Of Mice and Men.

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Of Mice and Men.

I have recently finished reading in class the novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ by John Steinbeck.  In my essay I am going to discuss the important features like the themes and the symbolism.

The story is set in the 1930’s during the time of the Depression.  It is based on the friendship between two grown men, George ‘a smart little guy’ and Lennie ‘he’s just like a kid, ain’t he?’ that have been together from a very young age, looking all over the country for work.  The two have a dream that they want so badly to come true but unfortunately there is a twist in the tale and everything goes wrong.

One of the main themes of the book is that all the characters have a dream. George’s was to own his own piece of land with Lennie at his side, where the two could learn to live peacefully by themselves. ‘Some day we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs’.  There would be no one to boss them around and tell them what to do.

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The other characters have dreams about being safe and loved like Curley’s wife,  who dreamt about making it big in the movies but all her dreams were shattered when she married.  Now she does nothing but hide away in the house or stroll about getting people into trouble.  She was convinced that she would have been better off in the movies.  After all, she had been promised to become an actor from the age of fifteen, the only thing that had stopped her was her mother.  All of the dreams have an unlikelihood of coming true, which makes them all ...

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