ipl-logo

Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis Essay

921 Words4 Pages

A wise man named Richard Brookes once said that, “It is better to face the truth of reality than live in the falsehood of make-believe happiness.” In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, he writes about two companions, Lennie and George, who share the same dreams about buying their own land and having their own freedom. They move to work for a new ranch after an incident that caused them to flee from their old one, wanting to have a fresh, new start. However, Lennie continues to make mistake after mistake, due to the fact that he cannot be controlled. This is when George realizes that achieving their dreams can not be possible and decides to make a drastic decision to keep Lennie safe, by shooting him. Based on the events that occur in …show more content…

“I bet we could swing her,” he repeated softly” (Steinbeck 60). George is known to be a very logical and short-tempered man. But his dedication towards earning the land easily breaks through his serious personality. Phrases like ”eyes full of wonder” or “I bet we can swing her!” helps the reader understand George’s feelings about the situation that took place. With this quote, Steinbeck also reveals more about George by using an optimistic tone of the dialogue and the choice of phrases that are used. Ultimately, Steinbeck uses tone and language to prove that people who try to achieve their aspirations are filled with traits like hope or passion. Steinbeck expresses another idea in this novel, which explains that harsh reality will always be present in one's life. Crooks is an African American stable hand with a crooked back who lives in the shed located in the barn on the ranch. One day, Lennie invites himself into Crook's home and they start chatting with each other. They also talked about Crooks as a kid. Later on, Candy comes in and starts telling him about the land that they were going to get with George. Crooks, however, did not like that and told them that “[he has] read plenty of books out …show more content…

In other words, it expresses Crooks' pessimistic view of the American Dream. Following this statement, Crooks continues to present his ideas by pointing out that “[he has] seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand” (Steinbeck 76). This further conveys the low possibility of a dream come true. Many men have the dream of living off of land and having this freedom. Unfortunately, many fail to do so because they waste money at their whore-houses. In conclusion, Steinbeck uses Crooks to portray his beliefs about harsh reality and his experiences have caused him to think in this way. After analyzing this novel, it is clear that Steinbeck touches upon the fact that the reality of a situation will always pop up when someone gains aspiration and hopes that their dreams will come true. There are many people in this world who made their dreams come true and there are many morals that claim that hard work leads to success and achievement. However, the story that Steinbeck wrote expresses that even if it's nice to stay in the happy dreamland, the real world problems will always be shadowing

Open Document