Zusammenfassung der Ressource
What view of life on the ranch
does Steinbeck present?
- Lonliness
- Name of town -'Soledad' means solitary in Spanish
- "The silence came into the room..." pg 75
- So many people in one room but no one is talking
- George plays solitaire (pg50) - one person game
- George and Lennie are not lonely - they have each other
- Slim is the only one who understands this relationship
- Candy and Crooks are jealous of relationship
- Happiest people on ranch are the ones not in a relationship
- Slim
- Carlson
- Boss
- Itinerant lifestyle
- The Great Depression
- Misogynism
- "Cause she's a rat trap" pg 54
- "I seen 'em poison before" pg 54
- "Jesus, what a tramp" pg 54
- Women hating society
- Men on the ranch hate Curley's wife
- Unequal hierachy
- Capitalism
- Selfishness
- Social hierachy
- Slim/Boss--------->
Crooks/Curley's
wife
- But Steinbeck gives Crooks the message of the book
- Racism
- "God damn nigger?" pg 50
- Crooks is black
- Has to sleep in the stables with the animals
- Treated as an animal
- Sadism
- Carlson
- Cleans the pistol in front of Candy - taunting him
- Enjoys the idea / Takes pleasure in thinking about shooting Candy's dog
- "If you was to take him out..." Pg 71
- Doesn't understand candy's relationship with his dog
- Carlson is the most sadistic - brutilised by society
- Functionality of relationships
- Curley and his wife = dysfunctional
- always looking for each other
- Lennie and George = dysfunctional
- George and Slim = functional
- Disability
- Lennie = mentally disabled
- Crooks and Candy = physically disabled
- The American Dream
- Lennie and George
- Unrealistic
- Curley's wife - movie star
- Style
- Objects signify characters personality
- American dialect
- 3rd person - shows all view points - everyone lonely
- Dialogue
- Reveals lonliness
- Conversations are 'broken'
- Pathetic fallacy Pg 53
- Numbers Pg 38
- Contrast
- Brush is luscious - ranch is bleak and boring
- Title
- Poem - "The dreams of mice and men gan aft aglade"
- Hints dream will end in disaster
- Optimistic
- George is free of Lennie at
end
- George and Slim go together at end - dream might
happen
- Recurring motif
- Section starts with the same image
- Circular structure
- Same setting at end as beginning
- Futile novel
- The American Dream
- Human fragility
- Lennie crushes Curley's hand - easily, without effort
- Moment Lennie dies - easy pull of trigger
- Shows how easily happiness can be taken