Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men was published in the 1930s during the Great Depression, the depression made people powerless and unable to achieve their dreams The Depression created a world where everybody had to look after themselves and Steinbeck explores how powerless people couldn't do anything to achieve their dreams. The book is based on two characters George and Lennie who are in the great depression and are wondering across the country for work. George is seen as the cleverer one then Lennie also Lennie is a bit backward.

George is presented as a father figure to lennie in chapter one.

“You never oughta drink water when it aint running Lennie, he said hopelessly”

This clearly shows that George is like correcting lennie or like telling him to not drink the water when it isn’t running just like a father would to their child to stop doing something silly. Steinbeck uses the word “hopelessly” it can also show that sometimes George gets fed up with telling Lennie off. This also links in with George being cleverer then Lennie if he is telling him of in that manner.

Steinbeck also hints several times that lennie can bring trouble. “O.K., said George. “An' you ain't gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither."

George here is telling Lennie that he cant do nothing bad like he did in weed so that clearly shows something happened to both of them in weed which made them move on from weed you can tell this by he says “nothing bad” he is making sure they don’t get in trouble. This also links in with the idea that Lennie probably does things without thinking on the other hand George doesn’t.

George and Lennie have a dream it is probably what all Americans wanted at that time the American dream. “O.K. Someday- we're gonna get the jack together and we're gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an' a cow and some pigs

and-(…) An’ have rabbits. Go on, George! Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove, and how thick the cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George. (…) we’ll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof-”.They have a very big dream which they probably both know that they wont be able to but there dream includes the living in a house owning some land, farming, animals and literally not going to work staying at home. This links to the American Dream when people went from everywhere just to live in America and have every thing.

In mice Men loneliness