The Student Room Group

Of Mice and Men AQA 23rd May

I noticed in Chapter 1 Steinbeck makes a lot of references to nature and the setting, even between the dialogue between George and Lennie
What was he trying to achieve by this?
And why do the chapters tend to end with reference to nature too?
Please help
basically yeah what man thinks yeah is that Steinbeck wanted to create a sense of peacefulness and bare idyllic and that and reflects the idea of the mandem george and lennie achieving their dreams. But then stuff like 'winters flooding' foreshadows the fact that their dreams fails bare peak still. when it says 'beaten hard' and all the description about george and lennie messing up the area, it symbolises mans destructive nature.

Bless up fam hope it helps still
To me, and I'll probably be a million miles off, the green nature symbolises freshness and fertility which perhaps this new scene shows the hope and the chance of a new opportunity after everything that had happened at Weed.

I may be pushing this too far, but, maybe linking to the fertility of the land could be used to contrast the Dust Bowl during 1930s America and how the over farming has caused the fertile top layer to erode and therefore making it unable to plant/grow crops ect. The intensive farming methods basically ruined the land in America and now George and Lennie are in a new place, where farming is possible. You could also add how there is more opportunities for different crops due to the extended growing season and stuff like that.
The nature described from Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 are the same but Steinbeck in Chapter 1 portrayed how heron leaves the water snake be in the pool, which suggests that anything is possible. By this the reader gets an idea that George's dream might be accomplished. However in Chapter 6, it describes how the heron kills the water snake which forshadows to Lennie's death. This indicates that the American Dream can never be real.
Reply 4
Original post by roadmanchasin£££
basically yeah what man thinks yeah is that Steinbeck wanted to create a sense of peacefulness and bare idyllic and that and reflects the idea of the mandem george and lennie achieving their dreams. But then stuff like 'winters flooding' foreshadows the fact that their dreams fails bare peak still. when it says 'beaten hard' and all the description about george and lennie messing up the area, it symbolises mans destructive nature.

Bless up fam hope it helps still


lool bruv what ur sayin acc makes sense still without all the roadman language
Original post by abbigm1
lool bruv what ur sayin acc makes sense still without all the roadman language


trust me man wants to be a lawyer in life so man can get justice for da bredrin behind bars. **** da police, **** racial profiling and **** institutional racism
Reply 6
Original post by danielwinstanley
To me, and I'll probably be a million miles off, the green nature symbolises freshness and fertility which perhaps this new scene shows the hope and the chance of a new opportunity after everything that had happened at Weed.

I may be pushing this too far, but, maybe linking to the fertility of the land could be used to contrast the Dust Bowl during 1930s America and how the over farming has caused the fertile top layer to erode and therefore making it unable to plant/grow crops ect. The intensive farming methods basically ruined the land in America and now George and Lennie are in a new place, where farming is possible. You could also add how there is more opportunities for different crops due to the extended growing season and stuff like that.


So could I say that the fertility of the land may be 'ruined' by the predatory nature of humans as it was in the Dust Bowl during 1930's America?
And that the idyllic nature portrays that attainable dream and gives the sense to the reader that the dream can be brought to fruition?

Your interpretations are great btw, thanks a lot!
Reply 7
Original post by LillySingh
The nature described from Chapter 1 and Chapter 6 are the same but Steinbeck in Chapter 1 portrayed how heron leaves the water snake be in the pool, which suggests that anything is possible. By this the reader gets an idea that George's dream might be accomplished. However in Chapter 6, it describes how the heron kills the water snake which forshadows to Lennie's death. This indicates that the American Dream can never be real.


Thank you so much this is really helpful!
Reply 8
Original post by abbigm1
I noticed in Chapter 1 Steinbeck makes a lot of references to nature and the setting, even between the dialogue between George and Lennie
What was he trying to achieve by this?
And why do the chapters tend to end with reference to nature too?
Please help


Hiya!
Steinbeck set out when writing the novella to give it a 'cyclic structure' - this means that the novel ends right where it began, and the characters are no better off. In order to achieve this, Steinbeck uses the same setting of the pool at the beginning of the novel and the end of the novel, but with some key differences - in the final chapter, the heron eats the water snake, the leaves are dying, the general tone of the description is darker, harsher - foreboding.

