Of Mice and Men
Christian Davies Of Mice and Men coursework Q: Consider the theme of loneliness in the novel Of Mice and Men. How does it affect the friendships and relationships of the characters in the novel? In his novel Of Mice and Men Steinbeck is he is trying to show the theme of loneliness and how it affects relationships. He shows this by setting the novel in the time of the Great Depression where most men were lonely and isolated. He contrasts this by using two characters George and Lennie who travel together with a strong relationship and a dream. George and Lennie are two itinerate workers who have been sacked from one job and are trying to get another one on a ranch in Soledad. George Milton is the clever one and is described as being small and thin. Lennie Small has the mental age of a child - he is a huge man and very strong. The writer creates irony with Lennie's name, as he is not small but big and strong. The most important message Steinbeck wants to get across about George and Lennie is that they have each other's company, which was strange because most of the men of that time travelled alone: we know this because George says "we travel together." It is good that they have each other and they both appreciate that they're not like other men, however, George gets sick of Lennie because he keeps getting him into trouble and stops him living a normal life. We know this
Of mice and men coursework
How does Steinbeck create for the reader a harsh world and culture on the American Ranch in "Of Mice and Men"? In chapter one of "Of Mice and Men", Steinbeck first of all describes the beautiful scene, then the characters are introduced, Lennie and George. The reader learns that they are on their way to a ranch to work. They are making camp before they will go to the ranch the next day. Lennie and George have hurriedly left their last ranch following an incident involving Lennie. The next day they arrive at the ranch where they meet the other characters, the old swamper Candy, The Boss, the boss' son Curley, Curley's striking wife who flirts with all the men. Also Slim the respected worker on the ranch and Carlson, another worker. The ranch is obviously a harsh, uncomfortable place to live and chapter two gives evidence of this. Steinbeck begins to build up the harsh culture of the ranch by building up a beautiful scene in chapter one. In the first chapter of "Of Mice and Men", a scenic, calm and almost heavenly picture of the surroundings is built up for the reader. He uses almost two pages of the book in order to do this, describing the atmosphere about the place: " The water is warm to, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight," This creates a very sleepy and relaxing picture for the reader. The fact that the "water is warm"
There is much racial prejudice shown in Of Mice And Men towards Crooks the black crippled stable buck
There is much racial prejudice shown in Of Mice And Men towards Crooks the black crippled stable buck. Crooks is more permanent than the other ranch hands and has his own room off the stables with many more possessions than them. This room is made out to be a privilege and also because it means he is nearer to the horses but in fact it is really because the other ranch hands do not want him in the bunk house with them. As a result of this prejudice Crooks has become bitter and very lonely. When Lennie comes to pet the puppies, not even realising that Crooks' room is 'out of bounds', Crooks instantly becomes defensive and uncivil "I ain't wanted in the bunk room and you ain't wanted in my room" but Lennie in his childish innocence is completely without prejudice " Why aint you wanted" he asks. Crooks retaliates to this with: "Cause I'm black, they play cards in there but I can't play because I'm black. They say I stink. Well I tell you, all of you stink to me" This line showing that Crooks desperately wants to join in, be accepted, but because of his colour he can't and so he feels the only way he can make himself feel better is to cut himself off further, it is a vicious circle. When Crooks realises that Lennie means no harm he invites him to " Come on in and set a while" Lennie begins to talk about George and his dream, it makes Crooks reminisce to his childhood which he
Of mice and men.
Of mice and men Simon Thurston 11LJ Introduction Of mice and men is the story of two men George Milton and Lennie Small who are two people who move from place to place in search of work. This is so that one day they can afford to buy a small farm somewhere where they can live alone and be there own bosses. George looks after Lennie because Lennie is mentally slow and he has looked after him since Lennie's aunt died, because Lennie is mentally challenged, he tends to get George and himself into trouble because of stupid little things. They where on the run and they found a ranch in the Salinas valley California where they could work as ranch hands. Crooks, the black stable buck, was a proud aloof man who kept his distance from other people and demanded that they keep their own distance too. This was because he was black and at the time this novel was written, there was a lot of racist discrimination towards people with black skin, and so if he did mix with the others they would just make a mockery of him by using sarcasm and taunts. Crooks was obviously a very intelligent person because he controlled his inner anger towards the other people on the ranch but he was also a proud and bitter man. Proud because he never let anyone see how he truly felt and the ridicule and name calling and bitter because of the way he is treated and he passes on the
Of Mice and Men
Of mice and men essay Write a study of the character of Crooks, showing how Steinbeck uses him to tell us more about the other characters, and about the social and economical context of the book? This novel takes place in the 1930's, it was a time of great depression, there was racial prejudice towards coloured people and there were very few job opportunities making it hard for people to have a good standard of living. Steinbeck wrote this novel to show us the daunting and alarming conditions for workers at this time; he chose each character to represent a different type of person. For example, one of the characters Crooks represents coloured people. When reading the story of mice and man we learn that Crooks is a kind and considerate man "You told me to warm up tar for the mule's foot. I got it warm" this tells us that Crooks is generous man and is always willing to help. "I can do it if you want Mr Slim" when Crooks is speaking to Slim, he is deferential towards Slim and treats him like a superior by calling him Mr Slim. Although Crooks is a kind man he is not treated fairly and adequate all due racial prejudice "they let the nigger come in that night" first of all he is not even called by his proper name instead they use racial discrimination to point him out as he is called intimidating and awful words such as nigger and stable buck. He does not bunk with the others
'Of Mice And Men'
Bearing in mind the social, cultural and historical content how does John Steinbeck portray the black American in his novel 'of mice and men'? John Steinbeck's novel 'of mice and men' was published in 1937. This was in the middle of the Great Depression. When the novel was written in the 1930's America was a deeply racist society, despite the fact that slavery had been abolished in 1864 at the end of the civil war. Steinbeck uses Crooks (the black stable buck) to expose racist attitudes and protest against the injustice shown towards black people. Steinbeck puts across the message that racism towards Crooks is both mindless and deeply ingrained in American society, because of the way he has scripted Candy saying the word 'nigger' to Crooks or calling him a 'nigger' so casually even though he likes Crooks. 'Nigger' is a nasty strong word that could shock or insult black people. Remember the Christmas party where the white Americans 'let' Crooks in to the party. 'Let' is a very patronising word it's basically saying that Crooks is only in the party because they said he could come in as a treat, but the real reason was that they wanted someone to have a fight with Crooks and beat him up. Why should Crooks be treated different? And why is he only allowed in the party because they said so? Steinbeck presents Crooks in a positive light. This suggests that it doesn't matter if
Of mice and men.
