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Literary analysis of of mice and men by john steinbeck
Literary analysis of of mice and men by john steinbeck
Literary analysis of of mice and men by john steinbeck
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In the book of mice and men there are two characters named George and Lennie. George and Lennie were robust friends and had known each other from a young age. They worked and traveled together. Lennie was not completely sane and couldn 't help it. In the book of “mice and men” Lennie murders a lady.
Lennie says, “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard” (Steinbeck 85). Lennie is talking to a puppy that he killed by accident while playing with it. Lennie is a big man who does not know his strengths and harms things without knowing how he does
In the book Of mice and men, One of the main characters is named lennie. Lennie is the one with the mental disease. How lennie likes to have fun is he likes to touch soft, pretty things. He likes to keep ahold of those things. As lennie and george ( the main characters) were walking to their job, lennie pulls out a dead mouse.
Which means Lennie hurts animals and other people without meaning to. On their way to the bunkhouse, Lennie keeps petting a dead mouse in his pocket, when George says “you've broke it pettin' it.” (Steinbeck 9). Killing a little mouse by petting it is a splendid case that displays that Lennie has jurisdiction over his strength. Lennie was “gently” petting the mouse and snapped the little mouse's neck, Ironically Lennie adores soft furred creatures.
At the beginning of the novel he accidently kills a mouse, and then a puppy, and ultimately Curley’s wife. As he said, “I can still tend the rabbits, George?... I didn't mean no harm, George.” (65), he may have not meant to harm anything or anyone but he did not understand or accept the severity of his actions, instead he was concerned about the tending of his future rabbits. Lennie’s actions solidified Steinbeck’s stance on the true nature of mankind through his diction.
and I’ll let you keep it a little while”(9). Lennie is crying really hard over a dead mouse, that he killed, because he can’t keep it. This shows he acts like a child because he’s crying over something that he can’t keep, just like babies and little kids do. There is one difference, Lennie is a grown man crying over a little dead mouse. This isn’t the only he cries in the book.
This would not have made sense to the reader if Steinbeck had not included foreshadowing. In Of Mice and Men there are several events that show how much Lennie enjoys touching soft things. These events also show that he usually ends up hurting everything he pets
Although Lennie loves mice, he is inept at handling feeble creatures. George notices the mouse and addresses it by saying that: “‘That mouse ain’t fresh, Lennie...you’ve broke it pettin’ it’” (Steinbeck 9). The euphemism that George uses for death suggests that the mouse’ death was not intentional, nor sadistic. Lennie roots his intentions in kindness, but his strength overpowers this emotion.
This trait of Lennie 's affects the story in a bad way because since he likes to pet things so much, he pets them too much that he kills them on accident. Lennie has done so much to ruin his world in the book. When Lennie gets to a new place to live, he accidently kills mice, a puppy, and a person, but says he 's sorry which makes him seem sympathetic. Steinbeck was successful at making Lennie sympathetic because he cares about everything and will always be there for George but other characters keep sizing up to him and he doesn’t know
In the beginning of the novella, George is very much hostile towards Lennie and looks upon him as if he has been burdened with taking care of him. George shows his thoughts towards Lennie, when he says, “ ‘Poor bastard,’ he said softly, and then went on whistling again”(8). After George threw Lennie 's dead mouse into the forest, he tells him he can 't have a dead mouse in his pocket, just so he can stroke it. Then George tells Lennie to go get some firewood, after he departs he hears Lennie looking for the mouse instead of firewood.
Lennie keeps a dead mouse in his pocket. George argues with Lennie about the mouse. Afterwards we also learn about a dream of the men. The chapter ends after Lennie gets told to come to this same spot in the brush if any trouble arises. In chapter 1 george acts very harsh towards Lennie.
Because of Lennie's mental disability, he is required to be dependent on George. In the beginning of the novel as George and Lennie are making their way to the migrant farm, Lennie has a dead mouse in his pocket. Lennie feels that if he were to tell George concerning the mouse, he would yell at Lennie and be angry with him for his wrong doing. Ultimately, the more times George gets furious or impatient with Lennie, Lennie believes that George will not allow his dream of owning a farm in the future to come true (Owens). Likewise, Lennie's lack of consciousness from determining right from wrong, denounces his self character, leading to his own death.
In the novella Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck often employs animal imagery to dehumanize Lennie, in order to allow the reader to justify George putting him down at the end of the novella. As Steinbeck’s use of animal imagery progresses throughout the novel, Lennie is dehumanized by being compared to an animal that only hinders George’s pursuit of happiness. Starting with Lennie’s introduction, Steinbeck influences how the reader perceives Lennie. During the reader's first encounter with Lennie, he is described as walking “heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws," (Steinbeck 2). Steinbeck’s diction invokes animal imagery by comparing Lennie’s movements to that of a bear, which immediately dehumanizes Lennie to the reader.
Lennie cannot change his mental disability nor can Crooks change his race, but due to these inalterable characteristics, Lennie hurts others unintentionally, and Crooks is hurt by others. “Naturalism does not deal primarily with individuals in themselves, but rather with social groups, settings, or movements…”( ), which relates to the story, because Lennie’s actions not only affect him and his future, but the other characters in the book. In Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the concept of naturalism is portrayed through the experiences of Lennie, Curley’s wife, and Crooks. Lennie’s mental disability and physical strength often lead to trouble, because he can never fully comprehend his actions. When Lennie is the barn, he ends up
“But little Mouse, you are not alone,” is a quote from the poem by Robert Burns, To A Mouse. This quote directly relates to how some of men treat Lennie, Slim and George want to feel like Lennie’s companion. However, Curley feels very intimidated by Lennie because he is big and gets special treatment from the men. In chapter 3, Curley picks a fight with Lennie and instead of stopping Lennie from hurting Curley the men egg Lennie on, Lennie ends up breaking Curley’s hand. Crooks and Curley’s wife have another point of view on Lennie, both of them at different times try to show Lennie that George might not always be as faithful as he has been.