This cycle could have many meanings; it could represent the cycle of finding and losing a job that George and Lennie are trapped in, it could represent the gain and loss of hope in the American Dream, it could represent the purity of nature and that nature will continue past the brutality of man, or it could represent the repetition of migrant work. There are all kinds of meanings you could place on this structure, which is useful because it means it's a good comment to make for almost any of the themes that might come up.

The snake being killed is a final piece of foreshadowing for Lennie's death, and a harsh reminder of the brutality of life in the 1930s. It highlights that even this beautiful area of nature that was a place of tranquility and refuge for George and Lennie in the first chapter will now be tainted with brutality.

In this way, the most important use of the nature is to set the tone of the scene; the description in the first chapter creates a sense of calm and happiness, while the varied description of exactly the same place in the final chapter has the exact opposite effect.
Reply 9
Original post by CaptErin
Hiya!
Steinbeck set out when writing the novella to give it a 'cyclic structure' - this means that the novel ends right where it began, and the characters are no better off. In order to achieve this, Steinbeck uses the same setting of the pool at the beginning of the novel and the end of the novel, but with some key differences - in the final chapter, the heron eats the water snake, the leaves are dying, the general tone of the description is darker, harsher - foreboding.

This cycle could have many meanings; it could represent the cycle of finding and losing a job that George and Lennie are trapped in, it could represent the gain and loss of hope in the American Dream, it could represent the purity of nature and that nature will continue past the brutality of man, or it could represent the repetition of migrant work. There are all kinds of meanings you could place on this structure, which is useful because it means it's a good comment to make for almost any of the themes that might come up.

The snake being killed is a final piece of foreshadowing for Lennie's death, and a harsh reminder of the brutality of life in the 1930s. It highlights that even this beautiful area of nature that was a place of tranquility and refuge for George and Lennie in the first chapter will now be tainted with brutality.

In this way, the most important use of the nature is to set the tone of the scene; the description in the first chapter creates a sense of calm and happiness, while the varied description of exactly the same place in the final chapter has the exact opposite effect.


Thank you so much! How could I link this with the theme of loneliness?
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by abbigm1
Thank you so much! How could I link this with the theme of loneliness?


You could makybe talk about how, when George breaks the cycle by shooting Lennie and the futility of the American Dream is realised, George is left alone to a life of loneliness. I think it would be quite a vague link with loneliness really, but you could talk about how the cyclic structure of the novel shows that it was always fate that George would end up lonely because their friendship couldn't survive the brutalities of 1930s America. For this you could specifically link the heron and the watersnakes as a symbol for the brutality.

Hope that helps :smile:
Reply 11
Original post by CaptErin
You could makybe talk about how, when George breaks the cycle by shooting Lennie and the futility of the American Dream is realised, George is left alone to a life of loneliness. I think it would be quite a vague link with loneliness really, but you could talk about how the cyclic structure of the novel shows that it was always fate that George would end up lonely because their friendship couldn't survive the brutalities of 1930s America. For this you could specifically link the heron and the watersnakes as a symbol for the brutality.

Hope that helps :smile:


Thanks, could I link the cyclical structure with the bunk house rooms, how they only have 'Apple boxes' for their possessions reflecting how they aren't expected to bring any 'baggage' as they have an instability in their lives which means they have adjusted to a never-ending cycle of moving around?
and could I link it with when Whit speaks about Bill Tenner, as it shows how any relationships made are temporary as they do not fit with the cyclical nature of the lives of the ranch workers?
I'm not too sure if these make sense really :s-smilie:
Original post by abbigm1
Thanks, could I link the cyclical structure with the bunk house rooms, how they only have 'Apple boxes' for their possessions reflecting how they aren't expected to bring any 'baggage' as they have an instability in their lives which means they have adjusted to a never-ending cycle of moving around?
and could I link it with when Whit speaks about Bill Tenner, as it shows how any relationships made are temporary as they do not fit with the cyclical nature of the lives of the ranch workers?
I'm not too sure if these make sense really :s-smilie:


Obviously I'm not an examiner so I'm not too sure, but I would say that it fits there. It's good to mention the structure if you can because it really impresses the examiners apparently so if you can fit it in like you hvae in those examples I think it would be a good idea :smile:

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