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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 Milton and Lennie Small have a fraternal and symbiotic relationship. The small, intelligent man and the large but slow-witted man have a fraternal relationship as well as one of mutual...
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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...
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Of Mice and Men
Although a study of Of Mice and Men has to focus on the negatives and what eventually happens to Lennie, it is unfair to say there are no positive aspects of George and Lennie's friendship. The...
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Of Mice and Men
The American Dream is the ideal that anyone who lives in the United States can achieve a meaningful life and meet all of his or her needs through hard work and determination. "Of Mice and Men" and...
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Of Mice and Men
SIMILARITIES:1) Both Of Mice and Men and "The American Dream" describe financial independence as a key component of achieving the American dream. While in the poem this is not the most important...
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Of Mice and Men
Tan's version of the American Dream is similar to that of Lennie and George in Of Mice and Men because she wants to express herself and live out dreams that speak specifically to her. When she...
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Of Mice and Men
George and Lennie’s dream was to have land of their own, but they were not able to achieve it because of their circumstances. George keeps Lennie and himself motivated with dreams of having a...
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Of Mice and Men
One theme that prevails in Of Mice and Men is that, during the Great Depression, the American Dream failed in its idealism in an unfeeling, materialistic society. With the setting of the 1930s,...
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Of Mice and Men
A motif is literally anything that repeats in a novel. It can be an image, a metaphor, a symbol, or an idea. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck employs several motifs to help create meaning. 1....
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Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a tightly-structured work; its six chapters serve as six scenes which are paired to make three acts. The pattern of these scenes is balanced and composed to...
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Of Mice and Men
In Chapter Three of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, several things may be seen as symbolic. At the beginning of the chapter, when George and Slim enter the darkened bunkhouse, Slim turns on a lamp...
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Of Mice and Men
In this passage, Whit is responding first to George's question if there has been any trouble since Curley's new wife arrived at the ranch. Whit responds that he understands what George means but...
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Of Mice and Men
The modernist movement comprises many different elements. Some of these are stylistic, such as the manipulation of time or narrative techniques. Perhaps the most famous of these techniques is the...
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Of Mice and Men
At the end of the book, Lennie makes the decision to hide in the brush near the Salinas River after he has mistakenly killed Curley's wife. He says to himself, "I di’n’t forget, you bet, God...
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Of Mice and Men
Candy tells George that Curley’s wife is looking to cheat. The men on the ranch are suspicious of Curley’s wife (who is never given a name) because they think she is looking to cause trouble....
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Of Mice and Men
If George no longer were in the company of Lennie, he would be like so many other Depression Era itinerant workers who travel alone from seasonal job to job, friendless and alone, with nothing to...
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Of Mice and Men
Slim is a revered character throughout the novella and is viewed with respect and admiration on the ranch. Slim is described as an experienced jerk-line skinner who is portrayed as the voice of...