Comparing of mice and men with the withered arm Essay

Introduction Of mice and men is a novel written in a based in America during the depression. It was written by John Steinbeck and set on a ranch in Soledad, a small rural area in California. This eye-opening tale is based on two contrasting men, George, a small, intelligent yet modest man and Lenny, as big as a bull and as strong as an ox, but seemingly mentally challenged, who travelled around with each other working as ranch hands to earn enough money to eventually own their own piece of land and succeed in living the American dream. The withered arm is a short story written by the legendary author John Steinbeck. It is set is Wessex (the south west of England) and is based around four main characters; Rhoda Brook, a milkmaid on a dairy, her son, Farmer Lodge, the owner of the dairy and father to Rhoda Brooks child and Gertrude Lodge, the young wife of Farmer Lodge. All of these characters feel isolated due to their social status yet between them there is an unfortunate set of events involving witchcraft, superstition and death About the authors-John Steinbeck John Steinbeck grew up in California in the early 1900’s. There he attended school, university and worked on a ranch. This is where he got the inspiration for the short novel ‘Of mice and men’. Working a ranch hand he saw up close and personally the kind of events he speaks of in his book, which is why he is capable of bringing the characters he uses to life. He wrote such other stories as the pearl, the red pony and the moon is down Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy was brought in Dorset in the mid 1800’s. He lived with family in a small cottage and like most children of his generation worked manually from a very young. The inspiration for his short stories and novels came from his grandmother’s tales. He would sit in front of the fire in his home and listen to the ‘old wives tales’ she would tell him. The withered arm is one such memory he has shared with us in his exceptional writings. When Hardy was old enough he moved to London where he lived with electricity, telephoned and other luxuries he had never experienced as a child. Although he came to know London, the lifestyle and the people very well, it was in the past he knew about only from old stories that he chose to base his exceptional tales Show how effectively these stories reflect the times they were set in. Examine character settings and social condition There are several themes to include in this essay, loneliness, dreams, and the role of women. These are just a few of many I will discuss Dreams are an important factor in both stories and I will explain why First of all what is a dream according to the Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Third Edition a dreams are a Train of thoughts, images, or fancies passing through mind during sleep; Conscious indulgence of fancy, reverie, thing of dream-like beauty, charm, goodness, etc. As it is described above, a dream is something you indulge in, to escape momentarily from life. This seems to be the context that John Steinbeck intended his characters in Of Mice and Men to dream in. The role of dreams in of mice and men is incredibly important. After the Wall Street crash hundreds of men became unemployed and had to travel around working as ranch hands for a bit of cash. And most of these people had what is known as the great American dream, to own their own bit of land where they can live work and be proud of, something they could call their own. These ranch hands or ‘bindle stiffs’ as they became known had nothing apart from what they could carry in their bindle. All their earthly possessions were kept wrapped in a piece of cloth and had to be light enough so that they could walk around with it where ever they went. George shared the great American dream and believed that one day he would be able to achieve it. Lenny was incredibly simple minded and forgetful, much like a young child. He only remembered what he wanted to remember which in his case was â€Å"tending the rabbits† and live with George on their own piece of land. When we are first introduced to George and Lenny’s dream it is clear that they have spoken of it many a time before. Lenny shows the excitement of an eager child on Christmas morning just at the thought of being in the place he so longed to be. To us their dream sounds very simple but for them if it was to happen it would literally be a dream come true, this is the section from where we are first introduced to the dream; â€Å"Some day – we’re gonna get a jack together and were gonna have a little house and a couple of an’ a cow and some pigs and—-â€Å" â€Å"An’ live of the fatta the lan† Lenny shouted. â€Å"An’ have rabbits. Go on George! Tell about what we’re gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and the rain in the winter and the stove, and thick cream is on the milk like you can hardly cut it. Tell about that, George.† â€Å"Why’n’t you do it yourself. You know all of it.† No. . . you tell it. It ain’t the same if I tell it. Go on . . . George. How I get to tend the rabbits.† â€Å"Well,† said George. â€Å"We’ll have a big vegetable patch and a hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we’ll just say the hell with goin’ to work and we’ll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an’ listen to the rain comin’ down on the roof-Nuts!