“The best laid plans of mice and men/ often go awry” (Burns 38). Steinbeck adapted this quote from Robert Burns to write his novel, Of Mice and Men, indicating similar themes such as companionship. Dreams of the characters are also mentioned in both works, along with how they are not achieved at the end. The characters and their personalities also tend to resemble each other between the works. John Steinbeck’s book Of Mice and Men shows many allusions to the poem “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns through unachieved dreams, the characters’ compassion and the unfair treatment of weaker characters.
The narrator of the poem, “To a Mouse” appears to be a man, yet shares different views than most men through his defense and care for the mouse. In Of …show more content…
Candy’s character reflects the mouse’s and yet also the narrator’s since they all have vulnerable characters unable to fight their powerful enemies. Candy relates to the narrator when he says he would rather die a painless death than being fired when he is too old to work, relates to how the narrator says the mouse “ [is] blessed” (Burns 43). If the mouse survived, he would be living in pain by struggling to stay alive, which the narrator considers a blessing for the mouse agreeing with Candy’s views. When Candy stands in the barn, yelling at Curley’s wife’s dead body, Steinbeck describes him, “rubb[ing] his bristly whiskers”, proving how Steinbeck had the mouse in mind while sculpting Candy’s character by describing Candy with mouse-like features (Steinbeck, 96). Carlson and the plougher act alike when they both cause pain to other characters unknowingly. While Carlson shoots Candy’s dog, the plougher destroys the mouse’s house while ploughing the …show more content…
Putting Lennie in the mouse’s position and in “Nature’s social union,” it can be assumed that George forms the other part (Burns 8). In nature, a union would be referred to as an ecosystem and animals helping together, similar to how the narrator aids the mouse when he can not find food and George helps Lennie by taking care of him. “Man’s dominion” is perceived as the common thought of most men, and the standard idea (Burns 7). This is shown in the book as the boss and Curley question and suspect George when he tells them that they are travelling together. The boss immediately thinks that he is taking Lennie’s pay away from him because there seems to be no other acceptable reason as to why someone would care about another person so much that they would want to travel with them, so George lies and says that they are cousins since it would look less suspicious to the boss if he was obligated to do it because they were family. Some characters show that they understand the sense of companionship, such as Slim and Candy. Slim does not have a companion, but has developed strong bonds with many of the farmhands, building an aura of respect towards him. Candy treats his dog as the family he never had and is heartbroken when Carlson shoots
The narrator of the poem, “To a Mouse” appears to be a man, yet shares different views than most men through his defense and care for the mouse. In Of …show more content…
Candy’s character reflects the mouse’s and yet also the narrator’s since they all have vulnerable characters unable to fight their powerful enemies. Candy relates to the narrator when he says he would rather die a painless death than being fired when he is too old to work, relates to how the narrator says the mouse “ [is] blessed” (Burns 43). If the mouse survived, he would be living in pain by struggling to stay alive, which the narrator considers a blessing for the mouse agreeing with Candy’s views. When Candy stands in the barn, yelling at Curley’s wife’s dead body, Steinbeck describes him, “rubb[ing] his bristly whiskers”, proving how Steinbeck had the mouse in mind while sculpting Candy’s character by describing Candy with mouse-like features (Steinbeck, 96). Carlson and the plougher act alike when they both cause pain to other characters unknowingly. While Carlson shoots Candy’s dog, the plougher destroys the mouse’s house while ploughing the …show more content…
Putting Lennie in the mouse’s position and in “Nature’s social union,” it can be assumed that George forms the other part (Burns 8). In nature, a union would be referred to as an ecosystem and animals helping together, similar to how the narrator aids the mouse when he can not find food and George helps Lennie by taking care of him. “Man’s dominion” is perceived as the common thought of most men, and the standard idea (Burns 7). This is shown in the book as the boss and Curley question and suspect George when he tells them that they are travelling together. The boss immediately thinks that he is taking Lennie’s pay away from him because there seems to be no other acceptable reason as to why someone would care about another person so much that they would want to travel with them, so George lies and says that they are cousins since it would look less suspicious to the boss if he was obligated to do it because they were family. Some characters show that they understand the sense of companionship, such as Slim and Candy. Slim does not have a companion, but has developed strong bonds with many of the farmhands, building an aura of respect towards him. Candy treats his dog as the family he never had and is heartbroken when Carlson shoots