‘Of Mice and Men’ by john Steinbeck and ‘The Withered Arm’ by Thomas Hardy Essay

Points of comparison amid Of Mice and manpower by john Steinbeck and The Wi on that pointd beef up by Thomas Hardy. Include social and historical context, screen background, plot, characters, theme and language. The shrink Arm written by Thomas Hardy and Of Mice and custody written by John Steinbeck have legion(predicate) differences in their social and historical background only when similarities can be seen amid the two. Of Mice and Men is castigate in Soledad, California during Americas great depression in the 1930s. Transport was very(prenominal) variant then, most sight travelled around on foot or by sawbuckback. in that location were passenger vehicleses al unrivaled very few of them and if you were a couple of bindle stiffs standardised George and Lennie you never got a full ride or taken to where you wanted to go. A train were available merely for people handle George and Lennie hiding in boxcars and riding for free was more common. As it was during th e great depression many businesses went bankrupt and many people lost their military controls.This was the reason that many people, including George and Lennie, travelled around so oft looking for work. Work was mostly found on farms and ranches merely pay was very teensy-weensy. Wages were $50 per month with food and accommodation included. However the accommodation was very basic, they were communal bunkhouses so George and Lennie and anyone else had lesser privacy. Jobs on the ranch werent that glamorous either, barley bucking was the most common then in that location were throw togetherners, stable bucks and swappers. in that location were few employ workforcet rights and no job security because as soon as a job was finished workers were besides dropped and had to move on to find other jobs in other places. Even by core of exclusively the work in that respect was plenty of entertain ment. Betting and gambling were very popular, any chance they had to die unwaveri ngly a game of horse shoes or a game of cards they would more than possible always have a bet on each game.When they had enough money they would go into the topical anesthetic town for a couple of drinks in cat houses. Punishment for any crime committed was severe, but there was no real law. It was normal for however anyone to take the law in to their own hands, as marchn in the fabrication when Lennie killed Curleys married woman and Curley went out to shoot Lennie and it wouldnt matter, Im gonna evolve him. Im going for my shotgun. Ill kill the braggart(a) son-of-a-bitch myself The Withered Arm is set in holmstoke in Wessex in the mid 1800s. Holmstoke is a very isolated little village and is only linked to Anglebury, a near town, by a cart track. Transport back then was even more primitive than in Of Mice and Men. People mostly travelled by foot and by horse and cart along dirt tracks, as there were no proper roads. Pretty much(prenominal) everyone was moil class as the only jobs real available were on farms and land. Dairy and animal horticulture was very popular.The farms were owned by wealthier farmers that employed the local people to do the kingdom and dairy work. The wages were 37p per week, which just standardised in Of Mice and Men is very little. The women did the milking in the dairies and cider making and the men did the harvesting, just same(p) in Of Mice and Men, cropping and wood cutting but just like in Of Mice and Men there was little job security and hardly any employment rights. Entertainment was soothe a tumid part of peoples lives. The farmers had house gatherings and even back in the 1800s drinking was sboulder clay popular as in Of Mice and Men. Local bands were often booked for traditional dances and festivals. They celebrated Christmas with little plays from house to house. You could besides go and see a hanging when there was one and purchase a part of the rope apply. Punishments for even little crimes like the ft could be punishable by death. There were almost no legal rights for anyone in the labouring class and if u were just thought to be guilty of a crime you could still be hanged for it and you werent given a chance to evidence yourself innocent.The settings for these two stories argon quite similar even though both(prenominal) are set in different countries and geezerhood apart. In Of Mice and Men a vision of the place is clearly described. It is set on a rural farm that bucks barley. The local town is Soledad where the men found some of their entertainment. Steinbeck makes the setting heavy very bare and lonely and portrays the idea that the farm is cut collide with and very much on its own very wellspring. The v on the wholeey is described well and is described as open and free, On one side of the river the golden foot hill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilian Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees. There is a brush in this story, which S teinbeck mentions clearly, The platan snuff its turned up their silversides, the brown, dry leaves on the ground scudded a few feet. Farming is a big part in each story as well, even though the farms themselves are different, the different types of countrysides are both described well by each other in their own well. In The Withered Arm a clear description of its setting is also given.This story is also set in and around farmland but this farm is a dairy farm