The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea Analysis

this ranch an’ there’s jus’ one family in Soledad...If I say something, why it’s just a nigger sayin’ it” (Steinbeck 65). He admits his isolation as the only coloured man in Soledad, yet realizing that he is mentally superior than Lennie, the black man decides to taunt him: “You got George...S’pose you didn’t have nobody” (Steinbeck 69). As Lennie panics, Steinbeck describes “Crook’s face light with pleasure in his torture” (Steinbeck 69). Hence, oppression comes even from the weakest, illustrating the idea that humanity is naturally power-hungry. Furthermore, both Mishima and Steinbeck utilize dreams in their books to motivate characters. In The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea, Ryuji “dreamed of...glory and death and woman” (Mishima).

This way, they dictate the sailor’s actions throughout the novel as he struggles to chose the one(s) he yearns the most. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses George and Lennie’s dream as one of the most powerful symbols of the book. As George describes it, “Someday--we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs” (Steinbeck 19). To them owning a piece of land symbolizes freedom, happiness, and safety - an idyllic life. Soon, this dream comes to seduce other characters such as Candy and Crooks, and ultimately even the audience itself. In essence, this dream served as an escape for the characters to forget about their dreary and lonely lives during the Great Depression, motivating them for a fantasy that would never come