Of Mice and Men
GENERAL
1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read, and explain how the narrative fulfills the author's purpose (based on your well-informed interpretation of same).
George is a small little man and Lennie is a giant of a man with huge arms. They are both laborers who live near Salinas, CA and roam around looking for work. One night while talking they were discussing their dream of owning their own piece of land. Lennie wants to have rabbits and let them live on the land. The next day, George and Lennie travel to a ranch and they find work. They are given two beds in the bunkhouse. Then Old Candy introduces them to almost everybody on the ranch. They meet the boss and the boss’s son Curley, who is quite rude. They also meet Curley’s wife when she comes looking for her husband. She wears heavy make-up and possesses a flirtatious attitude. George warns Lennie to behave his best around Curley and his wife. He also suggests that they should meet by the pool if anything unfortunate happens to either of them on the ranch. George and Lennie are assigned to work with Slim, whohas common sense and they like him. George finds Slim an understanding confidante, and a bond forms between the two of them. When Curley wrongly accuses Slim for talking to his wife, Slim gets very angry. Curley apologizes to him in the bunkhouse in front of everybody, but his apology is rejected. Curley vents his frustration on Lennie, trying to pick a fight. Lennie does not hit back initially, but when George asks him to, Lennie obeys and crushes Curley’s hand. Curley agrees that he will not tell anyone about his hand, for it would mean losing his self-respect. While working on the ranch, George and Lennie continue to dream about owning their own piece of land and make plans accordingly. Old Candy, one of the ranch hands, overhears their planning and asks to join them. He even offers to contribute all of his savings to purchase the land. George and Lennie accept his proposal. One evening, Lennie, looking for his puppy, enters the room of Crooks; since he is the only black man on the ranch, Crooks lives alone, separated from the other ranch workers. Candy enters, looking for Lennie; the two of them tell Crooks about their dream of owning their own ranch, but Crooks tells them that it will never happen, foreshadowing the truth. Curley’s wife comes in and interrupts them. When Crooks objects to her presence in his room, she threatens him with a false rape charge. Later on, Lennie is seen alone in the barn, petting his dead pup. He has unintentionally killed it by handling it too hard. Now he is grieving over the loss. Curley’s wife walks into the barn and strikes up a conversation with Lennie. As they talk, she asks him to stroke her hair. She panics when she feels Lennie’s strong hands. When she raises her voice to him, Lennie covers her mouth. In the process, he accidentally breaks her neck and she dies. Knowing he has done something terrible, he leaves the ranch. When the ranch hands learn that Curley’s wife has been killed, they rightly guess the guilty party. Led by an angry Curley, they all go out to search for Lennie. They plan to murder him in retribution. George guesses where Lennie is and races to the pool. To save him from the brutal assaults of the ranch hands, George mercifully kills his friend himself. Hearing the gunshot, the searchers converge by the pool. They praise George for his act. Only Slim understands the actual purpose of George’s deed.
2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
The theme of this novel is friendship as George and Lennie have a unique friendship that started from them just being laborers. Since Lennie is a gentle giant, no body knows how to communicate with him and act around him. George is the only one who really understands Lennie and Georgo also knows that he did not purposefully kill Curley’s wife. At the end of the novel when the riot is coming to kill Lennie, George ends up killing him instead because he can’t stand to see the others kill out of hate.
3. Describe the author's tone. Include a minimum of three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
The tone in Of Mice and Men is a dismal one. The tone is simple and Steinbeck never puts thoughts into your head for you to purposefully think something of any character. You learn and judge the characters based on the actual actions and you are able to make up your own mind about the characters. Throughout the story when Lennie kills the dog and then also kills Curley’s wife we don’t think ill of him. Steinbeck portrays Lennie as such he doesn’t mean to do any harm but his uncontrollable strength gets in the way and he cannot help it. An example of the non judgmental and innocent tone are portrayed in these passages.
Here the rabbits represent something gentle and vulnerable. The rabbits come up a lot especially since Lennie wants a rabbit to himself.
"Evening of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.” Ch.1
This passage from Ch. 1 is George and Lennie talking about the land they would buy and the house they will have together. Their dreams are big and in a way naïve. The naïve essence of it shows how innocent and unaware they are of the world. Especially Lennie
"All kin's a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We'd jus' live there. We'd belong there. There wouldn't be no more runnin' round the country and gettin' fed by a Jap cook. No, sir, we'd have our own place where we belonged and not sleep in no bunk house."
The last example is, “We could live offa the fatta the lan'.” Lennie says this various time throughout the novel and it portrays how excited he is for his dream to live off of the land.
4. Describe a minimum of ten literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthened your understanding of the author's purpose, the text's theme and/or your sense of the tone. For each, please include textual support to help illustrate the point for your readers. (Please include edition and page numbers for easy reference.)
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Describe two examples of direct characterization and two examples of indirect characterization..
An example of direct characterization would be when the author writes “Curley was quick and mean.” The reader does not have to make any conclusions because the author/narrator states the trait directly.
Another example of direct characterization is when Steinbeck describes Carlson on pg. 35. “A powerful, big stomached man came into the bunk house. His head still dripped water from the scrubbing and dousing.”
An example of indirect characterization is when Curelys Wife is perceived as a 'tart' through her actions and the way she speaks to other men on the ranch, you could also comment on the fact that being labelled as 'Curelys Wife' with no name shows how the characters just see hers as Curley's property.
One more example of indirect characterization is when Slim- the Jerkiline Skinner, who despite his lack of dialect (he doesn't speak much in the novel compared to other main characters) gains great respect from each character on the ranch. also the way each of his actions are done with correct thinking.
The author uses both approaches because it gives the text variety.
2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character? How? Example(s)?
Yes the authors syntax and diction change dramatically when the characters are talking. They do not talk in proper English and sometimes it can be hard to interpret. An example is when George speaks to Lennie and says, “You can jus’ as well go to hell,” “You now shut up.” The words are all over the place especially when speaking between characters.
3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic? Flat or round? Explain.
The protagonist in the novel is George. Although there are plenty of different characters in the story, we can relate to George the most. Lennie has a mental problem, Curley is too mean, and Slim too wonderful. George is the protagonist. He is also a dynamic character because he changes a lot throughout the story. In the beginning, he was a person who believed in his dream farm. Now at the end, he has killed his best friend and no longer believes in the idea of having his own farm. He is alo round as he encounters conflict and changes from it.
4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character? Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.
I think after reading this book I felt like I had read about a character. The time period is different from my own and there are not a lot of people now a days who are laborers. The ending was extremely sad and I understood why George killed Lennie but I don’t think that was a realistic thing to do.
A textual example is when George kills Lennie and Slim comments.
“Never you mind. A guy got to sometimes ”
