Literature Analysis #3

 1. The plot of “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is of two workers, George and Lennie. Lennie has a mental disability and is taken care of by George. They go to a nearby ranch in search of work. George is the one who talks to the boss, to help hide Lennie’s disability. They are hired and then meet Candy, a fellow worker on the ranch, and Curly, the boss’s son. Later they meet Curly’s wife, who flirts with both George and Lennie. As the day goes by, the workers return back to the ranch, George and Lennie then meet Slim, another worker who has power over the ranch. The next day George tells Slim of Lennie’s problems, past things he has done to get into trouble. Slim agrees to give Lennie one of his newborn puppies to help comfort and distract him. Later that day Curly starts looking for his wife, he heads to the barn and starts to call out Slim on it. Slim scolds him as they return back to the bunkhouse and Curly now angry begins to start a fight with Lennie. Lennie hurts Curly’s hand in the fight, and is told by Slim that if he tells anybody he will be the laughing stock of the ranch. The next day Lennie accidentally kills his puppy in the barn. Curly’s wife comes in and tries to comfort him; she lets Lennie touch her hair. When she begins to freak out Lennie tries to make her stop screaming and accidentally breaks her neck, killing her. Lennie runs to a designated spot set by George to return to if they ever got into trouble. When the men at the ranch see what happened they form a lynch party in search of Lennie. George goes to the spot where Lennie is at, and shoots him. When the party arrives only Slim is able to figure out what really happened.

2. A theme of the novel is the impossibility of the American Dream. Curly’s wife talked about how she wished she followed her dream and became a movie star. George and Lennie want to own a farm and can’t because they can’t hold down a job.

3. The author’s tone is tragic. Lennie always seems to end up killing everything he holds dear. In the beginning it was the mice, then the puppy and then Curly’s wife.

4. Five literary elements that helped me understand the story were foreshadowing, imagery, irony, symbolism and metaphors. An example of foreshadowing was the killing of Candy’s dog in order to end his pain. Imagery was helpful to imagine the scenes that things were taking place in.