John steinbeck s morose preoccupation essay

Steinbeck, Mentally Retarded, Friendship, Portrayal

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John Steinbeck’s Morose Preoccupation

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Males is a to some degree strange, surprising read. The writer selects an extremely unlikely placing, a farm building populated mostly by chosen hands, to get a tale that is certainly largely predicated on the conception of friendship and its numerous interpretations – and applications. However , there is also a definite undercurrent that a lot of readers might find disturbing that may be present in some of the most poignant thoughts of this experience. That undercurrent is certainly one of death, the virtue that Western world seemingly extols above almost every other ones. An analysis of some of the more pivotal occasions in this book reveal that ultimately it is a morbid one out of which death is seen as the supreme expression of friendship: which is more than a very little morose, to say the least.

Thematically, it is difficult to distinguish the motifs of friendship and death which can be tightly connected in this particular novel. It can be clear from your novel’s beginning that camaraderie is one of the central concepts that the plot is based upon. Perhaps the two character types that typify this theme more than some other are George and Lenny, who have the type of romance that is uncommon to find inside the oftentimes harsh and terrible world of farms and farmhands. In fact , the partnership between the couple is more familial than nearly anything other, which will merely underscores the extremely close nature with their friendship. This fact is well demonstrated in the subsequent passageway in which George tells Lenny, “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys on the globe. They acquired not family members. They don’t belong… With us it ain’t like that. We have a future. We have somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us… ” (Steinbeck, 1993). The folks that George and Lenny have that care about these people, of course , is usually themselves. George is merely emphasizing the fact that because they have an enduring friendship, they are totally different from most other farmhands. It is evident that this a friendly relationship is special to equally men, as well as the things that distinguishes these people from the various other characters present in the story.

Because the interactions between the two men is really close and epitomizes companionship, it is nearly shocking the author ends the story with George killing Lennie. Granted, this individual does thus in order to free Lennie (who is to some degree mentally retarded) the pain, anguish, and suffering of obtaining killed by lynch mob that look for him following he accidentally kills a woman. Still, the very fact that the creator expresses the impression of companionship – exclusive to George and Lennie – by having the former slay the latter about what is considered a mercy killing illustrates what seems like common Western preoccupation with death. George, who may be characterized early on in the novel as having “sharp, strong features” (Steinbeck, 1993) leaves the scene of the murder distraught. His best friend, naturally , is useless. The combination of these circumstances certainly causes the sentimental reader to feel some form of sadness or depression. However , that unhappiness is magnified by the reality the author has placed these kinds of a killing between friends as a way of reinforcing his theme of a friendly relationship. The relationship among these themes is more than paradoxical: since George cares about Lennie, he kills him to keep others from getting rid of him. The sentimental target audience is still left thinking that there surely should be a less morose method of expressing the virtue and value of friendship other than killing your best friend.

Criminals is another personality that Steinbeck uses to boost the notion that ultimately this kind of novel is about friendship, and one therefore profound the particular one best friend murders another. Crooks’ characterization is definitely the opposite of the of George and Lennie. Whereas the writer utilizes the aforementioned pair to point how effective friendship is usually and how significant it is to this novel, he utilize Crooks to indicate just how lonesome life is without companionship and how anxious a man can come to need camaraderie. Crooks is ostracized from the rest of the farmhands because he is African-American. Nonetheless, he pinastre for the sort of camaraderie that George and Lennie have – or for almost any at all. This individual tells Lennie:

A guy models alone away here at evening, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that. Sometimes this individual gets thinkin’, an’ this individual got nothing to tell him can be so and what ain’t so. Might be if this individual sees something’, he can’t say for sure whether it’s correct or not. He cannot turn to another guy and ast him if this individual sees that too. He can’t notify. He received nothing to measure by (Steinbeck, 1993).

This quotation displays exactly how depressed Crooks is definitely. This idea is easily reinforced by fact that on an evening in which all of the different men go to a brothel, he is left alone at the plantation. That he’s making this conversation to Lenny further underscores the reality that what Lenny offers, Crooks will not: and that Crooks desires this sort of a a friendly relationship. In fact , the passage also implies that such a a friendly relationship is a necessity for farmhands. Yet, the companionship that Crooks thus ardently étendu for is definitely the very thing that kills Lenny, which is undoubtedly a obstructive ? uncooperative way of demonstrating the fact that friendship is a dominant theme of the story. For every Crooks’ pining, at least he is with your life at the end from the story.

Yet another way that Steinbeck stresses that friendship is probably the most beneficial theme with this book – and is and so valuable that it even arrest warrants George currently taking Lenny’s lifestyle as the supreme expression with their friendship – is by having other characters believe in and take part in the friendship involving the two males. Crooks, of course , badly wants a associate yet by no means gets 1. Candy, however , is able to make friends with both George and Lenny and even strategies to join in their dream of one day owning their particular farm. That dream, naturally , is one of the primary points of George and Lennie’s friendship; the pair think that if they continue to keep working at it they will at some point be able to gain enough money to have their particular farm. It can be highly significant, then, that Crooks gives up his life cost savings in an attempt to become partners with all the two guys in their future endeavors. Implicit in this touch is the camaraderie and friendship he at this point shares while using two guys. In fact , soon after stating that he wants to (literally) buy into the desire, “Old Sweets nodded in appreciation of the idea, inches (Steinbeck, 1993) of the threesome someday using their own terrain. This fact is important because it shows that the type of connect that jewelry George and Lennie to each other is a thing that other farmers they face value, and wish to become a element of. As such, the importance of companionship to this book is again asserted.

Additionally it is important to realize that in a story in which friendship is the main theme while expressed in relationships among men, it is just a woman that ultimately severs that romantic relationship and results in the extra theme of loss of life. Specifically, Curley’s wife is known as a harbinger of death inside the novel in two extremely eminent techniques. Firstly, your woman offers very little to Lennie as a level of consolation to the latter’s inadvertent slaying of his puppy (which is another instance of fatality in this novel). It looked a little foolish, and almost stereotypical, that Lenny then inadvertently kills her because of his prodigious strength. Frankly, this accidental loss of life seemed unrealistic. Granted, Lennie definitely includes a penchant for slaying points. But commonly those things included small pets. The eradicating of Curley’s wife functions as the pivotal turning point for the plot, mainly because then Lennie has to manage and then his own loss of life is upcoming – possibly at the hands of the lynch mafia or at the hands of George. Yet, it is significant to comprehend that within a story that is filled with companionship between males and farmhands, that a girl is finally responsible for the dissolution in the single most important friendship between men from this novel. One may posit the viewpoint that Steinbeck purposefully chooses women to destroy this camaraderie to emphasize essential amicability is usually between farmers in this story. The end result is that Curley’s better half dies, and her disturbance with Lennie ultimately leads to Lennie’s slaying at the hands of George, which is certainly a dark way to end a novel about the value of friendship between males.

In summary, Of Mice and Men is a twisted story about a camaraderie so serious that one of the friends kills the other in order to avoid the latter from having to go through an even more nasty and terrifying death. The prevalence of death as one of the most prominent topics in this publication other than camaraderie is certainly unproductive in a publication about companionship. As such, that makes the publication unsettling and

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