Of mice and men is a novel of protest.
It is during the great depression.
When people are poor, they become desperate, lonely even though they are with people (inescapable loneliness) and they also become cruel.
It is a novelette (short novel).
One of the themes- loneliness
13/1/2013 Sunday
The American dream was moving above the classes, which cannot be broken. To move up the class, European settlers that arrived in America, started growing tobacco, and became rich.
The two characters have a dream of having a farm. This dream is real and they do come close to achieving it.
Lennie is often in his own world. He sometimes gets confused with the real world and his own dream. He is mentally retarded. When he gets angry, he can become extremely violent.
George is smart and thinks practically, he thinks economically of the farm. George is a very noble person . His life could be a lot easier without Lenny.
Candy had his hand torn off by a machine, and had got only $200 in compensation. He is old, does not have enough to retire and he was getting sacked soon. Pension scheme for him,
Curly is the boss’s son. He is immature. He is short and is a boxing champion who is extremely violent.
Slim is the one person who stands up to curly. Slim is somehow flirting with Curly’s wife. Curly’s wife is lonely
Lenny always thinks about the farm and is sad and Curly thinks he can hit lenny, Lenny is big but doesn’t know how to defend himself . When curly was hitting him suddenly , Lenny gets mixed up and crushes lenny’s hand . Curly has his left hand in a glove the whole time . He asks lenny what’s with the glove . It makes the hand very soft and that one hand is for his wife . Curly’s right hand is his fighting hand ,and lenny ruined his fighting hand .