How Power Is Presented in of Mice and Men

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‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novel written by the late Nobel prize-winning author John Steinbeck and published in 1937. The novel is about two characters, George and Lennie, who search for job opportunities during the Great Depression in California, United States. The story also depicts the harsh consequences and conditions of the Great Depression and also depicts the American Dream which the characters are desperately trying to achieve. This essay will explore how power is presented in Of Mice and Men by exploring language features used in the novel and also exploring the various characters. The different aspects of power that are prevalent in the novel are hierarchy, physical power, power of seduction, and the power of the American Dream.
Steinbeck presents physical power in the novel in the form of Lennie. This is shown as Lennie is an immensely and abnormally, physically strong individual which is portrayed when Steinbeck describes him as he says “dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”. This shows that Lennie has abnormal physical strength as his physical power makes him walk abnormally. Additionally the phrase “like a bear” and “paws” suggest that Lennie’s physical power is significantly immense that Steinbeck compares him to a bear which is known to have colossus amounts of physical strength; this also reinforces the fact that Lennie’s strength is abnormal and also suggests his strength is unhuman like. George says in the novel “coulda bust every bone in my body”. Here the readers deduce that Lennie has obvious physical power over George. Also we can deduce that the phrase “bust” suggests that Lennie’s physical power is to a great extent against George who has little physical power compared to Lennie. In addition, it is ironic that although Lennie has a significant advantage of physical power George remains the dominant in the duo as he

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