Preview

How Does Steinbeck Use Indirect Characterization In Of Mice And Men

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
157 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
How Does Steinbeck Use Indirect Characterization In Of Mice And Men
Steinbeck illustrates the American Dream during the Great Depression using characters and their thoughts. Utilizing indirect characterization, he shows how characters appreciate the comfort that their dreams provide. When George explains their dream in vivid detail, Lennie often becomes very giddy and complacent (Steinbeck 13-14). Therefore, this example suggests that the American Dream reassures Lennie and his other peers when they are feeling troubled. Also, the changes in the attitudes of the characters express the positive impact their ambitions have on them. Thus, this quote demonstrates Crooks' eagerness to be a part of something as important as The Dream. Lastly, the American Dream's significance is also shown through the way the characters

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    “If you ever just happen to get in trouble like you have always done before, I want you to come right here and hide in the brush.”(doc B) In the story Of Mice and Men there are two main characters, George and Lennie. George is average sized and intelligent, and Lennie is tall, very muscular, and below average. George and Lennie have a farm dream that they will own land, so they go to work on a ranch to earn money. A worker there, Candy, offers to go in with 300 dollars. Everything is looking good until Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife, and Curley is a hothead. He wants to kill Lennie very painfully, but George gets there first. He has to shoot him in the back of the head. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to indicate the deaths of the farm dream, Curley’s wife, and Lennie.…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Need for Lennie to allow others to get to know him before he speaks to them…

    • 623 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story Of Mice and Men the author John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to reveal many future events in the story. He uses them left and right but I am focusing on how he uses it for Curley’s wife dying, Lennie’s death, and their dream dying.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Published in 1937, John Steinbeck wrote a moving and powerful novel titled, Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck’s reliance on textual description makes the work accessible to young readers, as does his use of foreshadowing and reoccurring images. Equally important is the way Steinebeck intertwines loneliness, friendship, and sadness. A professor at the University of San Jose stated, “The near impossibility of attaining the American Dream in the face of the huge and random challenges, like natural and economic disasters became the central theme of Steinbeck’s novel” (“Of Mice and Men – Critical Reception” 1). Marxist and New Criticism were the two approaches applied to the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Steinbeck represents the character, Crooks, by showing the effects of discrimination. He is referred to as the ‘black’ stable buck and is named Crooks, due to the crook in his back, which was a result of being kicked in the back by a horse. The character is shown as reasonably literate, due to the possession of his books, which he uses as compensation to his loneliness. The reader would have a lot of sympathy for Crooks, as he is treated unfairly and acts very lonely, showing he doesn’t have anyone to comfort him and to talk about his problems to.…

    • 639 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem “To a Mouse” there is a quote that read ”The best laid schemes often go askew” and this can easily describe how John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to show that something is going to go wrong. In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to get the reader hint that bad things are going to happen. In the very first paragraph of the novella he gives us hints that Lennie is going to end up getting in trouble by having George say “Well, look. Lennie--if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always do before, I want you to come right back here an’ hide in a bush”. John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to show that George is going to kill lennie, Curley’s wife is going to die, and that George and Lennie are not going to accomplish…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    [Candy] said miserably, "You seen what they done to my dog tonight? They says he wasn't no good to himself nor nobody else”(Steinbeck 60). Candy is introduced in the start of chapter two, he is described indirectly by the narrator as a “Stoop shouldered old man”(Steinbeck 18). He is said to have a round stump on his right arm, but no hand. His dog enters later in chapter two, whom is described as a “dragfooted sheepdog, gray of a muzzle, and with pale, old eyes”(Steinbeck 26). Through these characters, Steinbeck helps the reader understand the stereotype of the uselessness of the elderly and disabled. Along with this, Candy and his dog create a parallel with George and Lennie.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the 1930s, 1.3 million people migrated to California looking for any work to make a better life. In John Steinbeck’s novella, Of Mice and Men, he specifically shows the different reactions to the 1930s conflicts: racism, The Great Depression, and itinerant jobs. Steinbeck shows the many contrasting reactions of people in the face of adversity and hardships.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck one of the main themes is stereotyping. A stereotype is when people are grouped as being the same. There has always been stereotyping, and while some people break stereotypes or do not believe in them, there is still a number of people who do. Being stereotyped can make people want to act like what they are stereotyped as. Being stereotyped can slowly change how you act and who you are. Trying to break stereotypes, Lennie and George, Slim, Crooks, and Curley’s wife go against the norm for people like them in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Steinbeck shows that discrimination can lead to aggression in the novel, Of Mice and Men, through the character Lennie. Lennie tries to explain to George that he doesn’t try to kill the mice, but he ends up killing them anyway; “I’d pet ‘em and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead-because they was so little” (Steinbeck 10). Lennie wants the comfort of having something to take care of even if it is just a mouse. George doesn’t understand why Lennie wants to pet the mouse and discriminates him for it, making Lennie act aggressively. Lennie says they died “because they was so little” and that he didn’t mean to act aggressively, but since he was discriminated, he killed the mouse. When Lennie…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jobless, homeless, and unable to support themselves, many farmers during the 1930’s moved west in search of better life. In John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men, readers observe how dreams keep people motivated; especially through tough times. Steinbeck’s characters George Milton and Lennie Small, search for work in the struggling agricultural market of California. Although there are many hardships that the men face, both George and Lennie have a dream that they are determined to accomplish. Despite Lennie’s lack of social boundaries and the hardships of the Great Depression, it is the dream that they have together that keeps them motivated.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A member of society is an intelligent, white male. At least that is thought to be the norm during the 1930s. If someone were not to fit into those categories, he or she is considered inferior to society. They would be taunted or simply ignored. In Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men, the theme of discrimination is best represented by the characters of Lennie, Crooks, and Curley's wife. The characters having their own reason of being out casted.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    During the 1930s the American dream was more present in the lives of civilians due to the great depression. Various characters have dreams that they use to escape loneliness. George and lennie share the dream of owning a plot of land and tending rabbits. Curley’s wife dreams of being a movie star however crooks dreams of being equal to everyone. During the novella the dreams are constantly under threat from loneliness, in every case the dreams give in to loneliness and characters find themselves being attacked from it.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Great Gatsby

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In The Great Gatsby, we are faced with many interpretations of the American Dream. The American Dream is often seen achievable in different ways than others. The rebellious, middle aged, wealthy individuals have already achieved their own interpretation of the American Dream. Whereas the working class, in The Valley of Ashes, is still trying to obtain the motivation to find their own American Dream. Throughout The Great Gatsby, one might find that the idea of the American Dream is good, but the process of obtaining the American Dream is corrupt.…

    • 534 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Overall, Steinbeck uses these characters as a way to show what getting the American Dream was like for a person who was not white, young, and physically/mentally able to do anything. This gives more of a reality of what the American Dream really was. It was not so easy in the first place, but it was especially hard for the people that did not fit its standard. People like Lennie, Crooks, and Candy were three types of people that was seen as outcasts and people that should not be in society. To conclude, The American Dream was designed for a specific face that had no physical and mental…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays