Phil+Chomiczewski

1) In the book **//__Of Mice and Men__//**, the reader gets a sense of enjoyment due to a very interesting, comedical yet serious writing by John Steinbeck. In his book, he uses an interesting concentration of detail throughout the book. (Unlike **//__Jamaica Inn__//** which contained a useless amount of detail explaining nothing...) But not only are the details notably strong to give you the sense of what is happening, but there is also a great amount of detail getting down to every but and piece of what is happening. For instance, After Lennie accidently killed his puppy by petting it so hard the he basically crushed it. Curley's wife (name was never mentioned in the book) happen to come over and found him disheartened by what he had done and consoles him. He tells her that he has an obsession for petting things that are soft but accidently kills them. In consolation, she allows him to pet her hair which in the book is explained in detail: " Her hair was blonde and went down to her shoulders...it was gentle and soft to the touch. It reminded him of his puppy which he had stroked its soft fur so dearly." (p.71) Ironically, he ends up accidently killing her by accidently snapping her neck trying to quiet her down when she yelped in pain when he stroked her hair too hard. Immidiately on the first page when you read the book, Lennie and George get off a bus about a few miles of where they had to work and immidiately Steinbeck provides a precise detail of the environment by explaining the setting by giving details about the surrounding: " a streaming riverbed in this rural area in California, with a beautiful wooded area at the base of golden foothill slopes. A path runs to the river which are used by boys to go swimming and riffraff coming down from the highway near by..." (Pg.1) This book is very likeable due to its detail which is manipulated to catch the attention to make the reader keep reading. This book ends up showing a view of the "American Dream" which as shown in **//__The Great Gatsby__//** was never achieved, which allows the reader to apply this to his or her life. For instance Curley's wife wanted to be a movie star, but doesnt achieve it because she is killed. This was a shock to the readers because as stated in the book she shows: "the stereotypical vixen in fancy red shoes." (Pg.68) Overall the book provides many twists and turns which would only keep the audience at their feet.

2) " A streaming rivebed in this rural area in California, with a beautiful wooded area at the base of golden foothill slopes. A path runs to the river which are used by boys to go swimming and to riffraff coming down from the highway near by..." (Pg. 1) Many authors progressively make their book more detailed gradually from beginning to end, but John starts off strong with his detail and end strong in detail that isn't boring but more apealling to the reader. John Steinbeck's writing style is completely based on detail and manipulating it to not only fit into the story line without the reader having to take a double take, but also to make it part of the story by incorporateing the environment, and other details that may not seem relevent at first, but proves to be so later on. For instance a distinguished detail about one of the characters, Lennie, was as explained in the book; " Mentally dissoriented" (Pg. 8) That also had an obsession to pet soft things and that George would prove to be his "guide" since Lennie's mentallity wasn't good enough to get him through life. With details of environment comes metaphors and most importantly with details comes key symbols. Lennie again shows symbolism with the furry things he likes to pet. It signifies an overwhelming sense of peace within Lennie that allows him to calm him when he is in distraught situation, even though in the end he is killed by his own friend George out of mercy.

3) John Steinbeck's message is very short and simple. The American Dream is a very tough achievement to accomplish because there are so many factors that may come into place and stop you completely from achieveing it. Mostly it is the corruption of society or of the person. But in this case it would be the faults of the person themselves that stops the dream from happening. George and Lennie don't achieve their dream of owning land and becoming prosperous, Lennies because he gets killed by George in the end, and George because he was distraught at what he had done...but continues to move on and tries his best to achieve it. Curley's wife wanted to be a movie star but is killed. Steinbeck clearly shows that in order to accomplish the american dream, you must have an iron will to keep moving and the persavearence to keep pushing you.