Notes
1. This story portrays Realism because we learn in the beginning of the story that the two guys’ are forced to leave their town because of what one of them had done there. As a result, they are jobless and in need of making money to make a living, to fulfill their dream. Every part of this story is portraying life in the real world.
2. The heroes in this novel are George and Lennie. In the story, George is the brains and the person who is in control. He understands how things should work and makes sure that everything is alright, knowing how to handle situations and doing what he should to settle things. Lennie, on the other hand, is a complete idiot who depends on George. He also loves to pet rats and bunnies, however he is easily enraged and can be easily overpowered by his enragement, which causes him to act stupidly sometimes. George and Lennie plan to eventually own a farm of their own, where the two of them can stay at forever and do as they like and wish. Also, instead of having them look for work at another person’s farm, they can employ people as they wish and get rid of people as they wish at the same time. They also describe how they can have the veggies and different things according to their likings, as well as Lennie can have his own bunnies to pet.
3.
Chapter 1 - In chapter 1, we know of George and Lennie’s appearance. As the evening approached, they talked about how they got their new job after being thrown out of the place they used to be. George tells Lennie to not make the same mistake and tells him how he should act when they arrive at their new workplace. As they are having dinner George tells Lennie once again their future and as the night closes in, camps by the river.
Chapter 2, 3, 4 - In chapters 2-4, Lennie and George are introduced to the different workers on the farm. As Slim gets to know about George and Lennie, Carlson takes action and shoots Candy’s old dog. Candy overhears George and Lennie when they talked about their dream and asks to join in. Also, Lennie is beaten by Curley who was looking for a person to let out his anger but in return Lennie breaks one of Curley’s arms. Last but not least, we know of Crook’s story and we also get to know of the situation between Curley and his wife.
Chapter 5, 6 - We know that Lennie has killed the puppy he owns and tries to bury it, to cover up so that George wouldn’t find out. Curley’s wife appears and they talk. Eventually Curley’s wife learns that Lennie likes to touch soft things and offers her hair, however Lennie wouldn’t let go of it and in panic Curley’s wife screams. As a result of this, Lennie was frightened and grabs her but incautiously breaks her neck, killing her. After George finds out, he formed a plan so he wouldn’t be accused of being part. Curley is angry that Lennie killed her and brings a shotgun with a group of men to kill him. As Lennie waits beside the river, he sees visions of his Aunt Clara and a giant rabbit speaking to him in his own voice. George appears as it happens; they talk their usual dream like before, but George takes Carlson’s gun that he took and shoots him in the back of his head. George eventually is held by Slim and they go away.
4. Realism/Regionalism Analysis: How does your novel reflect or represent Realism/Regionalism? Provide specific examples from the author's writing style and choices of settings, characters, and plot. [3 min.]
In Of Mice and Men, the setting was two men who fled out of town because of the trouble that had done by Lennie who was mental disable. Lennie, one of the main characters in the story, likes to feel soft and nice things. He was accused of raping a girl but he actually just wanted to feel the girl’s red dress. Steinbeck put one mental disable person in the story to show the lack of humanity in the community and the fate of being naturally deformed. The story started as them discussing the strategies for finding a job to let themselves survive in the society. Finding a job seemed to be easy, but not anymore when one has mental disability. The beginning of the story illustrates clear obstacles in life and the difficulty when living in a society, which fits the style of Realism.
Every conversation in the story was written with several grammatical problems and spelling mistakes. There is even swearing appeared in the conversations. For example, after Lennie had killed Curley’s wife accidentally, Curley was pissed off and he swore: “I know who done it, that big sonofacitch done it. I know he done it. Why, ever’body else was out there plain’ horseshoes. I’m gonna get him… I’ll shoot’im in the guts.” In these sentences, instead of spelling out “everybody”, Steinbeck wrote “ever’body” with “ever” and apostrophe “body”, showing the accent and the speaking style of the farm man. Throughout the whole story, a lot of words were spelled wrongly on purpose, missing some letters or joining two words together. Like “course” instead of “of course”, “an” instead of “and”, “can a’ tar” instead of “can of tar”… besides the conversations, the location the author chose was a place where people are plain and rustics. Most of the men that took roles in the story were ranch worker like Curley, skinners like Slim, and swamper like Candy. From the given examples, we can see that Regionalism is clearly used in Of Mice and Men.
5. Naturalism Analysis: What antagonistic forces do the heroes face during their struggle to accomplish their goals? Describe how the three ingredients of the naturalistic view of fate (chance, environment, and heredity--spend a little time on each one) affect the action or conclusion of the story. [3 min.]
The fate of Lennie was cruel. He was mental disable. He thinks like an infant, acts tardily and stupidly. He forgets things easily; he doesn’t know how the world and people are like. All these deform were given when he was born. His heredity controlled his life, and it is not his fault of being so stupid, it’s nature. His parents gave him the genes that cause all the disabilities. No one knows if one is going to be mentally disordered, or losing one arm or one leg. The nature controls over human being when considering the deformations of humans. Because of the sickness that Lennie had, George has to care for him while finding a place to live, finding a job to keep their lives going. Maybe there were chances for them to meet good people that can offer them jobs to do regardless the disabilities of Lennie, maybe they’d meet people that discriminate the two men because of the natural defects of Lennie. Chances for them were bad after understanding the whole story. They meet the boss who worked on the ranch and Lennie didn’t give a good impression to the boss. His disabilities even let him became murderer. Lennie died because of his disabilities, because of nature. Naturalism played a main role in Of Mice and Men, because there is Naturalism, Lennie is born to be mental disable.
6. Using the evidence you have just provided, state what the author intends to teach us about life, control, and the freedom of choice? [2 min.]
This story is not like many others that made a climax in the middle and ended with a happy ending. The end of the story was the death of Lennie. Steinbeck made the two characters harder to reach their dream, which was having their own ranch with a bunch of rabbits. He characterized Lennie as a simple-mind and mental disable person who had a beautiful dream that he tended to achieve. However, while our conditions are not that good for us to achieve things, it is easier for us to give up instead of keep going. But Lennie doesn’t think that much, he knew that sometimes you have to take the longer route in life before you can reach your destination, before you can “live off the fatta the lan’.” George is a character that really showed the good side of a person. He had choice to just leave Lennie and get a nice job and marry to a girl he likes and have children after then. Notwithstanding his complains and swearing at Lennie, he chose to stay with him and take care of him. The choice may not be his full will, but he chose to do it, however. George showed the humanity and the morality even though Lennie brought him so much trouble that almost killed them. While chasing the dream, it is good to chase after it without hesitation, but did George have the same dream with Lennie? Were all the promises he said to Lennie true? They might be false, but helping others might get you to find your dreams. George was not happy all the time when being with Lennie the trouble maker, but he found that he can’t leave Lennie alone because he had already treated him like a little brother. George found happiness when helping Lennie and taking care of him. Maybe we should all try to find some people we like to be with them in order to find your true happiness and maybe even more, to find your dreams
