While reading this novel I came to notice a twist that John Steinbeck likes to through into his books. He made it take place in only a few scenes, and also had the characters constantly talking so that there was little narration that had to be done. This helped the book have dramatic structure and make it easier to visualize in my head. The book seems to be such a simple read with only 107 pages, but with the depth that that the author John Steinbeck writes in, it’s so intricate. When I started to analyze the book a little bit closer I became so interested and pulled in by it that I couldn’t put it down. The simplicity of the structure, characters, and the plot in this novel camouflages the fact that extremely profound themes concerning friendship and responsibility, and pipe dreams are present in the work.
In this book the two main characters seem to work as a team although they are almost exact opposites. One in small and has the mental strength, and one is tremendous and has the physical strength. It’s almost the same relationship between a dog and his master. Lennie, the strong one, has no common sense but is he is so loyal to George that when George tells him to jump in the river even though he can’t swim. He jumps right in and almost drowns to death. Since Lennie is so dumb, his Aunt Clara has entrusted him to George, so that he won’t get into anymore trouble like he did in Weed.
Also in this book there is a theme that comes into play many times, its called a pipe dream. A pipe dream is a dream that someone has that they usually have very little chance of succeeding in carrying out, and usually their plans end by going up in smoke just when you think there about to be accomplished. George and Lennie both share the same pipe dream in this book. They both want to save up enough money to but a ranch and live off the fat of the land. There was one other character in this book that also told her pipe dream this was Curley’s wife. She told Lennie all about how she wanted to grow up to be a movie star and be famous.
The Essay on Ranch Hand George Lennie Slim
When George kills Lennie at the end of Of Mice and Men, he does so because Lennie is a pure being, and will only be hurt in this corrupted world. Therefore, it makes sense that he kills him for love; he knows that Lennie will never make it in this corrupted world. By killing Lennie, George frees him. Lennie's death greatly affects George. Lennie is the only thing that makes his life special and ...
In this book, I noticed that Steinbeck had limited the amount of scenes in this book. I though that it would turn out to be boring, but actually it helps you to picture the everyday life of one of these ranch hands. Also this book was almost all dialogue and there was little narration. Steinbeck let the characters do the describing which helped to define each of their personalities a little better. Like when describing Lennie to the readers, Steinbeck would have one of the other characters use adjectives and examples found in every day conversation. This is an example of indirect characterization. He let them do all the narration, and tell each of their backgrounds through there own stories to one and other. Over all this book seemed to be a very simple read but once you started to think about this book it makes you start to see that real depth that this author wrote at.
