Of mice and men essay

Aaah I haven't studied this for a good few years, but as a general stucture I may set it out something like this:

Intro - What effect friendship has in the novel? What role it plays? Eg - you could say how it is used as a tool to bring characters closer and allows the characters to express their deeper wishes and desires. How friendship, at the time the novel is set, was not common as everyone was more 'every man for himself' and therefore exploring such a topic was quite.. rare.

Going into the main body - most obvious friendship is between George and Lennie.
- You could talk about how they view each other: George is the more dominant friend, free-thinking and able to make his own decisions and doesn't need to depend on Lennie; Lennie is dependant on George, has to have George there in order to make sure he doesn't do anything wrong etc., and what the friendship means to Lennie. - Refer back to the question and how this relationship between the two effectively portrays the theme of friendship

- Another possible discussion point is - the wife (the one that Lennie strangles - it's been ages since I studied the text and so I can't remember whose wife, her name and so on...) - her character clearly portrays the theme of friendship by showing how important friendship and companionship actually is. She has noone to talk to, noone to share her thoughts with. Maybe discuss women's position at the time the novel was wrote?

- There's also the black worker, I forgot his name too He could, arguably, highlight the importance of friendship and companionship. But I can't remember enough to elaborate on this.

- You'd obviously need to discuss more, I think, anyway. Depends how much you could write about the other things. Maybe after discussing how certain characters highlight the importance, you could show how the setting itself highlights it? If I remember correctly, Steinbeck uses a lot of natural imagery metaphorically to show how the characters are feeling at the time. Also, after Lennie strangles the wife lady thingy majig, there's a bit about how the light was far higher in the stable now - and light is considered positive i.e his and George's dream - therefore it is as if the dream is now out of reach. You could tie it in, possibly, if you talk about how other themes (of dreams, loneliness etc) help to further the theme of friendship.

Conclusion - basically just sum it all up. Say how Steinbeck overall presents the theme and which characters he does it though. Don't introduce any new points. Just keep it pretty brief, imo.




****, longest post I've left in a while. :\