbeck). “By attacking us, they destroyed their greatest ally, our sluggishness, our selfishness, and our disunity” (Steinbeck). Steinbeck alludes self-critically to the American maneuvering and indifference during the first two years of WWII.

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Since Lennie has a mental deficiency, he doesn’t realize that this will never be able to happen. Over many years, George has found ways to deal with Lennie. Using this example to focus him makes them both happy, even if it is just a dream. This books shows people being untruthful to protect themselves just as much as To Kill A

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After all the anger that George has shown towards Lennie, he utters these words now so Lennie can die with a sense of peace. George does not want to pull the trigger, but he knows that the further consequences of Lennie’s actions will only worsen. To save Lennie from Curley’s wrath, possible imprisonment, and perhaps years of suffering, George takes Lennie’s

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The definition of a sympathetic character is one whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, though not necessarily admire. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife, a main character in the book is blatantly portrayed as an unsympathetic character. This is because they only see her through the men's eyes, who only see her as a tiresome object, owned by her husband. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair and misogynistic because he only displays her as unintelligent and promiscuous, never has a character have a turning point where they realize she’s more than an object, and he never reveals her true name. The first reason that Steinbeck's portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair is that he never gives Curley any redeeming personality traits, he only depicts her as unintelligent and promiscuous.

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Imagine, a small, nearly silent hospital room filled with quiet apprehension about what is about to happen; the silence masked only by soothing voices trying to bring the room to a state of peace. A man lies in bed, only kept alive by the life support that his been sustaining him for days. Then in a moment, the life support is gone and so is the man, released in a harsh act prompted by mercy, compassion, and good intentions. In John Steinbeck’s book, Of Mice and Men, a another situation is prompted by compassion, but the result is a cruel act. Lennie attempts to show caring and tenderness to Curley’s wife, but it leads to her death in an example of situational irony.

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The initial paragraphs of John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men introduces Lennie and George, two men living on the road, in search of a job. Both men have dreams of their own and depend on each other in order to achieve them. George takes care of Lennie, who is mentally incapable, while Lennie provides company to George. These men wander around hoping to achieve the American Dream. They continue to go after it, without realizing that they will never be able to obtain it.

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During the Great Depression, many unemployed workers moved to California to look for work on the ranches. This was because they had a dream to become successful, which is also called “the American dream”. In John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie, the two main protagonists, worked on a ranch chasing the american dream just like many other americans who dreamt of becoming successful. They tried to save money to buy their own land and live a life where they were successful. However, they never accomplished that, and like many others, did not realize they would never accomplish it.

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799 Words | 4 Pages

The characters in Of Mice and Men all have original and unique characteristics inside of them, but no matter how different, they all have the same reactions of giving up when thinking about dreams. The main characters George and Lennie, recently unemployed migrant workers, move to a new ranch for work. Thrown into a cruel, misshapen life that doesn’t end well for the majority of characters, George and Lennie find themselves in a dilemma that seems all too familiar. John Steinbeck uses the characters in Of Mice and Men to show that dreams are fragile and they need friends to support them.

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“The characters who go bad, generally, are [the] ones who desire power beyond what has been given to them. The ones who stay good accept the limitations of their unique role in society”

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“No matter how much sometimes you dare to dream, send happy thoughts into the universe, no matter what you do some of your dreams will never come true” (Unknown). In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, at the time of the Great Depression, two men, George and Lennie, venture to California in hopes to find work. Because Lennie is wanted for raping a woman, George and Lennie must escape the “law” by fleeing to the next town. Through the character of Lennie, Steinbeck shows that issues outside the control of an individual often limit the achievement of his dreams. “‘But he never hurt her.

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“-I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would” (Steinbeck 78). George wanted a better life someday for himself and for Lennie, but deep down he knew Lennie’s limitations and accepted that the dream was never meant to be.

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Their dreams give them purpose, hope and the passion to want to work hard. Their dreams become connected to save them from their loneliness, and give them all control over their own destiny, in a time when most people were at the mercy of happenstance and serendipity. Despite the mood in Of Mice and Men, which foreshadowed tragedy even in the most optimistic times, not one of the characters could have for seen that the loneliness of one person would to affect them all by being the demise of their dreams, both collective and

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