† The key line in that section is when Lenny says â€Å"An’ live of the fatta the lan† That sentence rounds up the great American dream, to be able to live on your own land and look after yourself. Lenny, with his child-like mentality, believes whatever he hears, so when George tells him that they will really get their own land, he believes with all his heart. To Lenny, the question is not if, but when: â€Å"George, how longà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s it gonna be till we get that little place anà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ live on the fatta the lanà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ – anà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ rabbits?† However George is really keeping Lenny sweet because he knows how difficult and unlikely fulfilling the dream would. That is why he shows so much surprise in the bunk-house when candy gets involved and eventually says; â€Å"S’pose I went in with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?† George was very defensive at first but eventually adapted to the idea. The section goes on; they fell into a silence. They looked at one another, amazed. This thing they had never really believed in was coming true. George said reverently, â€Å"Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her† The line underlined in that section is extremely important because however much George and Lenny spoke of this dream, unlike Lenny, George new the likelihood of it actually happening was extremely improbable but now he could see the light at the end of the tunnel. This dream had been based on a kind of fantasy, the way a 10 year old boy fantasises of playing football for England, you always think about but never expect it to happen, and George shock and delight in their new found wealth to put towards this home is clear when he says reverently â€Å"Jesus Christ! I bet we could swing her.† Candy does not seem to have a dream until he meets George and Lenny. He is swept up in the plausible reality of this dream, a dream he would probably be too scared to initiate by himself. Candy is not happy with his life on the ranch, but he doesn’t think that there is anything that he can do but now the three men really have something to aim for which is within reasonable sight, they are expecting a dream come true George and Lenny’s dream is the most potent throughout Of Mice and Men but it isn’t the only one Curleys wife’s dream was to be in the movies and star in a Hollywood epic as is shown when she says; â€Å"Nother time a met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers. Went out to the Riverside dance palace with him. He says he was gonna put me in the movies. Says I was a natural. Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.† She looked closely at Lenny to see if she was impressing him. â€Å"I never got that letter,† She said. â€Å"I always thought my ol’ lady stole it. Well I wasn’t gonna stay no place†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Whether or not the letter was sent she stood by her dream and wouldn’t accept that she might not have made it on to the silver screen. Also Crooks, the coloured stable buck made a point of his a dream, the thing he wanted above any thing else was companionship and equal rights. This is shown when he speaks to Lenny whilst the others are in town. In this conversation his jealousy of Lenny’s race, and of his relationship with George are quite clearly shown. This is what he says; â€Å"George can tell you screwy things and it don’t matter. It’s just the talking. It’s just bein’ with another guy. That’s all.† He Paused His voice grew soft and persuasive. â€Å"S’pose George don’t come back no more. S’pose George went into town to-night and you never heard him no more.† Crooks pressed forward in some kind of private victory. â€Å"Just s’pose that.† He repeated Crooks goes on â€Å"torturing† Lenny speaking about George not coming back until Lenny goes on the offensive and questions Crooks. When Crooks senses he could be in danger he backs off and goes on to say â€Å"Maybe you can see now. You got George. You know he’s goin’ to come back. S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go in to the bunk-house and play rummy ’cause you was black. How’d you like that? S’pose you had to sit out here an’ read books. Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him.† He whined. â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya,† he cried. â€Å"I tell ya a guy gets too lonely, an’ he gets sick Crooks speaks to opens his heart to Lenny even though he said he didn’t even want him there, but that last speech shows Crooks’ envy for what George and Lenny have and how his dream is to be around people and be cast aside just because he â€Å"Just some nigger†. This envy however comes out at first in anger, which also shows the jealousy coming through for what the two friends have In the withered arm John Steinbeck reflects the time his novel is set in through the implication of dreams through different characters. George and Lenny have the great American dream which was shared by millions during the depression, Curleys wife dreams of being a movie star, and as the film industry really kicked off during the time this book is set in and crook’s dream is that of the coloured man during this time in history, to have equal rights and companionship In the withered arm dreams are also extremely important but some are shown are shown in a completely different way to the dreams in Of Mice and Men. When