Of Mice and Men Emotions
In the following essay I will be writing about and exploring what emotions Steinbeck conveys in his novella ‘of mice and men’. The novella was the second of Steinbeck’s ‘dustbowl’ trilogy. These books were based on Steinbeck’s own first hand experience against the back drop of depression-era America where he became concerned with the exploitation of migrant workers and exposing the institutionalized prejudices ( racism, ageism and sexism) of the migrant workers themselves, hence the trilogy.
The novella shows an effective state of consciousness in which joy, fear, sorrow and hate is experienced as distinguished from cognitive and volitional state of consciousness. The main theme/ emotion that are conveyed are loneliness. Steinbeck uses many different linguistic language techniques to depict this. These include: adverbs, speech verbs, imperative verbs, adjectives, abstract nouns, rhetorical questions and many more. However the opening of the novella displays a bond of friendship and mutual understanding shown by George and lennie.
Steinbeck writes “he pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes the way George’s hat was. ” Our immediate interpretation is that Lennie looks up to George as a role model, the quote “way George’s hat was” infers that Lennie looks up to George as someone who can guide him and teach him much like a younger brother’s attitude would be towards an older sibling. Steinbeck writes “Lennie looked timidly over to him. “George? ” “Yeah, what ya want? ” “Where we goin’ George? ”… “So you forgot that already did you? ” this implies that without George, Lennie would be hopeless and would get no where because he would always be lost. When Lennie says “where we goin’” he sounds slightly worried, this will be because he knows that George will get angry at him because he is constantly having to remind him on the objective. The word “already” suggests that Lennie is always forgetting things and George is getting more and more fed up. The adverb “timidly” implies that George often gets angry with Lennie and now Lennie has learnt to approach him differently when he is angry so he won’t get as upset.
This implies their friendship is strong as they know how to approach each other showing an almost brotherly relationship. This also depicts Georges frustration and anger towards lennie however, unlike other migrant workers at the time, it does not come from the face the he is lonely and isolated but because of the fact the he someone there for him that he can talk to. George says “where the hell would you go? ” the fact that this question is rhetorical shows that George knows that it’s an empty threat.
However the taboo language “hell” gives the impression that George is slightly apprehensive and not entirely convinced. This shows the worry and compassion that he has for lennie, and also showing that not only can lennie not cope without George but George cannot cope without lennie. Steinbeck’s purpose was to show George and Lennie’s bond of friendship and how unlike other migrant workers, their negative emotions does not stem from the fact that they are lonely and isolated but the fact there is a companionship and the sense of a bond between them, showing how strong their bond of friendship really is.
