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Of mice and men symbolism essay
Of mice and men symbolism essay
Symbols and their meanings of mice and men
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Of mice and men symbolism essay
Of mice and men symbolism essay
Symbols and their meanings of mice and men
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
When Wrong is Right At the end of “Of Mice and Men” George is faced with grim decision of shooting his best friend and family member Lennie to ease both of their future pains. George has known Lennie for mostly all of his life and he knew that when Lennie was dead their dream of having a house would be over. George then makes up his mind and shoots Lennie making him think if it was the right decision or it was wrong. In this case the decision was right because of many reasons with one being that Lennie would never be able to survive in the world that they live in.
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.
In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men,George and Lennie are two guys that are heading to their next job. Lennie is a giant and forgetful guy who does not always know what he is doing. George, on the other hand,is the opposite. He is short and knows what he is doing when it comes to work. Lennie was dangerous to everything around him and he also liked to pet soft things.
Lennie Small is a mentally-challenged man who behaves very childish and doesn't comprehend his physical strength. He frequently gets himself into misfortune and counts on George Milton, practically his family member, to get him out of it. After Lennie ran into some trouble in Weed, the two fled to Soledad where there was an employment opportunity on a ranch. In the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, Lennie encounters more trouble in Soledad and George ended up shooting him to liberate Lennie from his inevitable fate. George’s conduct of murdering Lennie can be seen as both justifiable and unethical.
In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men Lennie’s compliance, gullibility, and loyalty towards George and others show that throughout the duration of the novel Lennie does not change. Lennie has a disability and because of that George doesn’t want Lennie to talk much and let George do the talking. Since George do the most for Lennie and himself, Lennie has to listen to George and because of that Lennie has become compliant. When Slim talks about how strong Lennie is George said “Jus’ tell Lennie what to do and he’ll do it if it don’t take no figuring.
At the beginning of John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”, Lennie is characterized as unintelligent and untrustworthy. In the first to chapters of the story Lennie is shown as a character that constantly keeps things from his friend George, even though he is very obedient when given an order. In the first few pages of the story it is found that he is hiding a dead mouse in his pocket, when told that it should be thrown away he denies its existence. George looked sharply at him. “What’d you take outta that pocket?”
George and Lennie share an unbreakable bond, despite their contrasting appearances and personalities with George being “small and quick”, while Lennie is “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes and sloping shoulders” (Steinbeck 2). Even though they are so different, their personalities complement each other, and their undying friendship gives them hope and companionship in their desperate situations as migrant workers. Furthermore, throughout the novel, it is apparent that George takes care of Lennie through every obstacle he finds himself in, even though he is incapable of doing the same for George. Steinbeck also characterizes Lennie as innocent and animalistic to connect him to nature. He compares Lennie to animals in the barn describing the way he drinks water as, “snorting into the water like a horse”, and saying he “dabbled his big paw in the water” (Steinbeck 4-5).
Lennie represents as a strong muscular man with a mind of four-year old boy . George is the caretaker of Lennie, George can't go anywhere without Lennie doing something wrong. Lennie likes soft things sometimes Lennie is stronger than he thinks ¨give me that mouse! , I didn't mean to kill it George¨ ( Steinbeck 4). Lennie refuses to give up the mouse Aunt Clara ¨ give you a rubber mouse and you wouldn't want nothing to do with it¨(Steinbeck 5).
Hopeless or Hopelessness? Hopelessness and futility can lead a life into nowhere, because without hope you won 't have a dream or a goal to accomplish. Hopelessness is often shown in places where people have no hope to continue life or anything. In John Steinbeck 's novel, Of Mice and Men, it shows hopelessness in character 's dialogue, and character’s actions.
What is right and what must be done are two different concepts. Often times, life requires people to do what must be done in order to save themselves, or others, from negative consequences. The characters in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men illustrate how people implement remorseful decisions with astute intentions to help ease the consequences for those they care about. Lennie is a sizable, amicable guy.
Lennie is huge, sweet, caring, unsmart guy in the book. 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 how to fight. Lennie is clueless, kind, but forgets things easily. Others say that Lennie is useless at his job and should stay with George at all times. Lennie likes to make trouble without even knowing what he is doing.
Even with support from George, he was less than human. He had a mental capacity similar to an animal, this was portrayed in his descriptions where he was compared to a bear and when he acted like a dog and in the way that he habitually associated himself with other animals, the mice and puppies. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Lennie and his life additionally demonstrates that there is no mercy for anyone who cannot keep up with the rest of society. You must work to make money and be successful and you must understand and abide by the laws in order to be accepted into the world and lead a productive life. Anyone who is unable to do so will be conquered by natural selection.
In ‘Of Mice and Men’, Lennie is extremely strong and sympathetic/piteous character at the same time. His enormous strength exposed through the novel somewhat greatly and often described as animal-like. This extract is from the section when we were first introduced to Lennie and his first presence in the novel. “Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.”
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.
Although described as a rather large man, Lennie’s role between the two men is very childlike. Lennie is treated like a child by George because Lennie does not have the maturity or mental capability to make decisions for himself. For example, George must continuously remind Lennie of the spot he must come to if in trouble because Lennie cannot focus long enough to process this information. Lennie is also fairly unintelligent and blindly loyal to George. This loyalty is seen when George tells Lennie to jump into a river, and Lennie obeys even though he is unable to swim.