“There is an ash-pile made up by many fires, the limb is worn smooth by men that have sat on it”
This is an idea of nomadic society by people always moving on and they have no permanent base, these people are itinerant workers, which go from one ranch to another.
The structure of the novel starts of as nature then it goes on to animals and it finally gets to humans this is because the don’t really belong there because the disturb the lonely tranquil atmosphere;
“A few miles south of Soledad the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green”
The reference to Soledad is significant as it means loneliness in Spanish and is a major theme in novel. Here the present tense helps us think that we are there, the word ‘green’ makes it look healthy, urban and alive.
When George and Lennie are walking to the ranch they are walking in single file, which shows friendship and a feeling of danger when they arrive and this creates tension;
“The hell with the rabbits. That’s all you ever can remember is them rabbits. Ok! Now you listen and this time you got to remember so we don’t get into no trouble”
This destroys the tranquil and calm atmosphere and makes it tense as we begin to realise that something has happened between them in the past.
The accent and dialect is American slang and this shows the historical context, Uneducated shows where they are from.
Symbolism and imagery plays a big part in the novel as things in the book show deeper meaning. The first part of symbolism that we see is between the Heron and the Water Snake. At the beginning of the book everything is calm and the heron and the water snake don’t bother each other but at the end of the heron eats the water snake;
“A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while it’s tail waved frantically”
This is symbolic because at the beginning of the book it is calm and near the end it is tense because of the death of Lennie and the heron eating the water snake shows this.
The second part of symbolism that we see is how Lennie is always compared to a big animal;
“His huge comparison dropped his blankets and flung himself down and drank from the surface of the green pool; drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse.”
This is symbolic because he is compared to a big animal and he is always described by his size compared to George’s.
Great Expectations is wrote in the first person and the first three paragraphs are directly related to the character that the book is about, the effect that this has is that it gets us closer to the character because it is in first person.
The novel is set in England in Kent. The atmosphere here is dark and gloomy because in this area at the time that it was set there was a lot of criminality;
“Raw afternoon” “towards evening”
The fact that it is getting darker creates a tense and lonely atmosphere, ‘raw’ creates an impression that it is bleak and cold.
As there is a lot of criminality in the area like convicts and the big gibbet it makes the atmosphere tense;
“and that distant savage lair from which the wind was rushing, was the sea.”
This comments no how pip metaphorically sees the sea as a ‘savage lair’ the word savage suggests danger and it brings about a cold and chilling atmosphere.
The structure of the novel starts off how pips life has started with his parent’s deaths and then later on it goes into the wider world when he has grown up to be a gentleman. The behaviour of Magwhich is very much aggressive towards Pip;
“Keep still you little devil, or I’ll cut your throat!”
This suggests that he is violent and he brings fear to Pip when he says this, there is another suggestion that he is a criminal.
Also Magwhich threatens him to bring him food;
“You get me a file. He tilted me again. And you get me whittles.”
This shows his authority over Pip by pressuring him by threatening to kill him if he doesn’t bring him a file and some food.
Also Magwhich’s appearance shows his behaviour, because of how he looks it scares pip straight away;
“A fearful man, allin course grey, with an great iron on his leg”
The words ‘course grey’ and ‘iron on his leg’ suggests that he might be a criminal. This creates a feeling of tension.
The accent in Great Expectations is in a Kentish dialect and the style is different and is hard to read. The narrator who is Pip in his later life uses Standard English because he has grown up to be a gentleman.
In Great expectations there is also symbolism. The most important type of symbolism in this is the marshes, because they are full of criminality and it is described as a ‘savage lair’, the gibbet also shows this and is also shows death and criminality.
Also the way that Pip changes classes is symbolic because when you are born into one type of class usually you stay in that class but in this novel Pip starts off in a lower class and grows up into higher class and becomes a gentleman.
To conclude there are some similarities and differences; both have imagery and symbolism in them, both have figurative language, and both end in the same way because they both go round in a full circle back to where they started. The differences are that Dickens’ is more complex and hard to read and Steinbeck’s is simple and easy to read, Dickens’ is wrote in first person, Steinbeck’s is in third person and both the structure and the language are different.
I think that both openings help you to want to carry on but when they get nearer to the end they both end in disappointment because you expect more to happen but it doesn’t.
To be honest I really can’t choose which novel is the best but if I had to choose it would be ‘of mice and men’ because there is more characters which means there is more to learn and find out about them.
