Of Mice and Men

Randy Pham

Period 1

Essay on OMAM

Everyone has been overcome by anger at least once and perhaps has acted violently. There are also people who find violence a huge entertainment. Those people are also in the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This novel is about a weekend that occurred with several ranch workers. Throughout the novel, several violent acts or stories take place. This novel is set back in years before now when violence is one of their few entertainments and life had many violent acts happening.

Violence is found as an entertainment for men and it is mostly because there isn’t much entertainment at the ranch. On the ranch, Candy told about a setup fight between Smitty and Crooks: “‘little skinner name of Smitty took after the nigger.’ ” (20) The other men in the bunkhouse watch the setup fight between those two men. It was Christmas and they wanted to have a good one so they did what they had to do to get the thrill and an enjoyment. Candy also told after the fun of the fight, “ ‘the guys went into Soledad and raised hell.’ ” (20) The guys in the bunkhouse continued their violent act by going into a town. Candy mentioned that the guys “raised hell” meaning that they probably did bad or inappropriate things in town to have fun because that don’t have much things to do at the ranch. These characters find a thrill in violent behavior. Violence is part of the men’s entertainment.

Sometimes people just jump to conclusions and start acting violently without thinking of the consequences, like when people defend themselves or others without knowing the truth behind it. Curley with little to no reason starts to beat up Lennie because he saw Lennie laughing and assumed that he was laughing at his situation. So “He slashed at Lennie with his left and then smashed down his nose with a right.” (62) Curley was beating on Lennie because he was laughing with happiness about the dream farm, not at Curley’s situation. Curley assumes Lennie is laughing at...