Why Is of Mice and Men Described as a Tragic Novel?
I would regard the film mice and men as a tragic novel which is full of many dreams that don’t come true, and that being the overall message and tragedy throughout the story. Steinbeck represents tragedy in many events, through many of the characters, the main example of tragedy i would say to me would be the fact the characters George and Lennie have so much hope and dreams that all end in the worst. They have always been a team and George has always convinced Lennie that ‘We got a future.’ And always tells him the story: ‘ok, someday- we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs and..’. Every time Lennie hears this story it reassures him and cheers him up.
Lennie is described as a ‘huge man’ with ‘sloping shoulders’ with ‘large pale eyes’ who ‘walked heavily’ and is portrayed by Steinbeck as a child, who would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose. However its a tragedy to me to read that, because of the way Steinbeck has created his size and appearance many problems come his way and he doesn’t know what to do. Lennie often causes a lot of trouble without realising and gets very upset; he has always been shown to have a love of mice and anything soft and it is showed that he clearly loves and cares about these things. On the travel back from weed George discovers Lennie has a dead mouse hidden in his pocket and takes it away from him, Lennie gets upset by this and explains that he didn’t kill him: ‘ i didn’ kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.’ ‘I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.’ However it’s clear that Lennie did kill him but by accident when he was petting him because he is so strong. Lennie also kills a puppy later on in the story and Curly’s wife which are also accident because of the strength of himself. ‘I didn’t mean no harm, George.’
However there is not only tragedy in these characters but Steinbeck also shows it through other characters like Curly
Lennie is described as a ‘huge man’ with ‘sloping shoulders’ with ‘large pale eyes’ who ‘walked heavily’ and is portrayed by Steinbeck as a child, who would never do anything to hurt anyone on purpose. However its a tragedy to me to read that, because of the way Steinbeck has created his size and appearance many problems come his way and he doesn’t know what to do. Lennie often causes a lot of trouble without realising and gets very upset; he has always been shown to have a love of mice and anything soft and it is showed that he clearly loves and cares about these things. On the travel back from weed George discovers Lennie has a dead mouse hidden in his pocket and takes it away from him, Lennie gets upset by this and explains that he didn’t kill him: ‘ i didn’ kill it. Honest! I found it. I found it dead.’ ‘I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.’ However it’s clear that Lennie did kill him but by accident when he was petting him because he is so strong. Lennie also kills a puppy later on in the story and Curly’s wife which are also accident because of the strength of himself. ‘I didn’t mean no harm, George.’
However there is not only tragedy in these characters but Steinbeck also shows it through other characters like Curly