Of Mice And Men

Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck about two unusual friends called Lennie and George and is based during the Great Depression. The story is about two friends who stuck together, while many other people were isolated, through the lack of jobs and money. Because of the Great Depression the American society changed dramatically. Many hard working people felt left out and started to realise none of their dreams were going to come true. Steinbeck is trying to show that the American Dream does not always come true. The American Dream means that if you go to America and work hard enough you will become rich and successful.

In this book there are three important characters who are very lonely and isolated and their names are Candy, Crooks and Curley's wife. Candy is isolated and lonely because he used to be a great worker, but one day his hand got chopped of and he got old and became a swamper and was useless. No one respected him and they shot his dog because he was old and disabled just like him. This made him think they had little regard for him. Crooks has a similar problem, he is black and is disrespected because he live in a racist society. He has a very good job looking after the horses. He lives next to the horses as he is not allowed to live in the bunkhouses. Curley’s wife situation is even worse being so isolated that they cannot even remember her name. She is the only woman on the farm, they call her slag because she actually dares to talk to other people. There is nothing wrong with her talking to others because she is trying to make friends.

Lennie and George are different form the other characters, they are not lonely as they have got each other to talk to. The other thing that is different about Lennie and George is that they move from farm to farm as they have each other for companionship “with us it ain’t like that, we got a future, we got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us”.

During the Great Depression there was more workers than jobs – this was called unemployment. The workers would do anything for money but few got paid well ...

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During the Great Depression there was more workers than jobs – this was called unemployment. The workers would do anything for money but few got paid well because there was too many workers. There us to be competition where they worked. There was less co-operation between the workers and they did not feel good working there. People would make people feel put down in order to get jobs. The people got really desperate, it was like Lennie and George moving from ranch to ranch. People would get angry easily because the qualified people would argue with the normal unemployed people saying that they should get more money that the others less qualified workers.

Slim was a jerk like Skinner and he worked on the farm, he was very skilled and was not replaceable. Unlike some of the workers he was very secure in his job, because of his calm nature he is like and trusted by his fellow workers. There are quite a few workers who have been working on the farm but their jobs are not as secure as Slim’s.

Candy’s true and practically only friend was his dog. He had him since he was a beautiful puppy who became an excellent sheep dog. He then grew old, smelly and disabled. He was not a good useful dog anymore and people on the farm could not see him like that.

The people wanted to put the dog out of his misery and shoot him. Carlson said to Candy “he is no good to you, An’ he no good to himself”. Candy said to Carlson I had the dog too long and he hoped other people would think the same. Candy looked for help from person to person, he was hoping that only Carlson wanted to put the dog down. The last person he asked was Slim and even he said he was to be shot. Carlson was the one who shot the dog as he wanted to put him out of his misery he shot him. This had a bad effect on Candy and he felt that his is in the same situation and the same thing could happen to him. Candy would have done anything for his dog not getting shot, he was his best friend.. Candy felt let down and felt he did not have any friend. He felt lonely, he would like on his bunk bed and face the wall. He felt that his time was nearly finished on the ranch. He felt like his dog, he was only being kept on the ranch because of his injury. He also felt that his job was at risk.

Of Mice And Men

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