unlike the one in Of Mice and Men. The setting in this story however is much greener with more of a distinctive English countryside. It is set just outside of Holmstoke and is surrounded by Egdon Heath, which is described as barren moorland, their be given lay apart from the others to a lonely spot high above the water-meads and not far from the strand of Egdon Heath, whose dark countenance was visible in the distance. This makes the place hale very cut off and lonely just as in Of Mice and Men. In The Withered Arm dairy f arming dominates and is the main way of working and living just like in Of Mice and Men where crop farming is the main way of working and living. In each of the stories there are similarities in the plots. In Of Mice and Men Lennie and George are two in rallyrs to the farm where the story is found. They are workers that travel around to find work in different places and to gat some money. They arrive just down the road from the farm as the bus driver refuses to drive them any further.They are there to work as barley buckers which is beautiful much the lowest rank of worker. Their welcome to the farm from the other workers wasnt that pleasant because to them Lennie and George were just another span of passers by. When they first arrived all they got was a The boss was expectin you last night The other workers were a bit laughable about George and Lennie because normally men travel around on their own so they thought there was something suspicious going off between them, say-wh at you sellin? In Of Mice and Men Curleys hand gets broken. Curley provokes Lennie and starts hitting him, Lennie is really very gentle but he grabs hold of Curleys hand and squeezes it until he ends up breakage every bone, Looks to me like ever bone in his han is bust. Also in both stories there is an unhappy marriage. In Of Mice and Men the unhappy marriage is the marriage of Curley and his wife.Shes thought of so little that she isnt even given a name. She tells Lennie how she only married Curley on the rebound to get international from her mother, Well, I wasnt gonna stay no place where I couldnt get nowhere or make something of myself, an where they stole your letters. So I married Curley. Met him out to the Riverside Dance Palace that comparable night Curley doesnt seem to pay that much attention to her or care about her, as he doesnt hesitate to go to the cat house in town with all the guys and leave her on her own. In The Withered Arm the incomer in this story is Gert rude. She enters the story as Farmer squeezes forward-looking wife. dissimilar Lennie and George, Gertrude enters the story at the top of the social scale. However, like George and Lennie she also doesnt receive the friendliest of welcomes and all the villages are very curious about her on her arrival, Well, did you see her? . In The Withered Arm there is also an deformity but this one is very different to the one in Of Mice and Men.This injury has a distant, paranormal meaning to it as the dream Rhoda had about hitting Gertrudes arm enigmatically comes true when a hand mark appears on her arm and it starts to squinch, She uncovered her left arm, and their outline confronted Rhodas gaze as the exact original of the limb she had beheld and seized in her dream. In this story there is also an unhappy marriage of Gertrude and Farmer Lodge. At the beginning of the story they seem like a happy couple in mania but he only really sees her as is evenhandedly girl to go on his arm, you must expect to be stared at just at first, my pretty Gertrude. When Gertrude becomes marked and her arm begins to wither, Farmer Lodge begins to loose interest.As Gertrude becomes imperfect the marriage begins to fall apart, sixsome years off marriage and only a few months of love The female characters in both stories have many differences through how they live but some similarities can be made between the three. In Of Mice and Men the female character is Curleys wife. She is described as young and pretty but she hates the life shes got with Curley on the farm. She had dreams of living a life a luxury and being put down it the pitchers, Well a show come through, an I met one of the actors. He says I could go with that show . Women were pretty much at the bottom of the social scale compared to men so Curley tough her like she belonged to him, Steinbeck show this in the story by not giving her a name and just referring to her as Curleys wife. Curley goes off in to town with t he other guys in to the cat house without giving his wife any consideration. In The Withered Arm there are two female characters, Gertrude Lodge and Rhoda Brook. Rhoda is a dairymaid on Farmer Lodges farm and just like Curleys wife has been treated seriously by a man.Rhoda had once bin the lover of Farmer Lodge and accidentally got pregnant, because of this Farmer Lodge ended it and left her to bring up their son on her own with no help. He tries to neglect her and his own son and tries to pretend he doesnt really know who they are. When he sees his son he discards him as just another villager, I conceptualize he lives with his mother a mile or two off the way Rhoda was treated by Farmer Lodge shows that she was just being used and treated like an object and not properly respected like she should be, this is just like how Curley treated his wife in Of Mice and Men. Gertrude Lodge is Farmer Lodges new wife. He is very proud of her in a way at the beginning because