Of Mice and Men (1992 film) Based on Steinbeck's 1937 novella, the plot centers on George and the mentally disabled Lennie.
The two farm workers travel together and dream of one day owning their own land. With their work passes, the two end up on Tyler Ranch. Of Mice and Men: Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The novel opens with two men, George Milton and Lennie Small, walking to a nearby ranch where harvesting jobs are available.
George, the smaller man, leads the way and makes the decisions for Lennie, a mentally handicapped giant. They stop at a stream for the evening, deciding to go to the ranch in the morning. Lennie, who loves to pet anything soft, has a dead mouse in his pocket. George takes the mouse away from Lennie and reminds him of the trouble Lennie got into in the last town they were in — he touched a girl's soft dress. George then reminds Lennie not to speak to anyone in the morning when they get to the ranch and cautions Lennie to return to this place by the river if anything bad happens at the ranch. Crooks. Crooks is so named because of a crooked back caused by a kick from a horse.
Slim. Slim is described always in terms of dignity and majesty.
When he first comes into the bunkhouse, he moves "with a majesty achieved only by royalty and master craftsmen. He was a jerk-line skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even twenty mules with a single line to the leaders. " Slim is tall, ageless, and an expert in his job.
His voice is the voice of rationalism. When Carlson suggests killing Candy's dog, Candy appeals to Slim as the final authority. Slim is so respected and admired on the ranch that even Curley listens to him. Curley's Wife. Curley's wife, like the other players in the drama, is simply a character type and the only woman in the plot.
She is defined by her role: Curley's wife or possession. George and Candy call her by other names such as "jailbait" or "tart. " She wears too much makeup and dresses like a "whore" with red fingernails and red shoes with ostrich feathers. Lennie is fascinated by her and cannot take his eyes off her. He keeps repeating "she's purty. " Curley's wife knows her beauty is her power, and she uses it to flirt with the ranch hands and make her husband jealous. Steinbeck's initial portrayal of Curley's wife shows her to be a mean and seductive temptress. Curley. Curley, the boss' son, is an evil character in Steinbeck's world.
Even Lennie feels the sense of menace when Curley first comes into the bunkhouse. Curley is a "thin young man with a brown face, with brown eyes and a head of tightly curled hair. " According to Candy, Curley is an amateur boxer and is always picking fights, especially with guys who are bigger than he is. Curley tries to prove his masculinity by picking fights. Another way to prove himself is by marrying a physically attractive woman. Candy. Candy is "a tall, stoop-shouldered old man … .
He was dressed in blue jeans and carried a big push-broom in his left hand. " His right hand is simply a stump because he lost his hand in a ranch accident. Now the owners of the ranch keep him on as long as he can "swamp" out or clean the bunkhouse. Candy gives Steinbeck an opportunity to discuss social discrimination based on age and handicaps. Candy represents what happens to everyone who gets old in American society: They are let go, canned, thrown out, used up. Lennie Small. Lennie Small is huge and lumbering and, in many ways, the opposite of George Milton.
Where George has sharp features and definite lines, Lennie is "shapeless. " Often he is described in terms of animals. He lumbers like a bear and has the strength of a bear, but his actions are often described like those of a dog. Lennie's personality is like that of a child. He is innocent and mentally handicapped with no ability to understand abstract concepts like death. Lennie's greatest feeling of security comes from petting soft things. George Milton.
George is described as physically small with very sharp features, an opposite to Lennie Small.
Milton is the last name of the author of one of Steinbeck's favorite works, Paradise Lost. In that epic poem, Adam and Eve fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. Because of their fall, mankind is doomed to be alone and walk the earth as a lonely being. Some critics believe George represents that doomed man who longs to return to Eden. His one chance to avoid that fate is his relationship with Lennie, which makes them different from the other lonely men.
George's personality often reflects both anger and understanding. Of Mice and Men: John Steinbeck Biography. Early Years John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr., was born on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, to a father, John Ernst Steinbeck, who had settled in California shortly after the Civil War, and a mother, Olive Hamilton Steinbeck, who was a public schoolteacher.
Steinbeck grew up in the beautiful, fertile Salinas Valley, and most of his memorable novels and short stories would be set in California. Situated between the Santa Lucia range and the Gabilan Mountains, this valley in west central California is bordered on the north by Monterey Bay and on the south by San Luis Obispo. During his early years, Steinbeck's mother read to him from books such as Treasure Island and Robin Hood. Of Mice and Men: Context. John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, a region that became the setting for much of his fiction, including Of Mice and Men. As a teenager, he spent his summers working as a hired hand on neighboring ranches, where his experiences of rural California and its people impressed him deeply. In 1919, he enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied intermittently for the next six years before finally leaving without having earned a degree.
For the next five years, he worked as a reporter and then as caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate while he completed his first novel, an adventure story called Cup of Gold, which was published in 1929. Critical and commercial success did not come for another six years, when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935, at which point Steinbeck was finally able to support himself entirely with his writing.
In his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature, Steinbeck said: Critical opinions of Steinbeck’s work have always been mixed. 'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck - Review. About.com Rating Compare Prices. Revision Cards - Of Mice and Men, LANGUAGE AND STRUCTURE. Style and Language Analysis from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. 1. Steinbeck uses poetic language to build the imagery of the opening scene of the farm.
Steinbeck uses descriptive language to convey to the reader an almost dreamlike image of the settings. Stylistically, instead of concise sentences, he uses long sentences that have slow and languid feel. The beautiful, idealized scenery is a backdrop to the relationship between George, Lennie, and the other workers on the farm. The language Steinbeck uses in the opening scene is in stark contrast to the crass dialogue between the workers. 2. 3. Like this: Like Loading... Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - review. Of Mice and Men is a well-known classic, and with valid reason. The book may seem rather boring (as many books about the Great Depression may seem) but it is actually a great tribute to literature. The book is about a man called George and his childlike, kind-hearted friend Lennie.
They find work in a ranch after being on the run from their old job because Lennie got them in deep trouble, and it seems that in this book he may get in trouble again as George may have not been able to help him. The book is great because, not only the great use of description, but the characters because Steinbeck shows how children are, in some cases, better people than adults in the way that they do not judge people because they do not see people or things from that point of view (an example being childlike Lennie who has a mental disability though they didn't know that at the time the book is based). Want to tell the world about a book you've read? John Steinbeck - Author. “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.”
“In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.” “Ideas are like rabbits. Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men is a novella[1][2] written by Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck. GCSE Bitesize: Of Mice and Men. GCSE Bitesize: George Milton. GCSE Bitesize: Chapter 1. GCSE Bitesize: John Steinbeck. GCSE Bitesize - Of Mice and Men.