Themes

“Fame and fortune is everyones dream. When reading John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men I noticed the theme of having the ideal American Dream comes up more than once. A lot of the characters often wonder what life would be like if they had a family, fortune, and even fame.

First, there’s the idea of having a family. George, and Lennie are often seen as brothers, or even cousins as George once said, but they would seem more like a family if they had a permanent home. It’s George’s dream to buy his own little farm, for himself and Lennie. When reading this book, they even invited Candy to join them because of his old age. Lennie is obsessed with tending with the rabbits, and possibly getting his own dog. George on the other hand will have a garden and basically run things. With their money all put together they desire a better life for themselves.

Alongside the ideal of family, fortune is also a theme of this great novel. The boss, for example still makes money regardless of being in a depression. When readers first meet him, he comes off as “bossy” because George and Lennie are a day late, and he needed work to be done. George explains that the bus driver was too lazy to drive them all the way, but is interrupted when the boss tells him he doesn’t give a damn. The only thing the boss is good for, is giving food, shelter and pay . His main priority is do the work, so you can make me money, no matter what it takes.

Fame, at times we all want it, believe it or not! A character in the book that probably wanted it more than anyone was in fact Curly’s wife. Being the only women on a ranch must get lonely at times, and all she wanted was someone to talk to. The guys see her as promiscuous, but in all honestly she just wanted a friend. She got a chance to have a friend when she talked to Lennie about her dreams. Lennie being the first person she ever told, she explained how she wanted to become a movie star, and a guy she met was going to make that happen. Being so naïve she believed him and it never happened. Because her dream of being a famous movie star never happened she’s stuck at a ranch being married to Curly. Maybe if her dream could’ve come true, she may actually have an identity!

Basically, Of Mice and Men is a novel about the American Dream which everyone wants. Money family and even fame. If you ever want to expand your horizons and read something very intelligent, read this book. It has a lot of drama and teaches you life lessons at the same time.

Of Mice And Men Motifs

A motif of, Of Mice and Men is the feel of loneliness and the need for companionship from a few of the characters in this book. The characters that has this feeling the most is Curly’s wife, George, and Candy, who all, first start out with a companion but is soon found in loneliness.Even though she is married to Curly, Curly’s wife is lonely. Curly is very cruel to her and is always out fighting to prove his manhood, so she is very lonely. Curly is always telling her to back into the house and then leaving her alone for hours.While Curly'ss wife is lonely, Candy is also lonely. Candy once had a dog who was his companion but, then the men decided that the dogwas too old. So, they shot Candy's dog. After the dog was shot Candy became reclusive and therefore became lonely.George is another character who is lonely. George traveled everywhere with Lennie, even Lennie says, " George and I go everywhere together." But at the end of the book George shots Lennie, so sadly George is then left alone.In, conclusion there were a lot of motifs in the story "Of Mice and Men". But the chararcter that has this feeling the most is Curly's Wife, George, and Candy.

Of Mice And Men Symbols (Grade)

You see symbols everyday but what are symbols and were do you find them? Most peoples response would be something like the signs on doors and signs you see in the street that tells you what to do with just showing a picture. However, symbols have a deeper meaning than the ones we see everyday, for example symbols in the book Of Mice and Men. The symbols in the book are not seen visually like most symbols. They are things, places, or even people that represent things in life. Three symbols in Of Mice and Men that I recognized are a farm, Curlys Wife, and Candy's dog.

Now, Everyone has a dream that they wish to come true. In Of Mice and Men Lennie, George, and Candy had a dream to own their own farm one day. The dream farm is a symbol. Its a symbol of peace and, success. To have their own farm meant that they would not have to deal with anyone else but them selves. They would be at peace in there own little harmony. Success would come from the ideal of being on their own. Being able to work for themselves, and not anybody else.

The next symbol I recognized is Curlies Wife. In the book she comes off as a very permiscuos girl who throws herself at every man she comes across. If you think about, its kind of like alot of young girls today. She meets a man who she thinks she loves and gives up all her hopes and dreams to be with him and in the long run she finally figures out that she isnt at all happy with the outcome of her life. However, she wasnt permiscuous at all, she was simply a lonely young girl seeking attention. When she couldnt get it from her husband she looked for it in anyone she cam across. When people actualyy gave her the time to talk instead of judging her, I noticed she simply wanted someone to talk to, and someone to care about her.

I even recognized a pet in the book as a symbol. Old man Candy's dog is a symbol. The dog is old, and helpless.The dog was stmelly and seemed as if he was going to fall out and die any minute. The men that knew Candy and his dog, figured that they should take the dog out of his misery. Candy being old his self, hesitated about this. But, eventually considered it. Candy's dog represents death and, the sadness of being useless. Since the dog was useless they killed him. Sadly thats how society looks at ederly. Old, useless, and smelly with no purpose. Also the dog could represent dreams that die. You try so hard for something but evetually it gets old and useless so you just forget about it.

After I finished reading Of Mice and Men I realized that life is full of symbols, much more than the signs we see in our everyday lives. Symbols can be people, a place, even a pet. Many Books do not have visual symbols, but things or places that represent as a symbol with meaning. This book was filled with symbols that represent peace, sucess, hope, oppurtunity, and even death.

Week 5 of service learning

This week Ms. Klose read us a letter from an email she received. A man is trying to create a DVD, video, or TV broadcasting about different groups participating in the Fundred Dollar bill project. The man wants to feature us in his media he is producing about the project. I was excited that he wants to feature us in it, but I think we should have a meeting discussing what we are going to say first because I'm still not completely sure about our exact goal and intentions of what were doing. I understand what were doing, however I don't understand how creating fundred dollars are going to help produce funds to help Katrina victims. She also told us that she got a printing company to provide us with the fundred dollars free of printing. We just have to come up with the big green paper, it will be a very difficult printing process.

Week 4 Of Service Learning

This week Fundred Dollar Bill group is trying to get donations from printer and banner companies. We are contacting banner companies so we could have banners to let other fundred dollar participants in the city know that we re also participating. The banner will hang outside our school. We need donations from printing companies so we can have the correct color ink for the fundred dollar bills. In order to complete this task we had to write a letter to a printing company that will be willing to give us free printing, or even printing at a low price. Not all of the group really wrote a letter, some started and never finished because honestly not all of us actually understand in depth what exactly we are suppose to be doing in this project. However we managed to get one good letter by putting together all different letters in the group to create one good one. Next week we will found out if they are willing to help or if we have to keep searching for more printing companies.

Week 3 of Service Learning

In service learning Ms. Klose took us to the library to get on the computers and do some research. We had to look up companies that would give us free printing and places that could donate oil for our project. We also had to look up ways to hold the oil. Also we had to look up different locations in Philly were we could set up the shop so people could come screate their fundred dollar bills. There wasn't much time to do this, especially because we werent on task the whole time. However I Look forward to next week so I can continue my research and write my letters to different companies.

Week 2 Of Service Learning

This week we talked about what exactly we were going to be doing and our goal. Our goal is to create 10,000 which is equivalent to 1,000,000 dollars. We are going to be going to different locations with fundred dollar bills and let people create their own to help Katrina victims and support the rebuild of New Orleans and help make the environment safe for the residents. She also told us about the background of this nation wide project. We talked about ways to get donations to help provide us with oil, free printing, and all the materials needed. We also came up with ways to get the materials we need to complete our task. We are going to go to different locations to see if they will donate oil. Also we are going to write letters to different people to see if they could donate money or free printing for the fundred dollar bills.