The main plot which is used throughout the story is that Lenny is left with George, neither of them have any family so they have to make do with what they’ve got; each other.
Lenny and Georges ambition is to firstly find work, so they set off to work at the ranch, afterwards when they have saved enough money they wish to buy their own house and to have all different types of animals.
When Lenny and George go for the interview to work at the ranch George is scared that Lenny will mess things up for them both, so when the interviewer asks them questions George makes sure that he is the one to answer them all so that hopefully they won’t realise that Lenny is “slow”. George feels that he has to cover this fact up because if they find out they will be turned away.
As we get further into the story, we get the feeling as if George isn’t as fond of Lenny as he was at the start, we can clearly see this by Georges quick temper.
George no longer depends on Lenny, but Lenny still needs George one hundred percent.
The plot line serves the writers intention because John Steinback was trying to show the amount of prejudice, racism, sexism that was going on at the time like when Curley firstly encounters Lenny, Curley thought straight away that he is better than Lenny because of his condition and Curley bears a grudge against Lenny. Curley realises that he is able to take advantage of Lenny at his own will.
All the racism is aimed at Crooks, John Steinback is trying to show us that parts of America were racist at the time, Crooks has to have his own room like he is some kind of disease, he is not permitted to go anywhere near any of the others and they are told not to go near him. The way Crooks is addressed shows the racism aimed at him, in the ranch he is not known as Crooks but he is more likely to be called “nigger”.
John Steinback also uses sexism in the story, straight away we can see the sexism part as Curley’s wife is not given a name she is just known as “Curley’s wife” this shows that she has no-ones respect, it also shows that women were not regarded as very important at the time, and when she is seen she is doing nothing, just walking around the ranch finding something to amuse herself.
I feel that there were two main characters in the story which are Lenny and George so I will write about them both.
Lenny is a less able person, but deep down we know that he is kind hearted and he means no wrong to anybody, he has no friends and this is why he looks up to George. He has some wild ideas about what he wants but we know that realistically these ideas will never come true.
At the start of the story Lenny amuses George but as we look further into the book I got a feeling as if George finds Lenny annoying and George finds Lenny intolerable.
Unlike all the others Lenny doesn’t follow the crowd, he does what he wants, not knowing what people think of him, Lenny is a very tall, bald, built man, he is always trying to do well but most of the time he only ends up causing trouble.
George is the second main character in the story; he is a short, stocky, intelligent man. George is Lennys only friend and always looks out for him even though Lenny doesn’t always realise this. He is always thinking ahead and doesn’t let anything get in his way, when Lenny gets himself into trouble George is the one who tries to get him out of it giving him advice along the way.
George sometimes cant understand some of the things that Lenny says and some of the actions he takes, but he always finds it in his heart to forgive him and move on, nearing the end of the story George gives up on Lenny, he feels that he has give him too many chances and he can no longer look after Lenny.
I guess that George feels sorry for Lenny, after all without George Lenny will not be capable of doing much for himself.
Lenny is the character which serves the writers main intention, after all most of the prejudice is towards him, people treat Lenny differently to everybody else because he is not the same.
Curley’s wife uses Lenny but he can’t see this as he thinks that she is being kind to him.
Lenny is the only man on the ranch that will go and speak to Crooks although no-one is supposed to make contact with him Lenny sees through the racism, or it might just be the fact that Lenny doesn’t know what racism is, Lenny tells Crook’s about his plans but Crook’s seems shocked and he thinks that Lenny is crazy which makes Lenny upset and angry.
The third character that I have chosen to write about is Curley. Curley is a small, macho, cocky, bad tempered man, from the first time he seen Lenny he didn’t like him, maybe he felt threatened by his presence but anyways Curley makes it very clear that the two are not going to get on.
To make things worse for Lenny he breaks Curley's hand, so Curley gets Lenny back by making crude comments about him. But then Lenny accidentally kills Curley's wife.
The workers were outside playing games and having a drink, for the first time George was starting to fit in when all of a sudden there is a shriek and then a scream from the barn, the workers hesitatingly walk into the barn to see Curley's wife lay dead on the haystack next to Lenny's hat.
At this time Lenny has ran away as he is scared witless about what has just happened, Curley tells all the workers to find Lenny but to bring him to him alive because Curley wants to be the one to kill Lenny. Curley is happy because he now has a very good reason to kill Lenny.
Curley never treated his wife well, whenever she was seen she was just walking around aimlessly looking for something to do.
There were also a few other main characters in the story, one of them was Candy a small, old man he is handicapped and also wise, he has been working on the ranch for most of his life, he is also lonely, he is hardly ever speaking to anybody. He is physically handicapped as he only has one hand, Candy’s only friend is his dog which tragically gets killed because it is too old and smells bad, later in the story Candy makes Lenny and George an offer which will help them with their dream.
Crook’s is a small, black, physically handicapped man, he is the only black person in the story, most of the characters in the story are racist to Crook’s, and none of the workers are allowed near him. He is not allowed to talk to any of the white workers.
Slim is another character in the book he is put in charge of all the workers, so everybody looks up to him, he is always one step ahead of everybody because e is very clever.
Carlson is a big stomached, joke full man, when he firstly encounters Lenny and George he greets them kindly, but Carlson is the one who suggests the killing of Candy’s dog.
I think that John Steinback has one main writing style and that is that there is a theme of prejudice all the way through the story.
He is trying to show that people would acted different to anybody who was not the same as everyone else, in this one book he shows two main types of prejudice; Sexism and racism.
John Steinback does this very well and the way that he does it is also very clever, he focuses around one point at a time and then creates many different aspects to write about.
The way that he written the book “Of Mice and Men” was very good, it makes you think about the way different people were treated at this time and the way in which they lived.
John Steinback fits so much information into this book; it gives a good idea of different lifestyles.
