Of Mice and Men

Of mice and men coursework

The story of mice and men is the tail of two men George the leader of the two and some what the smart one, and Lennie his companion whose child like behaviour gets him and George into trouble. At the time of this story in America in the 1930’s is the great depression, a time where if you weren’t rich or didn’t have some kind of trade that will earn you money then you were living below the poverty line which many Americans were doing for most of the 1930’s. The story has an up and down rollercoaster plot as one paragraph it will tell of the pairs hopes and dreams and the next paragraph it will bring it back to the cruel reality of life.

The title of the story is significant because it sums up the theme of the story, Mice is describing the doom and gloom of the story and Men is the hope of the future, what is round the corner, the light at the end of the tunnel. At every stage of the story John Steinbeck hints at trouble even from the start there is an element that something will go wrong as one of the first things you hear about Lennie is that he doesn’t remember where or what he has been doing and George has to remind him, in the first chapter George and Lennie are hiding from angry mobs of people this being because of Lennie and his child like ways.

The hope that Lennie and George can achieve there dream of owning there own ranch is reiterated throughout the story at every stage of the story there is a small hope of this dream that George and Lennie have of owning there own ranch, they continuously look to forward to the future because of this dream that George creates for Lennie to keep out of trouble, in a way it is sort of bribery as George tells Lennie if he doesn’t behave himself then he can’t tend to the rabbits. During this period of history money was pretty much worthless because of the great depression during the 1930’s, like most Americans George and Lennie were living below the poverty line and working long hours just to earn the small amounts of money that would mean they could get there ranch. Like George and Lennie other people on the ranch where they work also have dreams two characters who have dreams are Candy and Curley’s wife. Candy is an old man with one hand he is told by Lennie that he and George are going to buy a ranch and Candy immediately wants to be a part of this dream he adds to the hope that they can achieve this dream of owning a ranch by adding a large sum of money to what George and Lennie already have.

Curley’s wife had come to the ranch having married Curley out of spite for being given false hope over a film career, although she stills holds on to this dream throughout the story she confides in Lennie and tells him of her hopes and dreams because she believes that Lennie is stupid enough not to remember anything she has told him and she can get things off of her chest that she couldn’t do with any other of the men on the ranch. Hopes and dreams in this story are important to the plot and