Readers have always found Steinbeck’s novels to be meaningful in that they teach us life lessons. What social message or lesson did you find laced throughout this novel and what incident, character or quote helped generate this message in your mind?
I believe that Steinbeck was very simply trying to claim that there either needs to be or that there isn't a sufficient enough understanding for those who are unique in this world especially since they bring so much light to our world. If you think about it, Lennie brought hope to everyone he encountered: George, Candy, and even Crooks, yet they were the only ones who took the time to understand him.
ReplyDelete"People are afraid of what they don't 'know'"
ReplyDeleteI think he does bring hope. He gave Candy hope for a better end to his live in the house and nobody send him to the streets. This is so true because people are always afraid. They don’t follow all their dreams because he does not know the ending to that dream. Lennie character gives people that inspiration to reach for there hopes.
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ReplyDeletePaul Romeril
Prompt:
Readers have always found Steinbeck’s novels to be meaningful in that they teach us life lessons.
What social message or lesson did you find laced throughout this novel and what incident, character or quote helped generate this message in your mind?
Response:
The first lesson that I learned from “Of Mice and Men” is that someone can do great harm without meaning to do so. Lennie never meant to harm the puppy, or the girl, and yet he killed both of them. Lennie doesn’t have a mean bone in his body, but he doesn’t have the foresight to predict the outcomes of his actions and then choose actions whose results will be fruitful. He has a lot of strength however, and this is an example of the problem caused when someone has strength and not wisdom, or to put it more clearly, when someones’ strength exceeds their wisdom. As a character in another book put it, it is easier to fight evil than it is to fight ignorance and foolishness. Another example is the men that went to hunt Lennie, they were willfully ignorant of Lennie’s own ignorance, and I say willfully ignorant because they had a chance to listen to Lennie’s inability to distinguish good from evil, through George. The Buddha once said that “When in a controversy, the instant you feel anger, you have in that instant stopped striving for the Truth, and started striving for yourself.” This story is one of misunderstandings one after the other, and they lead to one tragedy after the other.
So anger is a selfish desire to "give up" on finding meaning or understand something... hmmmmm.. So this explains why so many people in this world are so quick to get made or avenge something because, well, are simply too ignorant!!! AMEN!!!!
DeleteI entirely look forward to your quotes.
IF YOU ARE LOST: Think about what you learned from following Candy, Curley, his wife, or even Crooks/
ReplyDeleteFor the most part, the overriding message that is being generated throughout the novel is in regards to social class and social rank. The general idea of social rank is that depending on who you are, how you been brought up, and other things pertaining to these background traits can and most likely will influence your successes and ability to accomplish certain things that you wish to do. These principals reflect many ideas involved in the American Dream, all pertaining to peoples social class. One quote that was said at some point in the novel had reflected this idea. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the lonliest guys in the world. They got no family. They belong no place… With us it aint like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in a bar room blowin’ in our Jacks just because we got no place else to go. If them guys get in Jail… (Pg. 25). The basic idea of this quotes underlines the basic idea of social class and what you can accomplish based ff your social class. This quote was stated by George, who is a laboring man and hopes to accomplish his American dream, but is at greater conflict because he belongs to a lower social class.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, you are correct in your social message in that the typical American's future is predetermined by social status, even though that contrasts the whole concept of the American Dream, but I believe Steinbeck was utilizing this novel to prove otherwise, that it is all a delusion.
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