Preview

Of Mice And Men Movie And Book Comparison Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
667 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Of Mice And Men Movie And Book Comparison Essay
Typically, people these days prefer watching movies over reading books. However, it can be interesting to read a book as well as watch the movie to find similarities and differences. The novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, consists of two main characters: George Milton and Lennie Small. The movie, released in 1992, focuses on the same characters’ adventures working on a ranch during the Great Depression. There are several similarities between Lennie in the movie and the book, including him liking to touch anything soft and him acting like George's child. However, there are also differences between the two, such as Lennie’s size and his mental abilities. To start, one of the main similarities between the movie and the novel is that Lennie …show more content…
For example, “Slowly, like a terrier who doesn't want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again” (Steinbeck 9). This individual quote is significant in the book because it shows Lennie’s understanding of obedience rather than loyalty. Throughout the novel he is called a terrier, is said to resemble a horse when he drinks, and several times is described as having paws. The animal imagery goes to show that Lennie can’t control himself any more than an animal can. He is enormous and doesn’t always understand what he is doing.
Given these points, the similarities and differences between Of Mice and Men, the movie and the book, become more clear. Lennie acts like George’s child while George tells him what to do and takes care of him. He loves touching anything soft, such as rabbits, puppies, and Curley’s wife’s hair. In contrast, Lennie is only referred to as an animal in the book when there are words outside of dialogue to describe him. The author also makes him seem much larger than he looks in the movie. This proves that it can be necessary to read a book and watch it’s movie to develop a well-rounded opinion of the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lennie is a grown man with a mental disability.”Give it here”(Steinbeck,6). He acts like he is 6 or 7 years old. But he isn’t weak.”No,he ain’t,but he sure is one hell of a good worker.Strong as a bull” (Steinbeck,22). Lennie represents death/bad guy in this book even though he doesn’t know what it is. He always accidently kills animals like mice and pups.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie and book Of Mice and Men are rather similar, however there are major differences. For example, in the beginning of the book John Steinbeck starts by describing the scenic pond where the exposition begins, and the movie opens up with the scene of a girl in a red dress frantically running while Lennie and George are trying to elude men with guns. On the other hand, when George is describing their dream of owning their very own farm, the description in both the book and movie are the same. For instance, “An’ it’d be our own, an’ nobody could can us.” (Source A) is rather similar to what was said in the movie. Another example of a similarity, “ We're gonna have a cow, and some pigs, and we're gonna have, maybe, maybe, a chicken. Down…

    • 502 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lennie Small has a very symbolic importance in the novel Of Mice and Men. In the novel George Milton and Lennie Small both migrant workers pursue their dream of someday owning their own ranch by travelling around working as ranch hands to earn a living. The dream they share is to be able to "live off the fat of the land,". Lennie Small is a very complex character, although he may not appear to be at first glance. Lennie is the most interesting character in the novel because he differs from the other is many ways. Lennie Small ironically is a man of large stature and is very strong. He is child-like in his emotions and has a diminished mental capacity. Lennie's feelings are much like that of a normal person when you take into consideration that he is mentally retarded. One of Lennie's biggest concerns is that of a continued friendship with George. Throughout the novel their friendship is affirmed as Lennie states, "Because…… because I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you,". Lennie has a distrust of people except for George. Also, Lennie is not always sure about what is right and what is wrong; he relies on George to make the distinction for him. Lennie lacks the understanding that his actions have consequences. This is seen when he holds on to his pet mouse so tightly that he kills it. Lennie walks his way through life completely oblivious to the dangers of the world holding on to the dream of someday owning a farm with his best friend George.…

