"Of Mice and Men"

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews the John Steinbeck novel "Of Mice and Men" about George and Lennie, two every-day Americans living and struggling during the Great Depression. The paper studies how Steinbeck enriches the novel with numerous conflicts, which are underscored by his use of foreshadowing. The overarching theme is the sharp contrast between the idealism and the reality people faced during this difficult time. The author of this paper goes on to explicate that theme into the following sub-topics: conflict of choice; conflict between good and bad; conflict between tragedy and fantasy; conflict between man and nature; conflict between truth and lies; conflict between responsibility and friendship; and finally, the conflict between characters.

From the Paper:

"The shooting of Candy's dog foreshadows the death of Lennie. For all it shows for friendship and loyalty it also shows how sometimes you have to do things you never thought you would do. For example in the end when George is forced to shoot Lennie in the head you would never have thought he would do that, but you can see that under the circumstances he had no other choice. He only had two choices let the other people get to him first and watch them torture Lennie while he died a long horrible death or do it himself and get it over quick were Lennie did not know what hit him. This is also true in life, many times we are faced with tuff choices and even though they may be the hardest you will have to go through, you know that that is the only way. You come to the realization that everything you thought you was about, can all change with a blink of the eye. It was a conflict of choice."

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