Of Mice and Men is set along the Salinas River a few miles south of Soledad in the fallen world of the Salinas Valley, which Steinbeck places
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"Of mice and men" Essay
Of Mice and Men is set along the Salinas River a few miles south of Soledad in the fallen world of the Salinas Valley, which Steinbeck places "east of Eden" the Promised Land is only a painful and illusory dream. This land is populated by "sons of Cain", men doomed to walk alone. One of the major themes that comes from this is loneliness, or fear of apartness. One of the themes of Of Mice and Men is that men fear loneliness, that they need someone to be with and to talk to who will offer understanding and companionship.
Soledad is a Spanish word and translates into English as solitude or loneliness. This country is one of such loneliness that George and Lennie stand out sharply because they have one another or, as George says, "We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.
The dream of the farm symbolizes their commitment to each other. George and Lennie's dream represents a desire to challenge the curse of Cain and fallen man they want to break the pattern of wandering and loneliness and return to the perfect garden. In the real world George and Lennie achieve as much of their dream as possible.
The influence of George and Lennie's commitment to each other and to their dream has for just a moment made Slim, Candy, and Crooks, men who worked at the ranch, broken the grip of loneliness and solitude in which they exist. Lennie's longing for the rabbits and all soft, living things symbolizes the longing all men have for warm, living contact.
In the novel is the little spot by the river where the story begins and ends. It is here we first see George and Lennie enter from the highway to an outside world. Coming to ...
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The influence of George and Lennie's commitment to each other and to their dream has for just a moment made Slim, Candy, and Crooks, men who worked at the ranch, broken the grip of loneliness and solitude in which they exist. Lennie's longing for the rabbits and all soft, living things symbolizes the longing all men have for warm, living contact.
In the novel is the little spot by the river where the story begins and ends. It is here we first see George and Lennie enter from the highway to an outside world. Coming to a cave or thicket by the river symbolizes a retreat from the world to a primeval innocence for George and Lennie. George impresses of him that if he gets into trouble to return to the thicket by the river. It is impossible to live where they are so the safe place becomes a little home.
Steinbeck is not only able to dramatize Lennie's desire for the "safe place" through his love for the rabbits, but he is also able to define on a low level of consciousness that desire the most important aspect of their plans for Lennie is the attraction to soft, warm fur.
This transfer from the farm to the rabbits is also important because it makes possible the theme of action. The dead mouse which Lennie carries in his pocket in the first chapter introduces this. As George talks about Lennie's attraction to mice, it becomes clear that the rabbits will come to the same end crushed by Lennie's simple, uncontrollable strength. The readers see a pattern after they read about how Lennie killed the mouse and the puppy. Also, George's story that he tells twice about the girl with the red dress and the crushing of Curley's hand, the shooting of Candy's dog, and the frequent appearances of Curley's wife contribute to this expectancy of patterns. All of these incidents are patterns of the theme of action and predict the fate of the rabbits and thus the fate of the dream of the "safe place."
Lennie asks George, "Tell me like you done before," He repeated his words rhythmically, as though he had said them many times before. It is shown that even Lennie has heard it by his repeating the exact language.
"An' live off the fatta the lan' ... an' have rabbits. Go on George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about..."
This ritual is performed many times in the story, whenever Lennie feels insecure. George shoots Lennie while he is caught up in this dream. In one way the vision is accomplished, the dream never interrupted, the rabbits never crushed.
The dream's vision of the farm in Eden dies when Lennie dies. Even though Lennie's imperfection doomed the dream it was only through his innocence that kept it was kept alive. For while the dream of the farm dies, the theme of commitment gains its strongest statement in the conclusion of this book. Unlike Candy, who abandons responsibility for his old dog by allowing Carlson to shoot him, "George remains his brother's keeper without faltering even to the point of killing Lennie while Lennie sees visions of Eden. It is sad that, in this fallen world, George must re-enact the crime of Cain to demonstrate the depth of his commitment.
At the conclusion of this Book Steinbeck stresses the significance of the new relationship forming between Slim and George. The book says that Slim recognizes the meaning of George's act (shooting Lennie). "Slim came directly to George and sat down beside him, sat very close to him." The key word "directly" is used by Steinbeck to place heavy emphasis on Slim's act. As Of Mice and Men ends, you see George and Slim walking off to have a drink. Steinbeck is placing emphasis on the new friendship between George and Slim.
This novel began with two men, George and Lennie, climbing down to the river from the highway and it ends with two men, George and Slim, climbing back up from the river to the highway. The fact that George is not left alone has great significance. In the fallen world of the valley, where man's commitment to each other is the only understandable and obtainable dream, the fact that in the end of the story as well as in the beginning, two men walking together causes this book to end on a strong note of hope-the central theme of this story, man's commitment to man (George's commitment to Lennie), did not die with Lennie.
Andrew Shaw 1/05/2007
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