Chase Decker
2nd Hour
In Of Mice and Men, there are numerous examples of sympathetic characters throughout. They all come with their stories of false promises and lost potential which brought them all to this farm. They all have at least one thing deeply, horribly wrong with them, on top of all their other flaws. In that sense, Of Mice and Men addresses the flaws found in all people, and shows how they can make some people completely miserable.
I’ll talk about Lennie first, since I’m pretty sure he was specifically written to be the most sympathetic character from the beginning. Right off the bat, it is incredibly apparent that there is something not right about Lennie. To say the least, he’s a couple fries short of a Happy Meal. He has a
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Crooks is a victim of unfortunate circumstances. He’s a black man in a time when black people were still very discriminated against, and as a result, was forced to sleep in the barn by the other characters, which certainly doesn’t help his crooked back that he has to rub cream on. All he has to do in his free time is read books, and is incredibly lonely. He has also become very cynical, as in reference to Lennie saying he’s gonna work with George to get a piece of land, he says, "You’re nuts." Crooks was scornful. "I seen hunderds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads. Hunderds of them. They come, an’ they quit an’ go on; an’ every damn one of ‘em’s got a little piece of land in his head/ An’ never a God damn one of ‘em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head". Through all the isolation Crooks is put through, and seeing so many others say the same thing, he has lost hope for himself or anyone that they could ever accomplish their goals in life, which is really depressing when you think about …show more content…
First thing’s first, not once throughout the entire book does anyone refer to Curley’s wife by her name, and it’s unclear if they even know it in the first place. She’s unsatisfied with her marriage and gets lonely, so she gets flirty with the other guys, however, as a result, they tend to avoid her because they suspect she’s gonna try to start trouble, which in turn, feeds into the cycle of loneliness. Whenever other characters talk about her, it’s usually in demeaning terms and insults, since she had unfairly accumulated a rock-bottom reputation. During a very vulnerable period, she strikes up a conversation with Lennie and starts venting about where she could’ve been, "I tell you I ain't used to livin' like this. I coulda made somethin' of myself." She said darkly, "Maybe I will yet." And then her words tumbled out in a passion of communication, as though she hurried before her listener could be taken away. "I lived right in Salinas," she said. "Come there when I was a kid. Well, a show come through, an' I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol' lady wouldn' let me. She says because I was on'y fifteen. But the guy says I coulda. If I'd went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you bet". Very soon after this, Lennie ended up killing her, though by accident. She was so lonely, and only trying to find someone to vent to, and doing so ended up being her biggest mistake. I kind of
Would you let your best friend who you’ve been protecting for years and spent hours of time with; would you let him die peacefully or painful? I think George was right to kill Lennie for numerous reasons. One of them being that George couldn’t just let Lennie go escape by himself because Lennie would die if he did. Also, Lennie was a dangerous individual and needed to be terminated before he caused more problems. Lastly George was right to kill Lennie because it was an act of mercy.
However, the applicability of this song is endless when the lyrics are taken at deeper than face value. It starts with, “Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn. Four-hundred empty acres that used to be my farm.” This verse provides an unambiguous glance at what has occurred in the narrator’s life. He is looking upon a naked piece of land that now belongs to someone in an office that will presumably never know it like he did.
When she dies, many readers accuse her to be the fault of her own death because she shouldn’t talk to Lennie after discovering what he did to the dog. Readers also say she also shouldn’t scream, because Lennie then became fearful of George finding out what he did and attempts to force her to stop screaming, accidentally killing
The definition of a sympathetic character is one whom the writer expects the reader to identify with and care about, though not necessarily admire. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife, a main character in the book is blatantly portrayed as an unsympathetic character. This is because they only see her through the men's eyes, who only see her as a tiresome object, owned by her husband. Steinbeck’s portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair and misogynistic because he only displays her as unintelligent and promiscuous, never has a character have a turning point where they realize she’s more than an object, and he never reveals her true name. The first reason that Steinbeck's portrayal of Curley’s wife is unfair is that he never gives Curley any redeeming personality traits, he only depicts her as unintelligent and promiscuous.
