Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck : résumé par chapitre et analyse

« Julie Zilio 4S1 Of Mice and Men Example of introduction: Good afternoon, today I am going to present you an extract of Of Mice and Men which is a novel written by John Steinbeck in 1937.

John Steinbeck was an American author who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962 and lived in America during the economic depression in the 1930s.

A lot of his work is about American life during this period, including this novel. The novel takes place in California and tells the story of two men called George and Lennie who are looking for some job.

Lennie seems to have a mental illness, so George takes care of him, they always travel and work together.

At the beginning of the book, the 2 men arrives in a farm, where they will work for a moment. This extract is just after… and before… In this extract, … First, I am going to talk about…, then I am going to analyse … and finally I am going to present… Analysis by chapters:  Chapter 1: Summary: The story starts with a description of the nature.

Two men are walking in the forest, it’s George who is small and sharp-featured and Lennie, that is large (opposite). As they reach a clearing, Lennie stops to drink from the river, George warns him not to drink too much or he will get sick, as he did the night before.

As their conversation continues, it becomes clear that the larger man has an intellectual disability, and that his companion looks out for his safety.

George begins to complain about the bus driver who dropped them off a long way from their intended destination: a ranch on which they are due to begin work.

George notices that Lennie is holding a dead mouse and takes it away from him.

Lennie insists that he is not responsible for killing the mouse, but he throws it across the stream.

George warns Lennie that they are going to work on a ranch, and that he must behave himself when they meet the boss.

George does not want any trouble of the kind they encountered in Weed. George decides that they will stay in the clearing for the night.

Lennie crosses the stream and recovers the mouse, only to have George find him Julie Zilio 4S1 out immediately and take the mouse away again.

Apparently, Lennie’s Aunt Clara used to give him mice to pet, but he tends to “break” small creatures unintentionally when he shows his affection for them because he doesn’t know his own strength.

George complains that he could get along much better if he didn’t have to care for Lennie.

He uses the incident that got them chased out of Weed as a case in point.

Lennie, a lover of soft things, stroked the fabric of a girl’s dress, and would not let go.

The locals assumed he assaulted her and ran them out of town. After this tirade, George feels sorry and apologizes by telling Lennie’s favourite story, the plan for their future happiness.

As soon as they manage to save enough money, they will buy a farm together.

They will grow their own food, raise livestock, and keep rabbits, which Lennie will tend.

This familiar story cheers both up.

As night falls, George tells Lennie that if he encounters any trouble while working at the ranch, he is to return to this clearing, hide in the bushes, and wait for George to come. Analysis: o Relationship: George takes care of Lennie, who is childlike and mentally handicapped, constantly giving him advice and instructions  George acts as a parent toward Lennie: He treats Lennie as one would treat a child, he laughs a great deal at Lennie's words, and because he knows how much Lennie likes soft things, he promises to try to get Lennie a puppy and to let him care for the rabbits when they finally get their own ranch. o The clearing into which Lennie and George are at the beginning evokes Eden (serenity and beauty).

It opens the novella with an idyllic scene, it creates a background for the idealised friendship between the men and introduces the romanticised dream of farm life that they share  Opposition between the opening pages that establish purity and perfection and the nature that is cruel and predatory o Nature: when the 2 men arrive, they disturb nature.

At first, they aren’t named, it’s a cinematographic way to enter the novel.

The chapter starts and ends with a description of nature.

There is a lot of animals (predators), which contrasts the idyllic idea of the description.  The 2 men arrive in a predatory world.

The natural world is a reflexion about the human world.

Who are they going to kill? Are they going to be killed?  Therabbits are hinting at the predatory world that will finally destroy Lennie and George’s dream. o The American dream: they live to achieve their dream, which is to have a little farm, produce their own food… they see themselves Julie Zilio 4S1 together in the future which shows their friendship.

George reminds this story to Lennie to cheer him up.  This piece of land represents a world in which the two men can live together just as they are, without dangers and without apologies.  Past: work in Weed  Present: Looking for a job  Future: American dream and their farm  Chapter 2: Summary: George and Lennie reach the ranch and inspect the bunk house where they will be staying.

There they meet Candy, the old swamper, who is missing his right hand and who is constantly followed by his old sheep dog.

From Candy they learn about the previous tenant, the boss; the boss’s son, Curley; Curley’s wife; and the stable buck, Crooks.

While in the bunk house our protagonists also meet the boss, Curley, Curley’s wife, Slim, and Carlson.

When the boss meets George and Lennie, he thinks they are up to something because George doesn’t let Lennie talk.

George talks his way out of it by making up an excuse for Lennie’s mental deficiency and praising his ability to work.

In this chapter we learn that Curley is a mean little guy who was a boxer and who is recently married.

He doesn’t like Lennie right away, supposedly because Lennie is bigger than Curley. Curley’s wife is pretty and she is also a flirt.

She shows this when she visits the bunkhouse with the excuse of searching for Curley.

George has a bad feeling about both Curley and his wife, and he tells Lennie to avoid them as much as possible.

When the other ranchers return from the fields for dinner, Slim and Carlson enter the bunkhouse and introduce themselves. Slim’s dog just had a litter of puppies the night before.

Carlson suggests that Slim give one of his puppies to Candy so that they can get rid of the old dog who smells and has many health problems.

During this discussion, Lennie gets excited and before going to dinner asks George to ask Slim for one of his pups.

George and Lennie are supposed to join Slim’s team after dinner to return to the field and buck barley. Julie Zilio 4S1 Analysis: o Hierarchy: We can notice that there are a lot of inequalities which sets up a hierarchy and social classes: Boss, Curley, Curley’s wife > Workers > Stable buck  We can make a parallel with the natural world (Darwinian world = the strongest survive) and the human world.

There are predators and preys: the strongest survive and the weakest die.  The stable buck (garçon d’écurie): He’s a black man and the boss is very mean to him.

He must sleep in the stable and they don’t let him sleep and come in the dunk house. o Male friendship: The other workers find suspicious that Lennie and George travel together because it’s very unusual in this world, you can trust no one, you have to be strong and show it (because they leave in a Darwinian world and usually it’s a competitive world in which you need to show that you are stronger than the others one), for them if you travel with someone it shows that you are weak because you need someone  Solitude and independence are values in this world. o American dream: They need something to believe in, the description of the bunk house doesn’t give want to live there, it’s very functional.

Even when it’s difficult, they have their dream, the American dream, the need something to believe in.  Same idea as “Sugarcandy mountain” in Animal Farm o Curley’s wife : She is defined by her role: Curley's wife or possession.

Curley's wife knows her beauty is her power, and she uses it to flirt with the ranch hands and make her husband jealous.

She wants to be the centre of attention and this is her only.... »