Of mice and men In 'Of Mice And Men,' all the characters have different problems, whether they are physical, mental or personal. Although the two characters who I feel have the most problems are Crooks and George. Crooks, the black stable buck is forever being pick on by the other men at the ranch, mostly because of his colour. In the time in which the book was set, black people in America were thought of as lower than white people. At the ranch, Crooks cannot live in the bunk-house with all the other men, but he has to sleep in the harness room, at the back of the barn. In this room he is surrounded by all the unused horse tack, and therefore has hardly any space for his personal belongings. Crooks is given no privacy, and gets quite cross because he is not allowed to enter the bunk-house but the other men can just walk into his room. In the book he says to Lennie, "You've no right to come into my room, nobody got any right in here but me." After he has talked to Lennie for a while, he starts to enjoy having someone to talk to, because when he is in his room by himself, there is no one he can talk with. I think that he likes talking to Lennie because he realized that Lennie is slow, so Crooks can say what he wants and Lennie will not remember anything. To get the other men back for teasing him, he becomes very sour when they enter his room, and as he passes the other men
In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife all exhibit some form of loneliness.
"OF MICE AND MEN IS A NOVEL ABOUT LONELINESS" In the novel, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, the characters, Crooks, Candy, and Curly's wife all exhibit some form of loneliness. They are driven towards the curiosity of George and Lennie's friendship because they do not have that companionship in their life. Through his novel, Steinbeck demonstrates that sometimes, a victim of separation will have an endless search to fulfil a friendship. In Of Mice and Men, the characters of Crooks, Candy and Curley's wife suffer loneliness stemmed from some form of rejection. They are desperate to find an escape from their loneliness or some easy way to cope with their seclusion from the rest of the society. Crooks is a black man that experiences isolation because the society in which he lives in is racist. "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't matter no difference who the guy is, longs he with you. I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an he gets sick". This quote was Crook's way of finding a personal connection to Lennie. Like Lennie, Crooks has experienced loneliness. He knows that when people get lonely, they tend to get sick. Most of the men have a lot of prejudice against Crooks, referring to him with derogatory terms such as 'nigger'. He is forced to live alone in a barn, let to work only with the horses. Crooks spends most of his time reading. Others treat Crooks unjust
of mice and men
In this essay I will examine three characters that can be considered as social misfits. I will talk about crooks, lennie and Curley's wife as my three social characters. The reason that I have chosen these characters is because, Lennie is simple minded, crooks is black and Curley's wife is a woman, these reasons will explain why each of these characters doesn't fit into the environment. I will explain why Steinbeck has included the above characters in the novel. At last I will finish my essay by giving my conclusion. I have chosen crooks as a social misfit because he is the only black man on the ranch and back in the 1930's, black people were treated differently to white people because of their skin colour. In my opinion crooks is a lonely person because again he is black, no one wants to talk to him or play card with him because he is black. "They play cards in there and I can't play because I'm black!" Generally the level of the racism is so high. For instance, different characters have said a word "nigger" several times throughout the novel and this in my opinion is very racist towards black people. "If I say something, why it's just a nigger talking". Every one judges him by looking at his skin colour but he is possibly the most intelligent man on the ranch because he can read. "He had books too, California civil code for 1905". With this knowledge he is discriminated
In Of Mice and Men, the characters Candy and Crooks features at the bottom of the Tyler Ranch hierarchy.
Candy and Crooks In Of Mice and Men, the characters Candy and Crooks features at the bottom of the Tyler Ranch hierarchy. Throughout, the novella both Candy and Crooks are coherent with the themes of loneliness, friendship, dreams and the predatory nature exemplified in the microcosm of American society, that is the Tyler Ranch. The reader is introduced to the characters of Candy within the initial parts of the novel. He appears as a ‘swamper’, one of the degraded jobs in the ranch he has earned, partly due to his age, as well as being incapacitated by his lost hand. It becomes apparent that he introduces most of the characters before they actually appear themselves. Candy is likewise used to identify and provide insight onto the lives of the ranch workers. When he shows George and Lennie the bunkhouse, he provides information such as the blacksmith named ‘Whitey’. It is also through Candy that the itinerant nature of the ranch life is emphasized with how the workers including the blacksmith leave for another ranch. Candy also provides first impressions of the characters such as Curley’s wife, initially describing her as ‘purty’ and then as a ‘tart’, while describing the boss as a ‘hell of a nice fella.’ The significance of Candy is illustrated through the death of his dog, which represents the end of Candy’s only true long-term relationship and