she is young a nd beautiful. However all this does change, when Gertrudes arm begins wither and she become imperfect, Farmer Lodge slowly begins to loose interest. In this way she is also treated mischievously by a man like Curleys wife and Rhoda Brook were.Farmer Lodge got to think very little of Gertrude, as she never gave him a child along with her disfigurement, he grew to not love her just because of they way she looked. In both stories all the women were treated very unfairly by men and can relate to one another by how badly they were treated by men. Each stories has different themes but the two main themes in these stories are association and privacy. In Of Mice and Men, candy, Crooks and Curleys wife are the three main lonely ones. These three are considered at the bottom of the social scale. Candy is lonely because he is old and only has one hand, Crooks is lonely because he also has a deterrent and he is black and black people werent thought of very highly because of the colour of th eir skin and Curleys wife is lonely because she is female and women were considered to be second class to men, she is only seen as Curleys wife and not her own individual person.All three are lonely because theyre all different or have a disability in some way. The idea of loneliness is also expressed through the things Steinbeck writes about. When George is in the bunkhouse playing cards, his solitaire hand is mentioned, solitaire a game compete on your own so this shows Georges loneliness. Also the local town is called Soledad and sole is also expressing the loneliness of the story. The main and strongest friendship in Of Mice and Men is the friendship of Lennie and George. When the Great Depression hit America men travelled around on their own looking for work but Lennie and George travel together. George and Lennie have been friends for years and Lennie is simple so needs looking after, George is the one to do this, he looks after Lennie the best he can and cares for him.From s ome of things George says you can tell that he does care about him. Jesus Christ, youre a crazy bastard is said in a kind of sarcastic way and shows that George does like Lennie and cares for him but trys not to show it. In The Withered Arm Gertrude is the lonely one. She is lonely because she has come into the story and enters Holmstoke as a complete stranger and doesnt know anyone. She finds herself very much unsocial after her arm starts to wither and her husband beings to loose interest in her and ignore her. Just like Candy and Crooks in Of Mice of Men one of the reasons she feels loneliness is because of a disability or injury. The main friendship in The Withered Arm is the friendship of Rhoda and Gertrude. This friendship is very different to the one of Lennie and George in Of Mice and Men.At first Rhoda didnt like Gertrude just because she married Farmer Lodge and then Rhoda has her strange dream. When Rhoda meets Gertrude she sees how nice she is and then she finds out abo ut Gertrudes withering arm and realises its because of her dream and Rhoda feels guilty. Unlike Lennie and Georges friendship being based on care and love this friendship is partly based on Rhodas guilt over disliking Gertrude in the first place. In both stories dialect and bait are used by each writer to give you a more realistic keep an eye on on each of the characters and the stories. In Of Mice and Men the slang and dialect used could be quite hard to understand. In 1930s California the speech is a very old American accent.Steinbeck used this in his story to convey a more realistic picture of the characters and how they spoke. She slang her pups last night, said slim, simply means that she gave birth last night to her new puppies. Cause I can jus as well go away, George, an live in a cave , Simply means of course, I can just go away and live in a cave. Well take um into Soledad an get um fixed up , all um means is him, and the d is misses off of and. Using the actually di alect and slang makes the story sound more real and to try and give you more of an idea about what each character is like. In The Withered Arm Hardy also uses slang and dialect to bring his characters to life and make them sound more realistic through the way they speak. Nineteenth century Wessex has a very different dialect to Of Mice and Men. He do bring his bride home tomorrow , almost doesnt make scent out but it just mean that he will bring his bride home. Ah- tis all a-scram , just means that it is all shrivelled up. The dialect in this story also has completely different reciprocation for things like chimmer means bedroom and fancied means imagined. Hardy uses all this language to make his story and characters more believable and to give the effect of the place its set in. Out of these two stories I preferred Of Mice and Men by john Steinbeck.I think that this story has more of a goodish ending than The Withered Arm. I think that Of Mice and Men is more realistic than The Withered Arm because in The Withered Arm the ending is all tied up neatly and really thats not like real life. Where as in Of Mice and Men it just ends and is left open like it can carry on, just like life really is. Curley and Carlson looked after them. And Carlson said, Now what the hell ya intend is eatin them two guys? . I think that Of Mice and Men has a more interesting plot that keeps your reading till the end unlike The Withered Arm that I found got a bit boring.