    • 2717 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A short novel by John Steinbeck called Of Mice and Men is made into a movie, directed by Gary Sinise, about the hardships and many challenges of George Milton and Lennie Small. They constantly move from town to town to avoid troubling situations that Lennie gets them caught in. Lennie Small is a friendly, simple, and strong, but also is mentally ill, he is played by John Malkovich. George Milton, played by Gary Sinise, is a simple man who is the smarts and the responsible one between him and Lennie.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Steinbeck shows through Lennie’s first entrance into the novel how he is acting irresponsible. “They had walked in single file down the path,” This shows how George is a fatherly figure towards Lennie, rather than a companion. We see how Lennie relies on George to make the decisions and Lennie will follow George and copy him, “Lennie ... imitated George exactly.” However, when Lennie is left to his own devices he acts irresponsibly and doesn’t know what to do. The outcome of the situation he is in is always bad when he is left to decide something, for example the death of the mouse, puppy and Curley’s wife. This proves how Lennie is responsible for his own actions. Steinbeck illustrates Lennie’s character to be, “ a huge man,” this shows how Lennie’s strength could be responsible for his actions, because when the mouse bit him, he would “nip it,” gently but with Lennie’s strength, it killed the mouse, proving Lennie to not be responsible for his actions. John Steinbeck uses animal imagery to portray Lennie, “the way a bear drags his paws”, “snorting into the pool like a horse” and “dabbled his big paw.” The use of animal imagery describing Lennie shows how he lacks mental…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lennie Small is one of the main characters in the book Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. Lennie’s age is not identified in the novel, but one can assume that he is a young adult. Lennie is very tall with a shapeless face. He has big pale eyes, wide sloping shoulders, and massive hands like bear claws. Lennie is very mentally slow. He doesn’t quite understand everything that is said to him. Lennie also can’t remember things very well. Lennie is a very simple minded person.…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although John Steinbeck introduces a plethora of memorable characters in Of Mice and Men, Lennie can best be remembered by his childish traits. In the beginning of the story, when George and Lennie were sitting at the encampment by the river Lennie begged George to tell the story of the rabbits(14). This story was about much more than just rabbits; but Lennie, being the manchild he was only cared about the fact that he got to care for and play with the rabbits, just like any child would. Later on in the story, Curley picked a fight because Lennie was supposedly laughing at him and Curley got his hand crushed, but “Lennie was jus’ scarit. He didn’t know what to do”(62). Lennie didn’t actually mean any harm but when Curley started beating on…

    • 255 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice And Men, was adapted into a film by Gary Sinise, multiple aspects were well maintained in the resolution in which George kills Lennie; however, there were a few distinctive changes that, despite altering the plot, enhanced the scene. First, a prominent similarity between the film and the movie is the conversation between the two men prior to Lennie’s demise. When George found Lennie, he told him, “‘We gonna get a little place… We’ll have a cow… An’ we’ll have maybe a pig an’ chickens… an’ down the flat we’ll have a… little piece alfalfa… for the rabbits… An’ you get to tend the rabbits.’” (Steinbeck 52). Here, George is telling him about their plans to own land together, which also occurred near the end…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the film version of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, George Milton reflects on the time he had spent with his best friend, Lennie Small, on the ranch. He begins by looking back at the time when George and Lennie are chased out of their home town of Weed and are forced to find work, so they get jobs at a ranch. They plan to save up money and reach their dream of owning a farm and “live off the fatta the lan’.” On the ranch, they meet many different people and deal with different things. This movie was a negative experience to watch. There were many significant parts of the book that were not included in the movie.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    He was huge, he walked heavily, and he had a shapeless body and head. Lennie has the mind of a child and is obsessed with soft things like soft fabrics, mice and rabbits and constantly wants to touch, feel and hold them. It gives him a sense of security, like a small child holding a soft toy or blanket. However Lennie does not know his own strength and will pick up a small animal like a mouse and will pet and squeeze it so hard that he will kill it and then think that it was dead before he took hold of it.. Lennie’s love for soft things also gets him in a lot of trouble. In Weed he liked the look of a girl’s dress and so he started to feel the fabric. The girl got scared of the big man and started to scream as she thought she was going to be raped. This made Lennie hold on tighter as he got frightened and consequently they were chased out of Weed by men on horseback and dogs who were trying to lynch them. Lennie is compared to four different animals in the book; a horse, a dog, a mouse and a bear. Steinbeck says ‘Dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws.’ He is using this imagery to make us imagine the way Lennie is walking and is also describe as this to show how strong he is. He describes Lennie as a dog because of his obedience to George. Lennie is described as a mouse because his child-like mental capabilities render him as a helpless mouse and is described as a horse when he…

