A comparison of John Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men' and the 1939 film version of the novel

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A comparison of John Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men' and the 1939 film version of the novel

Looking at the novel 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck there is the clear comparison that this is a print text, while the 1939 film version of the novel by Milestone is a visual text. There are many things that need to be taken into consideration when analysing a visual text, these being the use of camera angle, sound, lighting, editing and the mise en scène, whereas when looking at the print text the use of description, dialogue, characterisation and imagery. The three scenes which are most relevant to the novel and the film are, the shooting of Candy's dog, the fight which takes place between Curley and Lennie and the scene which takes place in Crooks room. There is a clear difference between the scenes from the book and the scenes from the film; this is due to a number of reasons. The main one being that the novel has left the reader to make up their own mind about the characters in their own time but the film has a limited amount of time to do this, introducing the characters quickly and getting straight to the story. Also, the book was written by Steinbeck but the film was not produced by him, therefore we are seeing two interpretations of the novel.

The first scene, which is a major focus of the film and the novel, is that of the shooting of Candy's dog. This is dramatic and creates a high emotional response, both in the novel and the film. The film introduces the scene with a number of high angle shots with the focus on the dog. These high angle shots of the dog are featured with the dog close to Candy, showing that there is a connection between the two, which may be seen as more of a bond. The use of these shots are powerful but the book allows the reader to use their imagination, with the use of dialogue to express how much the dog means to Candy, this is just as powerful as the way it is presented in the film. Candy looks "helplessly" saying "it's hurt him" after Carlson suggests shooting him because the "ol' dog jus' suffers hisself all the time". This suggests, just as clearly as the film, that the dog is important to him and he doesn't want to lose him. This is also suggested when Candy says that he "don't mind takin' care of him".

Throughout the scene there is also the focus on the newspaper article as well as the main story of Candys dog. This is a good technique used to build up tension because the audience wants to know what's going to happen to the dog. Throughout this scene in the film there is still a clear focus on Candy although the story of the newspaper article is going on around him. This causes an emotional build-up, along with the other characters that are placed in the camera shots who appear not to care about Candy. The emotional build-up is created in the novel with the description of Carlson who "continued to look down at the old dog" as Candy "watched him uneasily", this builds up tension between the two characters even more so as the other characters present are unaware of this non-verbal communication until Carlson finally speaks.

Once the conversation is over between the two and Carlson finally convinces Candy to let him shoot the dog, a soundtrack is introduced, which is slow and sad, adding to emotions as a close-up camera angle focuses on Candy. The dog is then taken out of the door, which is filmed from above, with a high angle shot, which not only plays on the emotions of the audience but also makes the dog appear to be small and fragile. Along with the soundtrack this is a very powerful image especially as the next shot is that of Candy, who walks over to his bed. This is described in a lot more detail in the novel than it is in the film. The description of the dog is just that he got up "slowly and stiffly to his feet and followed the gently pulling leash". The text appears slow which increases the emotion between all the characters. This is increased in the film when the camera focuses on all the characters in the room individually, with no dialogue between the characters at all. The silence causes even more tension as they wait for the sound of the shot from the gun; the slow editing also causes a build-up. The added sound effect of the gun stuns the characters then they look sympathetically at Candy, as they do in the novel, where "a shot sounded in the distance" then every "head turns towards him (Candy)". They both focus on it enough for it to be emotive, but the technique is to focus on the emotions on Candy.
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The next scene is the fight scene between Curley and Lennie after Curley enters their bunk and fights with Lennie because "he doesn't like big guys". Tension is built up in the film with long shots of all the characters and a deep, slow soundtrack, giving the impression that something climactic is about to happen. The dark lighting also gives this impression, as Curley tries to gain power over the other characters. The fight comes, as Curley appears to accuse Slim of being with his wife. Slim impertinently tells Curley "Well now you know", provoking Curley. The characters ...

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