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Of Mice and Men
It's not entirely clear why Lennie would be described as "kind." He certainly has a gentle, child-like quality to him. But that's because he appears to have the mental age of a child, whereas...
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Of Mice and Men
At the beginning of chapter 4, Lennie enters Crooks's room, which initially upsets and frustrates Crooks. Crooks tells Lennie, "You got no right to come in my room. This here's my room. Nobody got...
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Of Mice and Men
In chapter 4, the majority of the workers head into town, and Lennie stays behind to play with his dog. Lennie then notices a light coming from Crooks's room and enters without being invited....
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Of Mice and Men
According to Aristotle, A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself;. . . with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to...
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Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, Slim is introduced to the reader in chapter 2. In terms of his physical appearance, Slim is tall, with long, black hair that is brushed straight back. In terms of his age, it is...
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Of Mice and Men
In chapter 2, Candy is an old swamper missing a hand, which he lost during a farm accident. He is a relatively kind old man and immediately befriends George and Lennie when he initially meets them....
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Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck's novel critiques the cruelties of capitalism during the Great Depression. Loneliness is conveyed through the way George and Lennie, like the other farm workers, wander from place to...
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Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, the rabbits are a feature of George and Lennie's dream to own their own ranch and live off the land. As such, the rabbits represent economic freedom and their hope for a better...
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Of Mice and Men
Slim is the leader and he is said to move "with a majesty." The men come to Slim for advice. His words ring with authority, and they are obeyed. "His authority was so great that his word was taken...
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men follows George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant field workers who are traveling through California with the ambition to one day settle down on their own...
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Of Mice and Men
Speaking is not the mere pronunciation of words. It entails meaning, prosody, cadence, timbre, and much more. Choice of words comes from the cognitive and intellectual acumen of each individual....
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Of Mice and Men
On page 12 of the Viking Penguin Digitial Edition of the novella Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck gives a description of Curley. Curley is described as a thin young man with a brown face. Curley also has...
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Of Mice and Men
The relationship between George and Lennie begins when they are both young and Lennie's aunt, Clara, dies. George promises her he will take care of Lennie, a man who is cognitively delayed. By...
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Of Mice and Men
Lennie Small is one of the main characters in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men. He travels as a migrant farmworker with his friend and caretaker George Milton. Lennie is mentally challenged...
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Of Mice and Men
Lennie is forgetful throughout the novella, and George is continually reminding him of recent events. In the first chapter, Lennie demonstrates his forgetful nature by not remembering that he and...
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Of Mice and Men
There are a number of things that keep the two men together. First, they seem to have a deep affection for one another. Even though they sometimes squabble, it is obvious that they care about each...
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Of Mice and Men
Friendship and commitment are at the heart of this story and are shown most clearly through the relationship between Lennie and George. Through these two characters, Steinbeck presents his central...
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Of Mice and Men
As far as friendship is concerned, Lennie and George's relationship is contrasted with that of other ranch hands. Their friendship is a rarity within this context and makes the two men different....
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Of Mice and Men
In chapter one, George makes it clear in which ways they are different from other men. He and Lennie have just had a verbal altercation but have made up. George starts talking about their...
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Of Mice and Men
One is made aware from the outset not only of the contrast in size between George and Lennie but also of their obvious difference in intellectual capacity. Both these disparities are responsible...
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Of Mice and Men
Curley's wife is lonely because there are no other women around to whom she can relate, and the ranch hands avoid any entanglement with her because she is the wife of the boss's son. She also...
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Of Mice and Men
George and Lennie share the dream of owning a farm one day. They both dislike the constant traveling that comes with being a ranch worker. Ideally, if they could raise enough money, they would buy...
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Of Mice and Men
In Chapter Two, Steinbeck introduces the main characters who work and live on the ranch. Not only are characters introduced but also three of the important conflicts which threaten both George's...
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Of Mice and Men
It is established early on in John Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men that Lennie has a fixation with petting soft things. Throughout the novel he incessantly refers to the rabbits he will "tend"...
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Of Mice and Men
At the beginning of the novella, George yells at Lennie for carrying a dead mouse in his pocket. When George asks Lennie why he wants to carry around a dead mouse, Lennie tells him that he simply...
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Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, the image of silence plays a vital role in communicating the difficulty with emotional commitment during the time period. The characters in Of Mice and Men struggle with...