    • 712 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    As we all know, there’s one thing about books that appeal to every avid reader in the world; the visualization and imagination. This is something that movies can either enrich or abolish. For the book entitled ‘Of Mice And Men’, the movie acted as a detriment to the book. The differences between the movie and the book are insurmountable. To start thing off, the first thing that was dissimilar was when George and Lennie are shown sneaking into a train at night to escape from Weed. However, if one recalls on the book accurately, they will remember that no such seen in the book was described. Another flawless example is when a worker named Mike approached Slim and asked him whether or not he could switch jobs with someone else as he could not keep up with Lennie. Again, this was not mentioned in the book what-so-ever. The next part was an important part, but was cut from the movie for unknown reasons. The part is when Lennie is in the river and begins to hallucinate about his aunt Clara and the giant rabbit. In addition to that, and also near the ending of the book, when George shoots Lennie with the Luger pistol. In the film, the gun he was holding was a Colt Revolver, and was again changed for unspecified reasons. This brings me to how the ending of the book was changed: in the book, George remains on the ranch, whilst in the film, George is seen riding alone in yet another boxcar to his next destination in both the introduction and ending. This is indicative of George fleeing after killing Lennie and reminisces on past events during the ride. In spite of all this alterations or modifications, there are still an innumerable amount to be spoken of. Thus, vividly showing us that movies can indeed sometimes take away from the free-thinking, imagination that books exclusively hold.…

    • 328 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    OMAM George And Lennie

    • 1235 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “ Of Mice and Men “ by John Steinbeck is a novel involving two extremely different main characters. George is a reasonably intelligent, hardworking ranchman. Lennie on the other hand ...…

    • 1235 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    lennie

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I choose Lennie because I thought that he was one of the more interesting and exhilarating characters in Of Mice and Men. For one of the pictures in my collage I have a picture of Lennie which he was described as "...A huge man, shapeless of face with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders...". Also in the book when him and George where walking they described Lennie as "...walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws...". When Lennie and George were running away from Weeds because of what Lennie did he had acted like an animal when he was drinking out of the lake he was described as snorting the water like a horse. When they had stopped at the bushes to take a break for the night like a kid, Lennie mournfully wishes for ketchup to put on his beans as a kid would do. Lennie also kept asking George for a bedtime story "...No…you tell it. It ain't the same if I tell it. Go on…George. How I get to tend the rabbits...". Lennie also had an obsession with rabbits he liked how they felt because he likes to feel soft things. Even though Lennie is described as a nice fella he still has his problems. In the story Lennie was known for liking soft things such as rabbits, womens dress, mice, and Curley's wife's hair, but at the end they either ended up dead or they accuse him of rape. Lennie always "...pinched their heads a little..." after the animals bit him. He says, "...they was dead because they was so little..." but their size doesn't really have anything to do with it. They're dead because Lennie is so big and strong and he doesn't quite understand how to be gentle even though he says "...George I ain't mean no harm, honest George...". I picked these pictures because they described Lennie pretty well and explained his personality and behavior that is why Lennie was one of my favorite characters in Of Mice And Men.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Candy of Mice and Men

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn’t no good to himself nor nobody else. When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs’’(Steinbeck 60). In John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George are very close friends and George looks out for the mentally handicapped Lennie. Lennie is fascinated with soft things, but tends to hurt them on accident. George and Lennie share a dream of living off the land. That dream suddenly goes away when Lennie kills Curley’s wife. Through changes of the character, Candy, Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to predict the end of the book, and he and his dog are like the companionship of George and Lennie.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Decisions Essay

    • 654 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In life, there are hard decisions you have to make, and sometimes, the decisions you make are controversial, like the decisions George has to make about Lennie in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Even before the story starts, George has to make hard decisions, such as forcing Lennie to leave Weed to keep him out of trouble. Steinbeck shows the important decisions made in friendship through George’s character. George is committed to Lennie, even though he may be troublesome sometimes and may not benefit George, but George is still committed to him.…

    • 654 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays