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How Does Steinbeck Create Tension In Of Mice And Men

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In this extract of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Carlson’s eagerness to kill Candy’s dog is effectively drawn out and delayed, but is in the end satisfied with Candy giving in. The tool behind the killing of his dog is a result of the destructive and menacing force of loneliness. Steinbeck displays the effect and power of loneliness through personifying the silence and using it to stall the story which, through the carefully placed tense diction, creates a lot of tension throughout the extract and especially within the bunkhouse. Steinbeck’s strongest demonstration of loneliness’ power is the personification/repetition of silence, and how the silence is the aftermath of loneliness’ mental destruction. The build up to the killing of Candy’s …show more content…

In the bunkhouse after Carlson leaves the characters are the left to deal with the fact that they are allowing the death of Candy's best friend to happen. Quite clearly the death of Candy’s best friend would lead to great amounts of silence which would thus create tension between the characters. This tension though, has been present throughout the whole extract, not just through the silence, but by the stalling of the narrative that Steinbeck uses. His primary use of this is with Whit and his magazine in the middle of the extract when Slim says, “What you want me to read that for?”(Steinbeck 72). Steinbeck is indirectly slowing down the story and also increasing Candy’s hopes only to increase the blow of loneliness. The stalling distracts the characters of the event that is reaching its completion and lets them ease off slightly like here “Candy said hopefully, You ain’t got no gun”(Steinbeck 72). Steinbeck has allowed for Candy’s to regain some hope for his dog's life even if he knows that it may not be so great. In order for all of the features to come together Steinbeck uses his diction to form the tension and stalling. He spreads it around the whole extract which all resembles around tense diction like here, “Well, I can’t stand him in here, said Carlson.” The

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In this chapter, the gloom is relieved by the hopeful planning of the three men — George, Lennie, and Candy — toward their dream. For the first time in his life, George believes the dream can come true with Candy's down payment. He knows of a farm they can buy, and the readers' hopes are lifted as well, as the men plan, in detail, how they will buy the ranch and what they will do once it is theirs. But while Steinbeck includes this story of hope, the preponderance of the chapter is dark. Both the shooting of Candy's dog and the smashing of Curley's hand foreshadow that the men will not be able to realize their

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1. Of Mice and Men begins with a description of a picturesque woodland that surrounds the Salinas River. It is filled with rabbits, birds, and other innocent, almost “lifeless” animals. The water is described as “warm” and “twinkling.” The author's use of word choice and imagery creates a calm, idyllic setting.

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Steinbeck uses a theme to develop the story in an awesome way. He puts lots of themes in his book to make people think. In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck theme is used. Theme is what develops the story. The main theme of this story is everyone needs a friend to enjoy life and live life.

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Wisdom is a trait many people desire, but wisdom is gained through self-experience and cannot be taught. In the novel, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse the protagonist Siddhartha identifies he can only learn from himself, when he converses with Gotama and discovers his teachings have flaws. “You have learned nothing through teachings, and so I think, O Illustrious One, that nobody finds salvation through teachings. (Hesse 27)” This is the pivotal moment for Siddhartha, from this moment forward, he knows to follow his own path in order to achieve Nirvana.

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A water snake gliding leisurely across a still pool is swallowed whole by a heron, lurking in the shadows. A mouse is thrown violently across a river. Two dogs are killed- one shot and one manhandled. A woman is strangled and hidden in a pile of hay. A man is shot in the head while speaking passionately of his dream.

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“A minute passes, and another minute. Candy still lay still, staring at the ceiling. This quote makes the reader feel the pain Candy is feeling. When Candy’s dog died, he turned very lonely. Candy experienced loneliness when his dog

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We all may have had the feeling of loneliness and isolation, wanting companionship feeling abandonment. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, there are men living on a ranch having their own reasons for loneliness or being isolated. The three characters Crooks, George, and Lennie crusade dealing with own ways of loneliness and isolation. Crooks has no one that likes him because he’s black, Lennie struggles mentally and George struggles with always having to care for him. They all can’t decide whether it is that they want to be alone or not.

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Isolation, confinement and loneliness are major themes within Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper. Without Isolation, confinement and loneliness, the novels would have an entirely different consequences and outcome. With the narrator in The Yellow Wallpaper and Lennie from Of Mice and Men being isolated in the setting of the novels, there is no escape from achieving a positive resolution. Dialogue shows the confinement of Lennie’s and the narrator’s mental capacities, as well as foreshadowing, that demonstrates how the only way to gain a sense of freedom in both texts is to die.

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Lonely Characters in Of Mice And Men Imagine a world where people didn’t really care what one said to another, and neither cared enough to ask each other questions. A place where everyone existed in silence, but were together at the same time. As portrayed in the novel, Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck, in which Steinbeck’s idea of loneliness is isolation in silences. The author teaches the reader that friendship is mostly about conversation, and magnifies the effects of isolation through the eyes of Crooks, Curley’s wife and Candy.

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Loneliness and isolation is an ongoing theme throughout the novel Of Mice and Men, experienced by several characters to different degrees. Some characters are more isolated and lonely than others, yet every character in the story goes through this theme during one point in the story. There are various reasons why each character is lonely or isolated. In general, all the ranch workers feel some sort of loneliness because they move alone from ranch to ranch and do not have real connections with others, Curley’s wife experiences this theme because she is the only woman on the ranch and nobody wants to interact with her because Curley is very protective and hostile of her. Thirdly, Candy struggles through being lonely and isolated after Carlson shot his dog and because Candy does not work with the others since he is a swamper.

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Since he is getting old and slow, he is becoming more and more useless now at his job at swamping the bunkhouses in which the workers live in. Because of recent events, it is becoming more apparent that he may not survive a lot longer. Steinbeck argues that the purpose of Candy’s weakness is to show that old age will result in not being able to positively help society and in return not survive through the use of the comments and actions of the ranch hands.

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John Steinbeck's novella 'Of Mice and Men' contains various important themes. One of the significant themes of this novella is hope, friendship and loneliness, determination that empowers a man to endeavour with a feeling of self-esteem. In this novella, Loneliness is presented to be one of the dominant themes. The composer outlines the depression of ranch life in the mid 1930's and shows how individuals headed from town to town in an attempt to discover kinship keeping in mind the end goal was to escape from forlornness.

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One’s self has experienced loneliness from choice or forced into isolation. The novel ¨Of Mice and Men¨ written by John Steinbeck, took place during the Great Depression, near Soledad, California. The protagonist, George and the antagonist, Lennie are mid aged, white men who are working on a ranch with other mid aged, white men. Along with ones who aren’t as focused at the time, such as Crooks, the negro or black, Curley’s wife, the woman and, Candy, the old and weak man were treated differently from all the white, strong males in the novel due to the setting the novel. This making distance in relationships in Of Mice and Men, isolating these characters into loneliness.

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There are cats of cruelty all over john Steinbeck’s novel of mice and men some acts of cruelties involve gender, race, age, disabilities. Cruelty in all forms causes destruction for the victom’s in of mice and men. There can not be cruelty without someone causing it. Carlson and Curley’s wife are two examples of cruelty causing destruction in “of mice and men”. Two of the characters that went through the most cruelty in the story were candy and crooks.

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