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Of Mice and Men
George and Lennie have a rather unique and complex relationship. Both characters have different strengths and weaknesses, yet find a way to develop a mutual friendship that benefits each of them....
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Of Mice and Men
During a conversation with Slim, George explains how Lennie got them into some trouble in Weed. After Slim assures George that he won't say a word, George tells him that Lennie saw a girl wearing a...
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Of Mice and Men
In Of Mice and Men, Crooks cycles through different responses when he hears of George's and Lennie's plans for their future. Being an African-American during the time period of segregation, Crooks...
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Of Mice and Men
Several characters could be considered responsible for Lennie's death, but in my opinion, Curley's wife is responsible. When Lennie is talking with Curley's wife, he tells her that he likes to pet...
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck does seem to spend a good deal of his narrative describing hands in his novella Of Mice and Men. The description of these hands seems to be a method of indirect characterization and...
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Of Mice and Men
If Lennie happens to get into any trouble, George wants him to run away and hide at the clearing. They have just come from a job in Weed. They had to leave because Lennie felt a girl's dress and...
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck's choice of a title is an allusion to a well-known poem by Robert Burns, the full title of which is "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough." The speaker in Robert...
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Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck's opening two paragraphs of the novella Of Mice and Men describe an oasis setting on the bank of the Salinas River. Steinbeck illustrates a peaceful setting by describing a sandy beach...
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Of Mice and Men
Crooks is the name of the ranch's stable buck. In Chapter 2, Candy tells George that the boss was upset they did not show up to work in the morning. He says the boss gave the stable buck hell....
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Of Mice and Men
I believe Steinbeck wanted the reader to understand that America in the 1930s was a harsh, difficult place to survive and that the "American Dream" was essentially impossible to achieve. Throughout...
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Of Mice and Men
Crooks is an older man whose body is literally bent to the left; he is a "cripple," in Steinbeck's words. He lives by himself in his own bunk in the harness room with a few spartan possessions, and...
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Of Mice and Men
Candy's relationship with his dog is significant to the novella because it mirrors and foreshadows George and Lennie's relationship. Both Candy and his dog are old and have outlived their use on...
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Of Mice and Men
Throughout the novella, Steinbeck compares Lennie to various animals. Lennie is compared to a bear dragging its paws, a horse drinking water, a disobedient terrier, a terrified sheep, and a dog...
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Of Mice and Men
In the 1930's, the setting of Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, the American Dream was defined as the opportunity to work hard and achieve the socio-economic level that a person seeks....
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Of Mice and Men
One day George told Lennie to jump into the Sacramento River, assuming Lennie knew how to swim. Lennie did jump, but he did not know how to swim, so he nearly drowned before the frightened George...
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Of Mice and Men
Direct characterization occurs when an author explicitly states what a character is like: happy, humble, impetuous, angry, and so on. Indirect characterization occurs when a character is revealed...
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Of Mice and Men
The situation with Candy's dog in Chapter Three helps Steinbeck establish two of his important themes in the novella. It is also important because its death foreshadows later events. First, the dog...
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Of Mice and Men
Steinbeck conveys the message that the American Dream—which can be defined in the context of this book as people's ability to control their own land and destiny—is not available to the American...
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Of Mice and Men
Between the two characters, George would definitely be considered the leader because Lennie is unable to think for himself and make rational decisions. Aside from being Lennie's close friend,...
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Of Mice and Men
Lennie is devoted to George and would undoubtedly like to make sacrifices for him and be able to do more for him, but Lennie is relatively powerless because of his mental handicap. There are a...
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Of Mice and Men
In Chapter Two of Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men George and Lennie report to the boss of the ranch for work. They are late because George was content to sleep in the clearing next to the...
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Of Mice and Men
Towards the end of the novella, Lennie is lamenting over the death of his puppy when Curley's wife enters the barn and attempts to comfort him. Lennie tells Curley's wife that he enjoys petting...
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Of Mice and Men
Since Of Mice and Men is set in the 1930's/the Depression Era, folk music from this era would befit Steinbeck's themes. One musician who captured the feelings and mood of the times was...
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Of Mice and Men
While Carlson is cleaning his gun, Curley bursts into the bunkhouse and asks the guys if any of them have seen his wife. Whit mentions that she hasn't been in there, and Curley responds by asking...
