Powerlessness In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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The book Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is a tale about two men who are immigrant workers back in the 1930’s and their journey through life. Throughout the book, the reader learns about two men, George and Lennie, and the troubles they face being migrant farm workers. George is a short man with strong features while Lennie is tall and less defined. In the book you discover the dream the two men have, their past struggles, and how they face each day. There are dozens of themes and lessons presented in this book about life and the beauty of California. Some of the main themes in this book are powerlessness, nature, and my brother’s keeper.
The first theme present in this book is powerlessness. One example of powerlessness is Crooks
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Since Lennie’s aunt died, George has taken care of Lennie. They grew up together and have traveled together for a long time, so it happened naturally that they would take care and look after one another. In this example, George is commanding Lennie what to do like a parent would do to there child. “‘Lennie!’ He said sharply. ‘Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much.’ Lennie continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder ‘Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night’” (Steinbeck 3). Another way Steinbeck used the theme of my brother’s keeper was when George and Lennie were at the riverbed, and Lennie told George that he could go live in a cave and not bother him, if that was what he wanted. But then George insists on Lennie staying with him because he knew that Lennie would die if he lived by himself. Also I think that George would get lonely if Lennie wasn’t with him. “‘If you don’t want me, you only jus’ got to say so, and I’ll go off in those hills right there- right up in those hills and live by myself. An’ I won’t get no mice stole from me.’ George said ‘I want you to be with me Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself. No, you stay with me. Your Aunt Clara wouldn’t want like you running off by yourself, even if she was dead’” (Steinbeck 13). Finally, one of the last ways my brother’s keeper is shown in this …show more content…
Some of the biggest ones presented are powerlessness, nature, and my brother’s keeper. One way powerlessness is shown is with Curley’s wife. Not only does she have no power or control over Lennie when he is holding onto her, but she also has no control over who she can and can not talk to on the ranch or what she’s allowed to do. Another theme shown is Nature. This is shown constantly threw out the book. A couple examples are when Steinbeck describes the river George and Lennie rest at, setting up the night of the morning, or when Steinbeck is describing what the view looks like on the ranch. Finally, one of the last themes you see a lot of is my brother’s keeper. This is shown whenever George is bossing around Lennie, taking care of him, yelling at him, or telling him what he needs to do. For example, when he takes his puppy out of it’s cage, George has to tell Lennie to go put it back. Life isn’t like this for most people anymore. They do not have to work hard farming to make a living or worry about never settling down because they have to constantly be moving around to find work. But people today still struggle to find a job, or they lose someone important to them. I know personally I can relate to a lot of these characters, and I bet most of the readers can

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