The world Of Mice and Men is one of hostility and suspicion. Explore the second chapter of Of Mice and Men in the light of this statement and decide whether you agree.

Ben Pakenham Cox’s English Year 10 Sunday, 05 February 2012

Of Mice and Men Essay:

Chapter 2

Question: ‘The world ‘Of Mice and Men’ is one of hostility and suspicion’. Explore the second chapter of ‘Of Mice and Men’ in the light of this statement and decide whether you agree.

Introduction

Of Mice and Men is a contrasting story to others because it has many different sides to it. You could look at it one way and say that it’s a joyful book and has only a couple of nasty people in the book, But you could look at it the other way and say that the ranch is a horrible, mean and a fight to survive.

The Bunkhouse

The Bunkhouse is a small room with 8 beds made up and ‘the other three showing their burlap ticking’, ‘the walls were whitewashed and the floor was unpainted.’ From only the first few lines of chapter two and you can see that Steinbeck has tried to show us the reader that the bunkhouse like the rest of the farm is small and not a nice place to be. When it then goes on to talk about people possetions it shows us that in that time is was normally to only have about 5 things on you (sometimes even less).

The Character Candy

Candy is the swamper (cleaner of floors by pouring water on it and using a mop to clean of the dirt) on the ranch, when George and Lennie Arrive on the Ranch he is the first person to greet them. He is meant to be an old man, handless and without a Dog. He acts extremely nice towards George and Lennie (some say too nice). Being Old he is trying to keep his job for as long as possible because back then (and still now in America) there was no unemployment befits like there in the UK ...

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The Character Candy

Interview with Boss

In the Interview with the Boss he comes in and try’s to ask George and Lennie why they are half a day late to work. George tries to tell him that the ‘Bus driver give us a bum steer’. But when the Boss hears this he doesn’t even care and carries on about what he ‘had’ to do. This shows us that the Boss doesn’t change his mind at all because he thinks what he does/says is right and that’s it but by the end of the talk he is almost like a nice person almost like he has a guard up and when everything is okay the guard goes and along comes a helpful man.

The Character Curly

Curly is the Bosses Son, he is meant to be small and ‘one of those small guys who hate big guys’. As soon as he comes through the door he looks a Lennie and puts up to fits, like you would in a boxing ring. This shows the most hostility of all of the things on the ranch because some guy walks in who the swamper called a ‘nice fella’ and he tries to start a boxing fight with your Mate/You. After going into the room like he’s in a boxing fight he then asks some questions directed to Lennie, Which because George Told Lennie strictly not to talk George has to talk and answer them. This aggravates Curly because he may not be in charge of anything he really thinks himself to be on the top because the Boss will never fire him because he is his son.

The Character Curly’s Wife

Curly’s Wife is a tart (a married woman who wants to ‘see’ other men), well that’s that Curly thinks when he said ’I think he’s married a ……. tart’. She has meant to have been only married to Curly for only 2 weeks and she’s already on the hunt for other men? Some people think that it is because she was just a tart in the first place and always has been and that’s why Curly married her but some other people think that it is because she feels like she is held captive in the house and whenever she is with Curly outside the house it told to ‘go to the house’. This shows us that she could be feeling like she is all most an item of Curly’s and isn’t allowed to go anywhere without permission of Curly. This shows us again that the ranch can be almost like a prison.

Conclusion

Overall I think that for Chapter Two the statement: ‘The world ‘Of Mice and Men’ is one of hostility and suspicion’ is true because if you look at all the points above the only nice thing at the ranch is Candy and he is only putting it on so he doesn’t get fired from the ranch and die from not having any money. This shows us that the ranch a place with only Good patches and are few and far between.

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