Of Mice and Men Essay
Yo. It’s been a while. I’ve always said I was quite an irregular poster.
But I’m here to post what I consider to be one of my greatest achievements to date, 5th March 2017.
I just completed a 1.5k+ word essay on the book ‘Of Mice and Men’, on the modified topic question of “Every good story needs a hero.” Does Of Mice and Men have a ‘hero’ character? And if so, who is it and why?
I’d like to dedicate this essay to Sian for their help in coming up with ideas for some of the harder characters like Curley, and believing that I could write this in a day, which I did manage.
Here we go. This is a whole days worth of work for me. I’m off to bed now.
Not all stories have a clear and defined ‘hero’ character, but that does not mean that the story is a ‘bad’ one. A story does not have to have a single ‘hero’ character, rather all characters are heroes in their own way. Each character is both ‘good’ and ‘bad’, there is no totally bad or totally good, only an in-between. Being a hero is a subjective, a singular reader’s perspective differs to the next.
A mere stablehand. A nigger. Proud. Aloof. Crooks the negro stable-buck was segregated from the fellowship of man that existed in the close quarters of the bunk house. He lived in a totally different world to what we in exist in now. Here in modern Sydney, the level of discrimination and hatred that was directed towards him over the course of his lifetime, made worse by his hunched back would not have been stood for, it’s more than barely legal, it’s prosecutable. The racial discrimination and slurs went above and beyond what anyone should ever have to go through, and yet he persisted. He knew that if he kept to himself, and left the white men alone, the racial language and actions against him wouldn’t be as bad, but no matter what he did it would always be there. Unescapable. The way he treats his possessions shows that if he had anyone willing to befriend him that he wouldn’t treat them like the dirt he was considered to be. His patience in such a dire time is truly indicative of a hero waiting for his time to come.
Mrs Curley, AKA Curley’s wife as she is simply known to us, was shown as nothing more than a tart and a whore though her provocative behaviour is most likely a hidden desire for fulfilling her personal dreams and hopes of a man to love and take care of her, as seen in the barn in Chapter 5 when she lets Lennie stroke her hair. Her own weaknesses led to her death, it’s a classic Aristotle model of tragedy in which the hero is seriously flawed, taking them down the path to their own downfall. Mrs Curley’s plans to seduce the ranchers failed, ultimately ending in her tragic death at Lennie’s hands, a pristine example of Robert Burns “the best laid plans of mice and men / often go awry” from the 1785 poem ‘To A Mouse’.
Candy’s name is one of the most fitting in Of Mice & Men. The soft-spoken amputee is the first character we meet on the ranch. From the moment he met George and Lennie, he welcomed them, though he may have simply dismissed them as just another couple a’ men passing through, until he hears George and Lennie’s dream. His heroic offering of his money to fund the purchase of their dream land is exemplary of a self-less man who simply wishes to see others reach their goals. When he and George discover the body of Curley’s wife, he aids George in the cover-up of her death, giving us a glimpse of his mindset that if he were to be discovered it wouldn’t matter, he was coming close to his time to go, similar to his dog.
In the novella of Of Mice and Men, Carlson, one of the ranch workers there at the time of George and Lennie’s stay and is more one of the silent background with a few standout scenes. His first scene in which we get a real glance of who Carlson is as a person is when he convinces Candy that his dog should be put out of its misery. Carlson’s forcing of Candy’s hand, as well as getting others in bunkhouse such as Slim who carries power, was all in name of the dog, who being “all stiff with rheumatism” wouldn’t have had a good life in the lead up to his shooting as his health deteriorated, and it would have declined as the weeks and months past. The dog’s combined conditions were not only detrimental to itself but detrimental to the health of those in the bunkhouse who had to share close quarters with the canine. Carlson as an occupant of the small, tight, shared quarters was heroic in that the diseases the dog could very well have easily transferred to one of the workers and spread like wildfire throughout the farm. He went after Lennie for the same reason that he went after Candy’s dog. He believed Lennie was threatening to the farm rancher’s lifestyle.
The boss’ son. Temperamental. Curley is hard to view as a hero and likeable from a modern day perspective, but if we were to be transported back in time to the Great Depression with the same mindset and knowledge of the local lads at the time and gone through the same struggles to survive that they suffered, he would truly be considered heroic in his actions and dead-set revenge wish to get back at the one who had taken his wife from their world, a true 'manly' quality for that time period. Though he is constantly antagonistic of the fellow workers, believing himself to be above the others, with the possible exception of Slim, he was simply acting on his testosterone and the reactants or stressors in his life.
The strong and silent character of this novel is clearly Slim. Slim’s longtime role on the farm is being the jerkline skinner, the job of head mule skinner. Though on the farm his position commanded respect, his word taken for granted along with his authority on any subject, his personality was quiet, asking for no trouble, kind. His gentle temperament has a high chance of being one of the reasons he kept his bitch’s pups. Many in that time would have shot them or sold them off for anyone willing to buy them as it was hard times and men did what they could to get by. Although he joins the other men in the whorehouse, all have their flaws and weaknesses. True heroes care for all man and animal kind and treat them as equals. Both Slim and Carlson show this trait. Slim didn’t want to go after Lennie, but as he’s still just a worker on the ranch and could be fired at a moment’s notice. Our jerkline skinner didn’t retaliate when Curley went after him believing Slim was getting down and dirty with his wife behind his back, he defended the innocent Lennie who had no idea what he was doing.
The first to speak in Of Mice and Men was George calling Lennie’s name, trying to keep his companion from making himself sick. He became an unknown hero from the very moment in which he took on Lennie as his companion and cared for him after his Aunt Clara died. George himself laments in Chapter 1 on what he could do if he didn’t have Lennie weighing him down, though he almost regrets his monologue when he inwardly realises that no matter what he says to Lennie, no matter how often he rants and gets mad at Lennie, Lennie is never going to remember. George’s protectiveness of Lennie and valiant efforts to keep him out of trouble shows that he does care for Lennie and tries to keep him out of trouble, it’s just impossible to be guarding Lennie 24/7. In putting Lennie out of his misery, George saved him from the only other two possible options he had. Lennie could have gone away to jail to most likely face the capital punishment of death for killing another. His only other option would have been death by another rifle at the hands of Curley, tortured and murdered in cold blood. George’s actions saved from a world of pain, when he pulled the trigger on the Luger aimed at Lennie’s head, he in a way heroically saved his friend a world of pain and suffering. Took him away from impending misery once and for all.
The simple-minded and endearing abominable snowman from Looney Tunes is unforgettable when he picks up Daffy Duck and says “I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him.” The easily lovable snowman was based on this character, whose last name is ironic when you consider his physical frame. His physical frame definitely does not indicate his demeanour though. Lennie has his dreams and hopes for a better future just like any other of the other characters. He’s the most likeable thanks to his childlike simplicity which masks and hides nothing of his thought process from the world. His kindness and innocence show him as an unlikely hero if like many, we took each character at first glance and the levels of meanness shown by the others compared to the softness of Lennie.
Our subconscious’ automatically root for the best heroes, although not all are easily likeable at the first meeting, e.g Severus Snape in Harry Potter who we later learn held grudges toward Harry due to his parents actions and others misgivings around him. We as readers must learn to adapt our behaviour when reading, and not automatically jump to conclusions about characters and their ulterior motives before they have even finished a conversation.