* Wrote short stories in high school – sent some off to a local magazine under a pseudonym. * He discovered the harshness of migrant life and the darker side of humanity whilst he spent his summers as a teenager working on ranches with migrant workers – this material was used in ‘Of Mice and Men’ * Spent 5 years at Standford University, but left without a degree. * Travelled to New York City – did odd jobs whilst trying to write: for example a construction worker and a newspaper reporter. * First novel, ‘Cup of Gold’ published in 1929, followed by many other novels. * In 1934, had to care for elderly parents: wrote by mother’s bedside.
George starts complaining, about how that the bus driver dropped them far away from where they needed to go. Lennie asks where they are going and George has to remind him again they are going ranch to ranch looking for work. George advises Lennie to stay quiet, when they go and meet their new boss. George doesn’t want any more trouble, which Lennie caused in Weed, the last ranch they were working on. During supper, Lennie asks if there is any ketchup to eat with the beans.
However, despite George’s frequent bouts of anger and frustration, and his long speeches about how much easier life would be without Lennie, George is clearly devoted to his friend. He flees from town to town not to escape the trouble Lennie has caused, but to protect Lennie from its consequences. The men are uncommonly united by their shared dream of a better life on a farm where they can “live off the fatta the lan’,” as Lennie puts it. George articulates this vision by repeatedly telling the “story” of the future farm to his companion. Lennie believes unquestioningly in their dream, and his faith enables the hardened, cynical George to imagine the possibility of this dream becoming reality.
Of Mice and Men is a book about two men and their struggle to achieve their dream of owning a farm through their companionship. The two men are completely different, one being a retarded fellow (Lennie), and the other, a typical ranch hand(George) who travels with him. On the path to achieving their dream, they run into obstacles, but stick together, stressing the importance of true friendship. The first impressions of the relationship between Lennie and George come in the opening chapter. After drinking from the pool, when they are sat on the hill Lennie imitates George’s actions “he pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes the way George’s hat was.” Our immediate interpretation is that Lennie looks up to George as a role model, the quote “way George’s hat was” suggests he acts just like him and mimics him how a son would to a father.
To what extent does Steinbeck portray dreams as futile in his novella “Of mice and men?” By Theo Cox Dodgson John Steinbeck uses the theme of dreams in his novella “Of Mice and Men” as the novella is set on in America in the 1930’s, which was a time when work was so scarce most people had to travel to find temporary employment. The novella is set on a ranch and most of the characters have such a degenerate state of life that all they have is dreams to keep them going. Although the American dream started in the early 20th century as a dream for land, by the 1930’s it was a dream that anyone, no matter the social background can make a success of themselves in America. Despite the media of the time being optimistic and cheerful; Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” is a more realistic novel showing how the dreams of the characters were always hard to attain, and due to their actions, they were always going to be impossible to achieve. All of the Characters in the novella have an American dream; they all want to make successes of themselves.
A Worn Path and The Leader of the people The era of modern literature connects parts of life such as loss, which everyone goes through and deals with in different shapes or forms, but doesn’t understand. “The Leader of the people” written by John Steinbeck is a short story sharing the bond between a young boy and his grandfather set on an old family ranch. “A Worn Path” written by Eudora Welty set in 1930 late in the depression out in the rural of Mississippi. Welty’s story of Phoenix Jackson’s walk down a worn path happens to be very similar to Steinbeck’s story of Jody’s grandfather and his strolls down memory lane. In “The Leader of the People” Jody is a young boy who lives on a ranch with his mother and father.
Candy spends every single day with his dog and as he admits to not noticing how bad his dog smells, Steinbeck draws our attention to how itinerant workers were the “loneliest guys in the world”. Candy, as a character touches on a theme of depression through out the story. In historical context, the classic novel “Of Mice and Men” was written in 1937, the Great Depression had started to up rise in the 1930’s. The Great Depression involved many people loosing their houses, jobs, money and much more. The Great Depression had lead on after the Wall Street Crash that had occurred in 1929 leaving people homeless and starving.
George tells Lennie ‘You know all of it’, which shows the huge importance of their dream, that even forgetful Lennie has memorised it - they use their dreams as an escape from the harsh reality of life on the ranch. Their dream is one shared by thousands of other itinerant ranch-hands, as we know from Crooks’ mention of seeing ‘too many guys with land in their head’. It is infectious in this society, so Candy and even the cynical Crooks are quickly drawn in, showing the extent of their desperation to escape their current lifestyle. The word ‘dream’ is never mentioned in the novel. This is because, to the characters, they are not dreams at all, but are in fact achievable plans which they feel capable of reaching which is what makes them such powerful antidotes to their difficult lives.
anonymous Core 4 12, October 2012 World Counts: 986 words Of Mice and Men essay ‘Of Mice and Men’, a novel written by John Steinbeck, is about two men, George and Lennie who travel around the western coast of the United States to look for somewhere to work. Once settled on a ranch doing basic laboring, they mingle with the different workers and gain an understanding of those people’s various problem, hopes and dreams. The most important themes of, ‘Of Mice and Men’, are loneliness and sadness. Steinbeck conveys these themes through his characters by expressing the sad and lonely lives they lead. The character of Crooks, Candy and Curley’s wife all have to endure different types of loneliness and sadness.
But it is clear that George is not going to leave him. What began vaguely as a duty, after the death of Lennie's Aunt Clara, has become a way of life: there is companionship and trust in this relationship, which makes it almost unique among the ranch-hands. George confesses to Slim how he once abused this trust by making Lennie perform degrading tricks; but after Lennie nearly drowned, having (although not able to swim) jumped, on George's orders, into the Sacramento River, George has stopped taking advantage of Lennie's simplicity. At the end of the novella George confronts a great moral dilemma, and acts decisively, killing Lennie as a last act of friendship. [George’s side of the friendship] George's and Lennie's dream is at first a whim, but becomes clearer.