Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And Animal Farm

When characters of different class interact in literature they often show the Authors thoughts on class system in their society. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck portrays a world isolated to a ranch and nearby town and this opens up a dialogue between characters of different standing on the class system and shows the futility of the working man’s dream by showing the evolution of two characters dream and the eventual demise of that dream. In contrast, George Orwell’s Animal Farm provides an insight into the way communism and man’s nature work in the presence of each other. It tells the story of a revolution on a farm which eventually ends in a totalitarian ruling of the farm from simply a different leader. Whilst both novels where published …show more content…
In Animal Farm one of the symbols is the barn in which the principles of Animalism are written, the barn represents the ideals and memories of the society that inhabits Animal Farm (and therefore the collective ideals of a communist society). There are many scenes in the novel which show the ruling Pigs altering the writing on the barn and this causes confusion within the rest of the animals, however this just shows Orwell’s interpretation of how the ruling upper class is able to change and revise a communities outlook with much ease as even though the working class animals question the changes, they are willing to accept them with no qualms, for example the scene in chapter 8 in which the commandment reading “No animal shall kill any other animal” changes to “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause” and the rest of the working animals blame the change on the weakness of their own memory – collectively agreeing that they must have just forgotten the last two words. These changes show a flaw in society as those in charge are able to depersonalize the individuals in classes below them and use these powers to oppress and control a nation’s identity by fostering a power to make people share the same memories. A similar symbol in Of Mice and Men is the Farm that George often tells Lennie about. This is both the most seductive and powerful symbol in the novel as it attracts not only the attention of Lennie but also that of Candy and Crooks. Steinbeck’s interpretation of the American Dream is made apparent through this symbol as it shows how the collection of wealth can buy you and idyllic and free life that all the workers dream of yet the dream of the Ranch is gone when Lennie dies and this shows that no matter how much you save you will never leave the class you were born into in the oppressive capitalist system of 1930’s America. James Tophman supports