talking of dreams in The Withered Arm you have to discuss the dream, which the story is based around, Rhoda Brooks dream. Rhoda was a milkmaid on an â€Å"eighty cow dairy† And was well known around her small community for two things, one was her affair with Farmer Lodge, the wealthy land owner, which left here with a child, and number two for the rumours spread by the villagers about her usage of unnatural powers and performing rituals etc. using witchcraft. These rumours came from her involvement with a man by the name of conjurer Trendle, a wizard if you will. Now Farmer Lodge had, since his affair with Rhoda Brook, betrothed a beautiful young women named Gertrude and obviously after her marriage to Farmer Lodge became known as Gertrude Lodge. Rhoda Brook initially hated Gertrude Lodge with a purpose. She would send her son to get a look at her to find out whether she was pretty and kind etc. She was basically extremely jealous of Gertrude’s youth and beauty and was envious of her marrying the Father of her son. In Rhoda Brooks dream she is visited by Gertrude Lodge, only not by the Gertrude Lodge that had married Farmer Lodge but by an older distorted Gertrude Lodge. This is an extract from the story describing the dream; But the figure which had occupied her so much during this and the previous days was not to be banished at night. For the first time Gertrude Lodge visited the supplanted women in her dreams. Rhoda Brook dreamed – since her assertion that she really saw, before falling asleep, was not to be believed – that the young wife, in the pale silk dress and white bonnet, but with features shockingly distorted, and wrinkled by age, was sitting upon her chest as she lay. The pressure of Mrs. Lodge’s person grew heavier; the blue eyes peered cruelly into her face; and then the figure thrust forward its left hand mockingly, so as to make the wedding ring it wore glitter in Rhoda’s eyes. Maddened mentally, and nearly suffocated by pressure, the sleeper struggled; the incubus, still regarding her, withdrew to the foot of the bed, only, however, to come forward by degrees, resume her seat, and flash her left hand as before. Gasping for breath, Rhoda, in a last desperate effort, swung out her right hand, seized the confronting spectre by its obstructive left arm, and whirled it backward towards the floor, starting up herself as she did so with a low cry â€Å"O, merciful heaven!† she cried, sitting on the edge of the bed in a cold sweat; â€Å"that was not a dream – she was here!† She could feel her antagonists arm within her grasp even now – the very flesh and bone of it, as it seemed. This dream shows the Rhoda Brooks hatred is pure jealousy of Gertrude’s relationship with farmer Lodge and of her youthful looks. In the dream the way the spectre flashed the wedding ring at Rhoda showed a great deal if envy and resentment for what Gertrude has. And also how Gertrude is disfigured shows that even though Gertrude is a pretty young woman to everyone else, Rhoda sees her as a disfigured old hag. During the 1800’s children born through unmarried parents were looked down upon, well not so much the children as the parents, but as Farmer Lodge owned the land where most villagers lived and worked Rhoda was the one who was isolated because if it. Although the book describes Rhoda Brook as a â€Å"faded woman on thirty† and as a woman of â€Å"well defined features with a large frame I would imagine fro her to have a relationship with Framer Lodge she would have had too have been a beautiful, popular young woman in her late teens early twenties and because of rejection from her Childs father and her community she had become less attractive and more worn, and this dream made Gertrude the older, unattractive woman. But still she had the ring on and still she had the love of Farmer Lodge. Although this dream left Rhoda brook shaken she wasn’t overly bothered about it until the day Gertrude appeared at her front door and showed her a strange mark which she had discovered on her left arm. Gertrude said she awoke with the problem two weeks ago when the clock struck two. In naming the night and the hour Rhoda Brook had her encounter it looked as if Rhoda’s dream was more than just a dream, after all there were rumours about her using witchcraft. Gertrude Lodge’s dream in The Withered Arm is similar to that of the dreams in of mice and men. She longs to be loved by Farmer Lodge and when she begins looking less attractive she becomes worried and will go to any length to stay beautiful. This reflects the time it was set in because a wealthy man would tend to marry beauty and when this beauty begins to lessen they would become uninterested and move on to someone new. Gertrude makes a point of this in a conversation she has with Rhoda Brook; Rhoda shivered. â€Å"That’s fancy,† she said hurriedly. â€Å"I wouldn’t mind it, if I were you.† â€Å"I shouldn’t so much mind it,† said the younger with hesitation, â€Å"if – if I hadn’t a notion that it makes my husband – dislike me – no, love me less. Men think so much of personal appearance.† â€Å"Some do – he for one.† â€Å"Yes; and he was very proud of mine at first.† â€Å"Keep your arm covered from his sight.† â€Å"Ah – he knows the disfigurement is there!