Wjec of mice and men essay please mark :

Hello this is WJEC ENGLISH LITERATURE FOUNDATION question please mark and give me a score out of /20 it's foundation
the question is
'Write about why reader may feel sympathy towards Lennie at the following points of Of Mice And men

Thanks you please mark
Steinbeck deliberately creates Lennie to provoke feelings into the reader to emphasise their feelings about him. In this essay I am going to write about why readers may feel sympathy for Lennie.


Steinbeck from the start of the novel clearly evokes to the reader that Lennie is mentally disabled and has the mind of a child, this makes the reader feel sorry for him merely because he is disabled. But Steinbeck then shows us how he has the exact mind of a child as he shows us how Lennie is entertained by making circles in water , which again sympathises with the reader as they feel morally sorry as he didn't choose to be disabled. Steinbeck also deliberately makes Lennie's life revolve around George, he is his role model and listens to everything he says that It is clear at the start that Lennie listens to him and is controlled by him as he "copied him exactly" which demonstrates the intelligence failure, he is also referred to animals , "like a horse" , "bear dragged his paws" , Steinbeck deliberately does this to portray to the reader his intelligence and how he barely has the moral between right and wrong .


At the beginning of the novel wee see how George is frustrated at Lennie a lot and how he takes a parental role for Lennie "Don't drink so fast" this emphasises to the reader on how Lennie can not fend for himself. We also see how Lennie is big and strong and cannot help it but always gets into trouble, we know this as George says to him not to say anything when they arrive at the ranch. He doesn't even let him carry his work card " think I'd let you carry your" this proves to the reader how he incapable of everyday scenarios , which makes the reader feel sympathy towards him. As he is in the middle of the Great Depression where jobs , money life is scarce and friendships were unknown. it makes the the reader worry as without George he would be useless.


Steinbeck also makes the reader feel sympathy towards Lennie as he cannot even stick up for him self verbally "let the big guy talk" Curly lashes out on Lennie as soon as he sees him as he does not like bigger people than him. And when he does this George is needed again to communicate for him , which again makes the reader feel empathy towards Lennie . Furthermore Steinbeck makes the reader sympathise with Lennie as he always manages to get himself into trouble. This is made clear when Curly accuses Slim for talking to his wife , and everyone takes the opportunity to assault Curly. During this Curly sees his chance to take out Lennie "I'll show ya who's a yella belly" and punches Lennie. This makes the reader sympathise for Lennie as he looks at George "for instructions " which again shows how he cannot make basic decisions or defend for himself without George saying so. The reader feels sympathy for Lennie here as she he pleads child's to George again "Didnt want to hurt him" this shows the reader that it was out of fear and wasn't out of anger. It also shows how he gets into trouble at times in which he doesn't do anything or mean to do anything. Shortly after this he accidentally kills a puppy and the only thing he thinks about is what George will say " he won't let me tend the rabbits "this again emphasises the simple mind function and the importance of George in his life.


Then after this the desperate "Curley's wife" who is a victim of loneliness seeks intimacy and her chance to have a conversation with Lennie to relive her mental sate. However a married women and a retarded man isn't going to end up well, and it doesn't. Lennie end up killing Curley's wife after getting frightened. This again shows how he is a misfit in society and how he doesn't belong on a ranch as he is getting into trouble even at times he didn't want to or even mean to. And after this he does exactly what George tells him to and gets joyful that he remembers. This emphasises on how George is his guardian and how he almost owns him. After this Lennie psychologically imagines his Aunt Clara and a talking rabbit they thrash him and say he doesn't listen to George and how he George isn't going to let him"tend the rabbits" this demonstrates how Lennie is just like a child as in the break of insanity he still thinks about tending rabbits and still worries about what George is going to say to him. This highlights Lennie's weak brain and again emphasises how important George is in his life. This makes the reader feel sympathy towards him as his life would be misery without George .


However after this George comes and has to make a breathtaking decision as he knows that Lennie has done a devastating thing but he has to eventually has to shoot him because he knows Curley is going to shoot him "in the gut" which indicates a slow painful death. However the reader feels sympathy towards Lennie as he dies in happiness thinking of his dream "tending the rabbits" . The reader also feels sorry for him as he is a misfit in society and is not the type of person who should be working in a ranch .

Hey there, I'm not a teacher or anything but I got a high B in my GCSE last year and I was on the WJEC exam board too. I'm also now doing English at college so hopefully that should mean I can give you some accurate feedback.

Your essay is pretty good, it does what the question asks and you throw some good vocabulary in there. It also makes sense grammatically, too. I wouldn't stress about the essay you've written; it seems good and personally I would give it a C and at the very least a harsh marker would give you a high D. Chances are you'll get a C with this so well done.

Seeing as I'm here to impart some wisdom upon you, here's some advice for doing these sorts of essays.
-Always make sure you cover the bullet points when given; it's what they want to see in your essay.
-Don't go too off topic
-Make sure you're answering the question at all times; it's easy to stray from this in essays such as this but make sure you stay on track. For example, if the question is "Show how Steinbeck uses____" make sure you write stuff like "Steinbeck uses___ to show___" in there; it's where a lot of people in my Year 10 class went wrong when we did this.

Hope this helps you c:

Oh I'm doing foundation tier so a c is good do you have any idea of what topic might come up