Why does steinbeck use slang

Since Steinbeck stylistically gives Lennie these non-human characteristics, this must be a key element to the conflicts that arise in the story. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email.

My Blog. Skip to content. Home About. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Lennie is also looking for a special place where he can stay forever, but he's more interested in having animals, especially rabbits, he can tend.

With this imaginary dream they aren't only walking around and trying to earn money - they know that they are working for their dream and so they have always an aim ahead of them. The workers are presented as very decent and orderly people.

This fact can be seen right at the beginning of the second chapter. With the description of the bunk-house where the migrant- workers live and sleep, Steinbeck shows that everything is clean " And when we look at George we see that everything has its order and has to be correct: He puts all his belongings on the shelf and when he makes his bed up with blankets he even pats out the wrinkles. During the whole novel there are always little signs which show that Steinbeck portrays the workers as proper and correct people.

There's, for example, the old swamper with his broom in his hand. This ain't no good. I wanna get outa here", Lennie cried out suddenly. Lennie says that after he met Curley and his wife. Curley is very unfriendly and tries to provoke Lennie, and also his wife, who is heavily made up with clothes and make-up, makes a strong impression on Lennie, who has no experiences with women.

I'd never expected such a loud, emotional utterance from him because all the time he behaves very defensively. But, nevertheless, it shows us that Lennie is, in fact, very emotional. Perhaps he isn't so clever and intelligent, but he's intuitive. He can't see things with his eyes, but he can feel them with his heart - and so the whole situation on the farm says him that something is going wrong and that something will happen, something terrible and that it would be better to leave immediately.

The significance of names and nicknames George, Lennie, Slim, Curley, Crooks and Candy : With names and nicknames it's easy to underline the character of persons. George is a migrant-worker who wishes to buy his own farm where he can live forever, where he wants to cultivate plants and where he can have some animals. So, he wants to become a real farmer and this is underlined by his name that means, in the Greek original, "farmer".

Crooks is a stable-buck and a nigger. But his name underlines his outward appearance: A horse kicked him and now he's a cripple - he can't go upright, he's crooked, which means "not straight, twisted". Slim is the foreman and respected by the other workers.

This refers to Curley's hairstyling and it could also refer to his wife who has her hair in sausage-curls. Candy, the old swamper, is a very friendly, honest and open man with whom you can talk about everything. This is underlined by his name: "candid" means "not hiding one's thoughts, frank and honest".

With regard to the literary term "tragic" - are George and Lennie tragic characters? I think the explanation of the term "tragic" fits perfectly for George and Lennie - especially for Lennie.

Of course, Lennie wasn't so clever, but he had good intentions and moral innocence, he never wanted to hurt anybody, he was only looking forward to tend his rabbits. But suddenly everything, all dreams and hopes, where destroyed. It's clear that he killed Curley's wife, but not intentional. This incapable conflict was produced by the outside world and Lennie couldn't solve it - and so he failed.

But I don't think that it was really his fault, to say it with Steinbeck's words: It was "something that happened". George is also a tragic hero, but only in literary terms. In legal terms we would call him a murderer. All events just happened and George couldn't prevent them. This blending is one of the reasons why Of Mice and Men is such a remarkable novel.

The language of Steinbeck's characters is written down in a way that allows you almost to hear the characters speaking. Steinbeck spells words so as to reflect how they sound in the mouths of ordinary people this is called 'phonetic spelling' , not how they appear in a dictionary.

People leave the beginning and ending off words — Steinbeck writes 'an'' for 'and', 'jus'' for 'just', 'gonna' for 'going to' — and do not speak 'correct' English, as when Lennie says 'I shouldn't of done that' instead of 'I shouldn't have done that. Contact Us Register Sign In.