Of Mice and Men

Authors Avatar
George Haddad

Wide Reading Course Work

In the course of the year I have been reading two stories as part of my wide reading coursework. The first novel was " Of Mice and Men" written by John Stienbeck, the second was a short story "The Withered Arm" written by Thomas Hardy. I am to compare the two stories for their similarities and differences.

John Stienbeck wrote "Of mice and Men" in 1937. The story is about two drifters in search of work. George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other and a dream. The dream is that one-day they will have some land of their own.

Eventually they find work on a ranch in California's Salinas Valley, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie struggling against extreme cruelty, misunderstanding and feelings of jealousy, becomes a victim of his own strength.

"The withered arm" was written by Thomas Hardy in 1981, and is set in Dorset, south of England. Rhoda Brooke worked on a farm milking cows. She once had a relationship with farmer Lodge and together they had a son.

Farmer Lodge gets married to a woman called Gertrude. Gertrude later appears in Rhoda's dream. Rhoda out of jealousy had a fight with Gertrude. The dream felt so real and as a result of the dream Gertrude's arm became withered. Gertrude went to a conjuror that had a cure for her arm, which would turn and clean her blood. The conjuror suggested that Gertrude should touch a dead man's neck in order for her blood to "turn" and then become clean. Gertrude did what the conjuror suggested, when she touched the man's neck, her blood "turned" too much and she died as a result.

In these two stories the two main characters have an uncontrolled power.
Join now!


In "of mice and men" Lennie is a simple-minded person but is physically very strong "he ain't much of a talker is he? No, he ain't, but he's sure a hell of a good worker. Strong as a bull, strong as a bull".

In the story, simple Lennie does not know his own strength, this is seen through out the story many times.

In the beginning of the story Lennie catches a mouse and begins "pettin it", he then kills it, "and besides you've broke it pettin it", He kills the mouse by petting it too ...

This is a preview of the whole essay