The story of ‘The Withered Arm’ is set in rural southwestern part of the United Kingdom called Wessex, now called Dorset. The area had small desolate rural communities, who all knew each other’s family’s histories well. Society at the time had strict social classes and disapproved of marriages between lower and upper classes.
George and Lennie were migrant American labourers. George protects his strong but stupid friend and shares with him a dream of one day settling down and farming his own land. Lennie will look after the rabbits and they will be answerable to no one. However, their dream does not come true because Lennie was in the bar while the other guys were playing and Lennie kills Curley’s wife. He ran to the brush where George later sent Lennie to his death.
Lennie was a strong but stupid man at the beginning of the story. George, Lennie’s mate promises his Aunt Clara that he will look after Lennie so you would not expect Lennie to cause great harm. However later on in the story, Lennie has a mouse, which is dead, and floppy he had petted it too hard. Then a bit later on Lennie gets into a bit of bother with Curley, and Lennie crushes his hand and would not let go of it. Then he kills a puppy from petting it too hard. Then comes the last straw and Lennie breaks Curley’s wife's neck. Therefore, Lennie runs back into the bush by the river where George said to go if any trouble was to happen, Later that day George comes down to the bush and tells Lennie to face up the river while he told him about the dream. Then while George was talking to Lennie he picked up Carson’s luger and shot Lennie in the back of the neck. This ending was unexpected because Lennie is a strong but soft man. It is also unexpected because George had promised to take care of lennie, not to kill him.
In 1888 many, many years ago when The Withered Arm was written, the farmers were rich and very important people, but the men who worked for them were much poorer. This is a story of one very rich farmer ‘Farmer Lodge’ and a poor milkmaid ‘Rhoda Brook’ that had an affair but could not marry. He was rich and she was poor so they are not allowed to marry. The poor milkmaid, Rhoda Brook had his son but he did not want anything to do with him.
Twelve years later the news came, that farmer Lodge had got married to a woman called Gertrude lodge. Rhoda felt as though this woman was a wicked witch. One night Rhoda Brook went to bed where she had a bad dream. She dreamt about Gertrude trying to grab her and put her arm over her. Rhoda pushed her away roughly. The next day Gertrude came, she had a withered arm. She tried every way to cure it until a man told her to put it over a hanged mans neck so she did that but at that point, Rhoda and farmer Lodge came into the building. Farmer Lodge pushed Gertrude away from the body and later that day she died. Farmer Lodge and Rhoda were there because it was Rhoda’s son that had been hanged.
As Gertrude placed her arm on Rhoda’s son, immediately behind her stood Rhoda, her face was drawn and she had been weeping, Behind Rhoda stood Farmer Lodge, his face was lined, his eyes were dim but there wasn’t any tears. He started to shout at Gertrude and so did Rhoda. Rhoda clutched Gertrude’s arm and pulled her back against the wall. Gertrude fell unconscious Later that day Gertrude saw a doctor and then died, her funeral happened a few days later. This ending was unexpected because going to jail and putting your arm on the neck of a hanged man is not something you would expect a woman to do. The ending is also unexpected because you do not expect the hanged man to be Rhoda’s son.
In ‘Of Mice and Men’, the language is characteristic of America in the 1920’s for example ‘Looks kinda scummy’. The language of ‘The Withered Arm’ is typical of country people of Wessex in the last century who speak with a country accent for example ‘He do bring home his bride tomorrow, I hear’. It also contains language from the last century, which is difficult for us to understand. ‘Milchers’ – these are cows that produce milk. ‘Water meads’ – these are low laying fields next to a river.
The settings of both stories are similar in that they both take place on farms. ‘Of Mice and Men’ takes place near Soledad in California, America. The action takes place on a large ranch where they grow grain for money. The ranch has a large house where the boss, the boss’s son, and the boss’s son’s wife live. There is a bunkhouse where the ranchmen sleep; it is like a large hut full of bunk beds. There is a large wooden door with nice square windows. The roof of the bunkhouse is a thatched roof. Then there is a stable block that is where the black men go to sleep.
‘The Withered Arm’ takes place on a farm in the Wessex countryside. This time it is a dairy farm. The farm is a small milking farm where the milcher cows are milked by hand and the owner has a large house. The house that Rhoda Brook lives in is a shabby old cottage with lots of junk outside the house. Inside there a few rooms but the one that we saw was the kitchen, it had a large sink. There is a wooden table in the middle of the kitchen.
Both stories build up tension as the, stories progress. In the ‘withered arm’, the tension starts when farmer lodge appears with his new wife. The tension increases when Rhoda dreams of Gertrude and then Gertrude appears the next day with marks on her arm. The most tense point in the story is when Gertrude visits the jail to put her arm on the dead mans neck we learn that he is Rhoda’s son. In of ‘mice and men’ the tension begins when we learn that Lennie run out of weed on the suspicion of rape. This builds up when he meets Curley and eventually crushes his hand. The tension reaches its high when he kills Curleys wife and the final score when George kills Lennie is in fact quite calm.
‘The Withered Arm’ is concerned with the supernatural starting with Rhoda’s dream and ending with the idea of touching a dead body could turn the blood and change the constitution of the arm. It is also to do with mans treatment of women. Farmer Lodge’s rejection of Rhoda after she had his son and the rejection of his wife after she became disfigured. ‘Of Mice and Men’ is also to do with rejection. The rejection of Lennie because he is retarded, Crooks and Candy because they are physically injured and Curleys wife because she is the only woman in a mans world.
In comparing the two stories, I personally prefer ‘Of Mice and Men’ because it is a lot more exiting and interesting than ‘The Withered Arm’. The story is a lot mere attracting than ‘The Withered arm’. In my opinion, ‘The Withered Arm’ is too boring and old.
