Lit Anal. 2

Jacob Vargas

Period 4

Of mice and men

1)      Two ranch hands, George and Lennie after having to flee from a ranch in Weed, sought jobs at a new ranch. They arrive to their new worksite a day late and get the ‘low down’ on the boss before meeting him. After George explains to the boss about their (because he didn’t want Lennie to express his intelligence) tardiness they are assigned to the grain field team. They meet other ranch hands like slim and candy. After introductions they meet Curley and later his flirtatious wife whom can be considered an antagonist in the book. George warns Lennie of many things such as stay away from Curley the boss’ son and his wife. The animals in the story are significant starting with the dead mouse Lennie harbors in the beginning of the book to Candys old dogs, to the new puppies, and the ‘Rabbits’ Lennie hopes someday he will be in charge of in his Dream farm. They all have a significant connection to Lennie and his love for soft things. Years pass and Lennie accidentally kills his puppy and this love for soft things later in the book gets him in a lot of trouble because Curleys flirtatious wife one evening lets leonine brush her hair until he pulls to hard. His reaction was silencing her and shaking her until he had broken her neck. Lennie then flees to the spot he promised George he would if anything happened, George finds Lennie and describes his happy place future farm to him as he shoots him in the back of the head. The lynch mob that set out for Lennie catches up to George after the gunshot and Slim the only man who really understood what had happened closes the novel telling George he had two. The others confused on what happened. The narrative is a lot more in detail with the friendship between George and Lennie, they were tied together and George had been looking out for Lennie who was never meaning any harm to anything or anyone just didn’t know any better. This was key to the authors purpose in the narrative when George had to kill Lennie, he makes the reader realize just exactly what George had done and when Lennie says lets go to our ranch now while George explains it he shoots him because it was the American Dream that was envisioned, George explains how he never believed in the Dream him and Lennie shared but it satisfied Lennie so much he began to believe.

2)      I think the theme of the novel is the search for a friendship or the need of a friend in that lifestyle. There is a lot of mention of loneliness in the book that is why the friendship of George and Lennie is considered rare by the Characters in the book and the reader. This is the theme because there are a lot of idealistic views on friendship in the book that can be made. The friendship between candy and his dog, Curley and his wife, all of the men actually in the ranch make friends with each other so they don’t feel at all lonely even crooks who at first didn’t like letting people into his area until Lennie made friends with him. The need for a friend is obviously shown in Lennie, he and George are close because in a way they are mutual, Lennie needs George for guidance and George sticks with Lennie because he understands him the best and takes care of him because of the passing of his aunt. That’s why in the end its is very tragic but easily foreshadowed the death of Lennie by George.

3)      The tone of the book was innocently tragic. All of the things that happen in the book bring out a lot of emotion. When you as a reader fully try to understand why things are happening like this and why John Steinbeck made it that way you realize that all the things that happen are very tragic. Lennie being basically a “bundle of joy” because he does not understand reality the way the others do and is like a ‘child’ never meaning any harm, but all these tragic things happen to him. The fact that he cant really touch something without killing it, that he has interrupted his friends life with his faults even though he doesn’t mean to cause them. Its realizing that he is helpless to his actions because of lack of comprehension allows you to see all the tragedy that is really in the book.

Setting- It is vital to understand the setting in terms of time. Mid 1930s era men setting out to work on newly found ranches. All having the American dream to someday own their own and live and prosper off of their own. An example from the text would be George and Lennies inspiration/dream to have their own farm one day and live off of what they grow. Foreshadowing- there is a lot of foreshadowing and it is important to know it when it happens. All of the incidents that happen to Lennie foreshadow him killing Curleys wife. Candy feeling uneasy about letting strangers kill his dog foreshadows the anticipation of George eventually ending Lennies life. Direct Characterization- there is a lot of this for every character in the novel. Descriptions such as Lennie being unintelligent but big and ridiculously strong, George being smart smaller than Lennie and all the men on the ranch looking and living like ranch-hands, dirty and uneasy living. Symbolism- It is important to understand the symbolism of the farm that George and Lennie plan to have in the future. It symbolizes the American dream and hope in the future; it also symbolizes the happy place in the novel. It is used in the end to ease Lennie to his death, when he says “let’s go there now George” George kills him as he envisions that happy place. Which was just a ranch hand dream that most never make it to but to Lennie it was more. Conflict- I see the conflict as Lennie not knowing generally common sense. His lack of control towards his strength and his panic is the conflict in the story. In example his lack to control himself when Curleys wife screamed because he was pulling on her hair to hard