1st OMAM Blog

Recently we started reading the Novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. As of 11/20/17, we are on "Chapter" 2 of 6.

1. Describe the atmosphere of the ranch and bunkhouse. Be sure to include characteristics of different characters that were formally or informally introduced to us in this chapter. Support your choice with textual evidence and interpretation.

The way that the bunkhouse is described shows that it’s atmosphere is plain, and not really much of a “home”. On page 17, it is described as “a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing their burlap ticking....In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on”. The main feature of it is the bunks, it is not a home, just a place to sleep in the night for workers on the ranch. The rest of the ranch’s atmosphere is semi-lively in chapter 2. This may be because each of the characters introduced are ‘greeting’ George and Lennie. George seems to be aggressive to some people at first, like Candy, “What the hell’s this?... You was pokin’ your big ears into our business”. . While on the other hand, Curley seems to be pretty aggressive, especially to Lennie, “Well, nex’ time you answer when you’re spoke to”, he’s forcing Lennie to speak, even though he clearly doesn’t. We are introduced to more characters formally later on, like Curley’s wife, Slim, and Carlson. Curley’s wife seems to flirt a lot with the other ranchers, Slim is quieter, choosing to seldom talk, and Carlson seem’s more hardened from working on the ranch for a long time (no sympathy for Candy and his dog).

2. Why doesn’t Curley’s wife have a name?

I have two ideas. The first one is that there’s no point, she seems to be the only Female character present so far. My second idea is that due to how Curley likes having control over others, he probably wanted to “keep his wife for himself”, so perhaps he didn’t introduce her to them, so other characters refer to her as “Curley’s wife”. They couldn’t call her Mrs. X since they didn’t even know Curley’s last name due to his apparent lack of friendly communication with the others on the ranch.

3. If the author was trying to send a message, maybe he was trying to show how everyone on the ranch treats her as a “sight” rather than a person. Maybe he was trying to show how back then, women usually weren’t thought of to be treated equally to men.

4. Overall impressions of OMAM:

I really like it so far. The way that Steinbeck describes scenes so vividly is very different compared to the way I’ve seen most other authors write. It's very easy to understand the story and what’s happening due to the way he presents the story. However, we are already ⅓ through the short story and no conflict has been introduced. It gives me the impression that the conflict will either be introduced later on, more suddenly. There hasn’t been much obvious foreshadowing. However, I’m ok with this because it keeps me guessing as to what is going to happen.