In addition, Curley’s wife herself remains unnamed due to the author’s intention of portraying women as they were seen during the Depression. After learning about Curley’s wife for the first time, George strictly tells Lennie: “Don’t you even take a look at that b**ch. I don’t care what she says and what she does. I seen ‘em poison before, but I never seen no piece of jail bait worse than her” (Steinbeck 32). The men at the farm treat her like a ruthless object ready to get them in trouble.
When lennie killed that little puppy is completely an accident. He didn 't and still doesn 't understand that he has incredible strength, and that he needs to know how to use it. He killed the puppy by trying to pet it but he was too aggressive with and and hit the dog giving it flight. He went into panic mode because he knew
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.
Crooks is a black man who has been given the nickname because of his crooked back. He is another character in the novel that is discriminated against. Similarly, as Lennie and Candy are discriminated because of their weakness, Crooks is discriminated because of his race. For example, he says how he “ain’t wanted in the bunkhouse… can’t play [cards] because I’m black” (68). His race causes him to be separated from everyone else and be isolated in his own room.
Lennie was unfortunately killed when he could have possibly lived a better life if George gave him the chance. Lennie should not have been killed because he could have potentially been a valuable asset, a good friend to keep company with, and a kind person at heart.
In the novella, Of Mice and Men, the author John Steinbeck illustrates a ranch in the 1930’s during the great depression where those who fit into mainstream society run the show, and those deemed “outcasts” are rendered useless. Steinbeck depicts characters with setbacks that diminish their value in the eyes of society, and contrasts them to characters that have no difficulties conforming to the norm. Crooks, being a black man isolated by his race, and Candy, a elderly man limited by his age and missing limb are examples of Steinbeck characters that experience hardships because of the differences. The poor treatment of Crooks and Candy by the other characters, and their chronic unhappiness in a place that doesn’t value them, comments on how
After the Great Depression in 1929, America’s economy was devastated. The increase of farming across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode, turning the once fertile grassland to a desert like Dust Bowl. Hundreds of farmers and workers migrated to California in search of jobs aiming for the American Dream. The American Dream is the hopes and the goals of the characters in which they can obtain a better life through their hard work. In Of Mice and Men, the American Dream is portrayed to be extremely vital for the men as it serves as their motivation, yet ultimately proves to be unattainable through the memorable characters of Lennie, George and Curley’s wife.
Crooks is the only African American on the ranch and is also very kind to Lennie and shows him respect even though they have many differences. “‘Come on in and set a while,’ Crooks said. ‘Long as you won’t get out and leave me alone, you might as well set down.’” (69). Even though Lennie bothered him at first, he still lets him stay in the room because everyone else was gone and if Lennie was alone he could get himself into trouble.
Crooks (named crooks after being kicked in the back by a horse) is a very controversial character as he is the only black member of the farm and doesn’t actually feature to much in the book. When he is in it though most of what we find out is when Lenny walks into his room. From the start its clear that crooks is a very abused and defensive because he says “You got no right to come in my room” as soon as he notices Lennie stood in his room even though Lennie doesn’t really see any difference between skin colour and doesn’t understand why this is happening. Most of what can be known about Crooks is from the items in his room. His room is actually connected to the barn showing they do not value him as a person but only as a stable buck.
Misogyny is defined as a prejudice or hatred against women. This concepts plays heavily but this novella also insinuates the power women hold. Although the women that are portrayed are nameless to symbolize their insignificance; they are the ones that shaped many events and ultimately the ending; the one woman that was given the slightest importance was the reason of the novella’s tragic denouement. Of Mice and Men, written by John Steinback, recognizes the hardships and struggles during the Great Depression, but also the loneliness that is fulfilled by women and how they alter the motivation to achieve the American dream. Curley’s wife is the only female in the plot that is shown importance.
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (1937) is an intensely-focused novella that deals with friendship, trust, the relationship between good and evil and the role of justice. It is the second book in Steinbeck’s trilogy about agricultural labour, alongside with In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939). The title, inspired by a line in the poem The Mouse (1875) by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (The best-laid schemes o' mice an ‘men / gang aft agley), encapsulates the spirit of the narration.