† She tried to hide the tears that fled her eyes. Gertrude just wanted to feel loved and not be cast aside by her husband Thomas Hardy reflects upon the times this short story was set in, just as Steinbeck did, by using characters. The way Farmer Lodge could have women how and when he pleased or until they weren’t as easy on the eye and also how people used to believe in witchcraft. Hardy’s story could have been believed as a true story not much more than a century ago. Loneliness is an extremely important theme throughout both stories. Nearly every character is an outcast in his or her own little way, despite being part of a bigger community. In Of Mice And Men George and Lenny really stand out because they aren’t alone. People during the depression would work a month on a ranch, take their earnings and be on their way. As George said whilst speaking with Lenny; â€Å"Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world† And it was true. These ‘Ranch hands’ or ‘Bindle stiffs’ arrived alone, worked alone and left alone. But George and Lenny were different because they travelled around together. George’s conversation with Lenny continued; â€Å"They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake an’ then go inta town an’ blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re pounding their tale on some other ranch. They got nothing to look ahead to† Lenny was delighted. â€Å"That’s it – that’s it. Now tell how it is with us.† George went on. â€Å"With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar-room blowin’ in out jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.† Lenny broke in. â€Å"but not us! An’ why? Because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.† I have underlined â€Å"We got somebody to talk to† because that is an extremely important line. Crooks says to Lenny when talking about loneliness â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody†. But George and Lenny are friends and have each other, and although Lenny can be a Burden on George he is glad they are together. They have a kind of father and son relationship, with George the father and Lenny being the son. George knows that Lenny isn’t too bright, he thinks like a child, so the only way George can keep him form â€Å"doin’ bad things† is by keeping him in check the way a father would. There are many examples of this. The first one is when the two men have just escaped from weed and Lenny is drinking the dirty water. George says; â€Å"Lenny! Lenny for god’s sake don’t drink so much.† Lenny continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. â€Å"Lenny. You gonna be sick like you was last night.† George speaks to Lenny firmly like this so he knows he doing something wrong the way a father would but he also does other things similar to a father for example praising him so he knows he’s done something right, like when George tells him not to speak when they get to the ranch. Lenny remembers this so George says â€Å"Good boy. That’s swell. You say that over two, three more times so you wont forget it.† He also brags about Lenny to other people such as when he first speaks to slim about working slim asks if George and Lenny have ever bucked Barley and George replies â€Å"Hell, Yes. I ain’t nothing to scream about, but that big bastard there can put up more grain alone than most pairs can† George feels he has to show Lenny off to new people the way a parent would with their child Some people were suspicious of George and Lenny because they never saw people travelling around together. One person was the boss at the ranch. He grilled George because he thought that George was stealing Lenny’s pay. This is part of their conversation; â€Å"I said what stake you got in this guy? You takin’ his pay away from him† â€Å"No, ‘course I ain’t. Why ya think I’m selling him out?† â€Å"Well, I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy. I just like to know what your interest is† This reflects upon the time it was set with most people travelling alone, trusting no one Another lonely character on the ranch is Curley’s wife. Despite the fact she has recently become married to Curley she is isolated on the ranch. Throughout the whole book she isn’t allocated a name, making her out to be on of Curleys possessions like Curleys shoe or Curleys leg. She walks around the ranch heavily made up, with rouge lips and her hair in curls, dressed to impress, apparently looking for Curley but she is just trying to get attention from the Ranch hands. As the only women on the ranch you would expect the men to be all over her but it is the exact opposite, in fact most of them dislike her, they call her â€Å"jail bait†, â€Å"tart† and several other offensive names because they think they se her giving them â€Å"the eye.† When Curley’s wife speaks to Lenny in the barn she tells him all about how lonely she is, she says; â€Å"Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely.† Lenny said, â€Å"Well, I ain’t supposed to talk to you or nothin'† â€Å"I get lonely,† she said. â€Å"You can talk to people, but I cant talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad. How’d you like not to talk to anybody† She has probably grown up quite lonely and only married Curley to get away from home. She tries to get attention by dressing up but when she realises she wont get it she tries talking to Lenny because she knows he wont tell her to go away because she can out talk him. He is very simple and doesn’t like confrontation. Both Curley’s wife and Crooks use Lenny to talk to about their loneliness. It is quite ironic how Curleys wife spent all her time on the ranch look for attention but when she finally got it from asking Lenny to touch her hair she didn’t want it and its what led to her unfortunate death. As Curleys wife was the only woman on the ranch she represented the way women were treated during the period in the same way Crooks was the only coloured man on the ranch. He represented the way an entire race was treated and felt during and before the depression. Crooks is the crippled stable buck, the book describes him as a proud aloof man, and his loneliness came out as anger. In chapter four he speaks to Lenny about how he feels. He is defensive at first but soon opens up and eventually becomes quite friendly. He’s very specific about his rights and shows this when Lenny says â€Å"I seen your light.