Of Mice and Men - Chapter 1 Brief Analysis

“Inside the walls were white washed the floor unpainted” This shows and symbolises the plainness and simplicity of the men who live there.

When George and Lennie enter the Bunk House they are still one behind the other.

Candy says “Hell of a nice fella” This phrase is used a lot by Candy which shows he doesn’t want to get on anybody’s bad side. He cannot afford to lose this job.

The men move from job to job without any permanent place to stay this means that there is no opportunity to settle down or make friends leading to loneliness and isolation.

Impairment is another theme the author uses; Candy is cripple, Crooks is black, Lennie is dumb, Curly’s wife is woman

Friendship is so unusual that the boss is sceptical “I never seen one guy take so much trouble for another guy” This shows how unique George and Lennie’s friendship is.

George’s language to Lennie is harsh and “vicious” and suggests an aggressive relationship. There is huge amount of violence and aggression on the ranch, both physical and verbal. This means that the ranch is a very dangerous place to be.

Candy’s dog can be compared to Lennie. This is because both of them are loyal friends, but useless burden to their “master”. Also both the dog and Lennie are shot in the back of the head with the same gun. They are both shot out of love for the lesser of two evils.

Curly likes to show that he is different from the other guys firstly he wears cowboy boots which separates him from the other men and he also has a wife unlike any of the other men, although he does not love her but she I used a possession to portray the character of the trophy wife.

Our first indication that there might be trouble for Lennie comes in the form of Curly who immediately wants a physical confrontation with Lennie. This is to satisfy his ego. The reader doesn’t suspect that it is in fact Curly’s wife that will in fact cause the problems.

We already that Lennie has a problem with controlling himself with women because he likes to touch their soft clothes, for example the girl in Weed, who’s dress that he wanted to touch, but she screams “****”…