Of Mice and Men Group

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soccergirl55
soccergirl55
Student
High School - 9th Grade

How is George alienated in Of Mice and Men? How would this be expressed in an outline form?

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Posted by soccergirl55 on Friday October 30, 2009 at 12:16 AM and tagged with alienation, george, great depresson, isolation, john steinbeck, lennie, of mice and men, outline, struggle.

Answers:

  1. kplhardison
    kplhardison Student
    Graduate School

    eNotes Editor

    One of the central themes in Of Mice and Men is that of alienation. Characters have their various modes of alienation. For instance, Candy is alienated because he lost his hand and can no longer perform his proper work; he has become second rate. Lennie is alienated because his mental deficiencies keep him from functioning in a social world in an acceptable, unsupervised manner.

    George has his own form of alienation. Of Mice and Men is set during the Great Depression, a time when want and misery forced people, in some degree, to turn their backs on others--to isolate themselves--and struggle only for their own survival (one wonders if America ever overcame this feeling and reunited again).

    George is different from this because he watches over Lennie and takes care of him. This is due to George's personal nature and a promise he made. This commitment to this kind of an association with Lennie causes George no end of trouble, from inconvenient to serious, and people wonder why he does it.

    In the Great Depression era mentality, this wondering George a liability--no one wants his troubles visited upon themselves--and a suspicious oddity to be distrusted. In addition to which, he is shunned because very few people want to be associated with Lennie. These factors all combine to create George's alienation.

    Outline
    I. Theme: Alienation
    a. Candy
    b. Lennie
    II. Thematic Setting
    a. Great Depression era
    b. Want and misery
    c. Survival struggle
    III. Interpersonal dynamic
    a. Fend for self
    b. Turn back on others
    c. Isolated
    d. Suspicious, distrustful
    IV. George
    a. Defies mileu (era)
    b. Continues humanity of caring
    1. Because of promise made
    2. Because of personal nature
    c. Suffers small and large troubles from association with   Lennie
    d. Suffers socially from association with Lennie
    e. Isolated
    f. Alienated

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/of-mice-and-men
    http://www.enotes.com/of-mice-and-men/historical-context
    http://www.enotes.com/of-mice-and-men/themes

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    Posted by kplhardison on Friday October 30, 2009 at 8:18 AM