Of Mice And Men Comparative Analysis

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Paul Andress
Dr. Whitney
Honors English 10
12 September 2014
Imperfect Society in Lord of the Flies and Of Mice and Men
All societies have flaws and imperfections. These can be found through the people;who are in the society, through the way the society is run, or through the way the people in the society act with one another. Both John Steinbeck, in Of Mice and Men, and William Golding, in Lord of the Flies, use characterization to show flaws in society and in men. However, Steinbeck uses third person objective point of view to develop his characters, while Golding uses third person omniscient point of view.

Steinbeck and Golding both use characterization to show flaws in society and in men. Golding develops characters
For instance in the story he said, “I’m chief!” (Golding 181) before hurling a spear at Ralph, who refused to join Jack’s tribe. Steinbeck introduces
Curley in Of Mice and Men. Curley is a bully who always picks on Lennie. Curley said to
Lennie before attacking him, “Come on, ya big bastard. Get up on your feet. No big sonof-a bitch is gonna laugh at me. I’ll show ya who’s yella” (Steinbeck 62). The reader can identify these characters with people in real life who are bullies or have flaws.

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Steinbeck uses third person objective point of view to develop his characters.
Third person objective point of view allows the reader to see and hear everything that is going on in the story. However, this point of view does not allow the reader to see the thoughts and inner feelings of the character. He gives the reader enough information about each character to know how the characters are perceived by each other. He also gives the reader the opportunity to come up with their own opinion of the characters true, inner motives. Here is an example of how Steinbeck presents his story: “And
George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the
This forces the reader to form an opinion on George’s motives for this action. This is how
Steinbeck uses third person objective to develop his characters.

Golding uses third person omniscient point of view to develop his characters.
Third person omniscient point of view allows the reader to see everything, and it allows the reader to see all of the characters thoughts and inner motives. This controls what the reader’s think about the characters more than it would if it was third person objective. With this point of view, Golding can choose what characters he wants the reader to side with. Here is an example of how Golding presents his story: “Once more Ralph dreamed, letting his skillful feet deal with the difficulties of the path. Yet here his feet seemed less skillful than before” (Golding 185). This gives the reader all the information there is to know. This is how Golding uses third person omniscient to develop his characters.

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Each of these characters that Golding and Steinback develop have flaws. The way the characters are presented show how flawed they are. For example, Curley is