Commentary on Of Mice And Men Essay

Essay

The two main characters in the novel, Of Mice and Men, are George Milton and Lennie Smalls. George is a small, intelligent man who cares for and acts as a sort of guardian for Lennie. Lennie is a very large, muscular man whose mind is very slow and is almost childlike. Both characters are traveling ranch hands, going from town to town in search of work. Georges and Lennies characters are round, evolving throughout the story. There are also a few stock characters. Curly, the ranch owners bully son, has a wife whom he neglects. Slim, the wisest ranch hand, has respect from all the other workers. Carlson is the opposite of Slim; he is ignorant and insensitive. Candy is the ranch hand who wants to join George and Lennie on their journey. Crooks is a proud but lonely African-American who also works on the ranch. All of these stock characters are flat.

A cultural reflection that is just as true now as when it was written in this book is the feeling that these ranch workers have working for the owner. They do not feel like they are reaping what they sow. Everything that they do is prosperous only to the owner of the ranch. That is how many people who work for big companies feel now. Say you work at a grocery store. You do not feel the need to upsell groceries because whether you sell one banana or a bunch, you are getting paid the same. This feeling alienates workers toward owners of businesses. You feel like you are doing all the work and the owner reaps the rewards.

Scared, Lennie flees. Candy finds the womans body in the barn and, immediately thinking of Lennie, finds George and tells him the situation. George thinks for a minute, remembering when he told Lennie that if he ever got into trouble that they should meet at the riverbank. He grabs a fellow ranchers gun and enters the barn with the others. He attempts to talk Curly into only having Lennie put away but Curly wont hear of it. Now he has found the perfect reason to get back at Lennie for embarrassing him in front of the others. They all go out to search for Lennie.