Of Mice And Men †Plans that go wrong Essay

In this essay, I will be examining how and why plans go wrong in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† by John Steinbeck, and I will also be looking at the other themes in the book. These themes include friendship, loneliness and the fragility of people’s dreams. The novel’s title comes from a poem by Robert Burns called â€Å"To A Mouse†. The chosen title fits in well with the theme of how fragile dreams are, and Burns shows how the plans of men are no more secure than those of the mouse, which is the message that Steinbeck is tries to portray throughout the book. Most of the characters in the novel have dreams or ambitions that are often kept secret to begin with. Curley’s wife was desperate to finally tell someone about her dreams, and it is ironic that is was Lennie that she confided in, who appeared to have no interest in what she has to say, and was in his own dream world. This is proven when Curley’s wife is midway telling Lennie about her dream, and Lennie is thinking about the puppy he has accidentally killed and says, â€Å"Maybe if I took this pup out and thrown him away, George would never know.† He has his mind on other things. Most of the characters experience loneliness, and they have different ways of dealing with it. For George and Lennie, they have each other, for Candy he has his dog, for Crooks it is his pride, and Curley’s wife combats it by flirting with all the workers. George and Lennie’s dream is to own a small ranch where they can live and work for themselves â€Å"an’ live off the fatta the lan'†, as Lennie says. Their dream is of independence and self-sufficiency. We are told each time the â€Å"dream† is mentioned, that ordinary ranch workers â€Å"are the loneliest guys in the world† and the pattern they follow is work, blow their money gambling or at the â€Å"cat house† and then going back to work. George however says â€Å"with us it aint like that. We got a future†, which shows that because of the friendship that he and Lennie share, they are able to plan for the future and they depend on each other. Lennie is particularly excited about him being able to â€Å"tend the rabbits† and this I think is why Lennie is so excited about the dream, because he gets responsibility to look after the animals which is his passion. George uses Lennie’s dream of tending the rabbits as a threat, for example if Lennie â€Å"does another bad thing†, George threatens to not let them tend the rabbits on their ranch. To begin with, the dream is strictly between Lennie and George. George says â€Å"we’d belong there† which shows that he needs to feel a sense of belonging which owning your own property can bring. When Candy hears of the dream, he also wants to join it. Candy is a character in the book that is also lonely. Since the shooting of his dog, Candy has lost his only companion, and by joining them in the dream, he has a chance for dignity, independence and freedom as well as company in his old age. We can tell that Candy feels very strongly about this, because Steinbeck tells us â€Å"his eyes were full of wonder† at the prospect. He is also willing to put â€Å"three hundred an’ fifty bucks† into the buying of the ranch, which brings the dream all the more closer and more reachable for Lennie and George. It all goes wrong however, when Lennie’s childlike obsession for â€Å"petting† things goes out of hand, and he ends up killing Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife in pursuit of company leads her to Lennie. She pours out her pent up frustration of her unrealised dreams and ambitions. When she realises Lennie isn’t taking much interest, she lets him feel her hair. Lennie being Lennie strokes harder and harder even though Curley’s wife begs him to stop. As we already know from the book, Lennie gets confused very easily and panics. When he felt Curley’s wife struggling, â€Å"Lennie was in panic† which shows us that Lennie cannot understand what he should do, and believes that putting his hand over â€Å"her mouth and nose† is the right thing to do to stop her screaming. This shows us that Lennie is not rational. As she struggled to get out of his grasp he accidentally broke her neck. Lennie then ran off to his hiding place where he was told to go if he ever did a ‘bad thing.’ When Curley discovers his wife’s body, he runs after Lennie with a mob including George. George realises that if the mob catches Lennie, he will be lynched for the murder of a woman, and feels that it is much more painless for George to kill him himself. This also shows us the attitude of the time in that part of America. The police will not be involved, as the company is driven on revenge. This is the end of the great dream that George had manufactured, all gone in the wink of an eye. All the anticipation for the life they might of had is gone. Candy shows that he is still willing to carry out the dream when he says â€Å"You an’ me can go there an’ live nice can’t we George?† This twist in the plot relates back to the title of the novel, where it says how easily plans can go wrong. I feel Curley’s wife is the most despairing and lonely character in the book. She has no friends, no future, no respect and she doesn’t even deserve a name. She is just called â€Å"Curley’s wife†. I feel sorry for her because, all she wants is someone to talk to, to converse with, and in her mind the only way she can do this is by flaunting herself to the men just to get noticed. This leads her to be perceived as a ‘tart’ by the men, and they think she has â€Å"got the eye† on all of them. I think she represents absolute loneliness and desperation to achieve something better in life. The only reason she parades herself is to get attention. She believes that ‘ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live.’ This is in fact true, because no one in the book cares about her or how she feels not even her husband, which must be very depressing for her. This situation leads her to become frustrated and she lets it all out during a conversation with Crooks, Lennie and Candy. She ‘flared up’ and started to pour out her feelings about how she doesn’t like her husband and begins to pick on and threaten Crooks to make her feel powerful and tells him â€Å"I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny†. This incident really gives us an insight on how unhappy and bitter she is with her life. Her marriage to Curley was an attempt to escape her solitary life. In fact it has only made it worse. Curley holds no respect for his wife and regards her as a trophy. His insecure feelings towards his wife, forces her into flirting with the other ranchers. Her visits to find Curley are only there so that she can speak to somebody, but none of them seem to realise this and instead regard her as a hussy. In conclusion, I think that â€Å"Of Mice And Men† is very appropriate to life, because dreams and ambitions are fragile, and can easily be lost. Even the best plans depend on lots of factors that can go wrong. I do however think that things could have turned out differently. If Curley had only a little respect for his wife, and gave her the love and affection that she needed, she would not have had to gone to Lennie to tell him her problems, and her death could have been prevented. I do think that George did the right thing at the end of the book, and Slim understood this as he said â€Å"You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.† Lennie would have only been more confused if he would have had to answer endless questions about the death of Curley’s wife. We can tell how much affection George felt for Lennie, because before he died, he left Lennie with the vision of their dream, and tells him that â€Å"Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Aint gonna be no more trouble.† I think on the basis of this novel, Steinbeck’s views are quite pessimistic in the fact that not everybody thinks that dreams are so easily lost. We can tell that Steinbeck appreciates nature and the beauty of it though, because of the many references to it. For example before Lennie dies, he describes â€Å"the deep green pool† and â€Å"the hilltops were rosy†. It is almost as if he believes that whatever mankind may do, nature will always be there.