† Crooks very sharply replies with â€Å"Well I gotta right to have a light. The conversation between Lenny and Crooks spans over several pages but leads up to Crooks saying this; â€Å"A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, longà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½s he’s with you. I tell ya,† he cried. â€Å"I tell ya a guy gets too lonely, an’ he gets sick† He’s happy talking to Lenny because Lenny is simple. He won’t offend him or tell other people what he’s been speaking about and Crook’s is happy to have spoken to someone but when George gets back form town and finds Lenny in the room with Crooks, Crooks soon backs off and becomes defensive again. The other characters on the ranch, Carlson, Curley and Slim are probably lonely just as the rest but the book doesn’t go into too much detail about them but there is one part where a man named Whit finds a magazine article written by someone who used to work on the ranch. He seems very proud of this and shows it off to Slim. It would appear Whit had started to become friends with this person before they left which would have been a real rarity for people on the ranch There is a big part for loneliness in The Withered Arm too Thomas Hardy chooses to constantly switch your attention, by not concentrating on one characters lonely portrayal, but on three, this is of the main characters of Rhoda, Gertrude and the boy. The first three chapters are mainly focused on Rhoda and you instantly recognise how emotionally isolated she is, when the others chat to each other she doesn’t join in, you see how she is different and lonely from the rest, although it doesn’t help when they speak of Farmer Lodge. Since her affair with him she is outcast and although the other women recognise this, they don’t welcome her. The end of the story concludes Rhoda’s loneliness when still no one communicates with her even after the recent death of the son. Rhoda brooks only companion was her son. Much like Curleys wife in of mice and men her son doesn’t have a name, he is known simply as the boy. The boy is also very isolated through no fault of his own. He is like a slave to his mother running errands for her and acting like her spy this is shown very early on when she says; â€Å"They’ve just been saying down in Barton that your father brings his young wife home to-morrow,† the woman observed. â€Å"I shall want to send you for a few things to market, and you’ll be pretty sure to meet ’em. â€Å"Yes mother, â€Å"said the boy. â€Å"Is father married then?† â€Å"Yes†¦. You can give her a look and tell me what she’s like, if you do see her.† â€Å"Yes, mother.† â€Å"If she’s dark or fair, and if she’s tall – as tall as I†¦Ã¢â‚¬  The boy responds to Rhoda Brooks every command with yes mother, as if he’d been trained that way. It reminds me slightly of the film Psycho the way he lives with his mother and agrees with her every command. It is no fault of the boy that he is isolated but it is a classic example of the times and even today in a sense, that the townspeople didn’t want their children associating with him because if his background. It is quite ironic that the boy, who spent so much of his life alone, happened to be hung alone The other lonely character in The Withered Arm is Gertrude Lodge. After receiving the unfortunate curse of the withered arm her husband paid her no attention and she became rather isolated. After making the trip with Rhoda Brook to see conjurer Trendle she also, due to what she saw there, stopped speaking with Rhoda. She spent her time waiting for conformation of a hanging so she could get her â€Å"blood turned† and go back to how things used to be. This is when she says; â€Å"O, Lord, hang some guilty or innocent person soon!† It is quite ironic that she should say this due to the fact she wanted someone to be hung so she could continue life the way she wanted it but it turned out to lead to her death Thomas Hardy used loneliness to reflect upon the times the book is set in by basing Gertrude’s loneliness around superstition and witchcraft and Rhoda Brook and the boy’s loneliness around Rhoda’s affair with Farmer Lodge which at the time would have led to rejection from society. Hopefully in this essay I have explained how both stories reflect the times they were set in by pointing out the importance of dreams, loneliness, social class, relationships and role of women. I believe both authors used characters to get their point across about life and mentality at the time and made it clear without actually saying it how much things have changed To conclude I would like to say how both stories are captivating and entertaining but also if you look at them closely enough they can be used as historical references into the way people lived and worked in the times they were set.