Of Mice And Men †Plans that go wrong Essay

In this essay, I will be examining how and why plans go wrong in â€Å"Of Mice and Men† by John Steinbeck, and I will also be looking at the other themes in the book. These themes include friendship, loneliness and the fragility of people’s dreams. The novel’s title comes from a poem by Robert Burns called â€Å"To A Mouse†. The chosen title fits in well with the theme of how fragile dreams are, and Burns shows how the plans of men are no more secure than those of the mouse, which is the message that Steinbeck is tries to portray throughout the book. Most of the characters in the novel have dreams or ambitions that are often kept secret to begin with. Curley’s wife was desperate to finally tell someone about her dreams, and it is ironic that is was Lennie that she confided in, who appeared to have no interest in what she has to say, and was in his own dream world. This is proven when Curley’s wife is midway telling Lennie about her dream, and Lennie is thinking about the puppy he has accidentally killed and says, â€Å"Maybe if I took this pup out and thrown him away, George would never know.† He has his mind on other things. Most of the characters experience loneliness, and they have different ways of dealing with it. For George and Lennie, they have each other, for Candy he has his dog, for Crooks it is his pride, and Curley’s wife combats it by flirting with all the workers. George and Lennie’s dream is to own a small ranch where they can live and work for themselves â€Å"an’ live off the fatta the lan'†, as Lennie says. Their dream is of independence and self-sufficiency. We are told each time the â€Å"dream† is mentioned, that ordinary ranch workers â€Å"are the loneliest guys in the world† and the pattern they follow is work, blow their money gambling or at the â€Å"cat house† and then going back to work. George however says â€Å"with us it aint like that. We got a future†, which shows that because of the friendship that he and Lennie share, they are able to plan for the future and they depend on each other. Lennie is particularly excited about him being able to â€Å"tend the rabbits† and this I think is why Lennie is so excited about the dream, because he gets responsibility to look after the animals which is his passion. George uses Lennie’s dream of tending the rabbits as a threat, for example if Lennie â€Å"does another bad thing†, George threatens to not let them tend the rabbits on their ranch. To begin with, the dream is strictly between Lennie and George. George says â€Å"we’d belong there† which shows that he needs to feel a sense of belonging which owning your own property can bring. When Candy hears of the dream, he also wants to join it. Candy is a character in the book that is also lonely. Since the shooting of his dog, Candy has lost his only companion, and by joining them in the dream, he has a chance for dignity, independence and freedom as well as company in his old age. We can tell that Candy feels very strongly about this, because Steinbeck tells us â€Å"his eyes were full of wonder† at the prospect. He is also willing to put â€Å"three hundred an’ fifty bucks† into the buying of the ranch, which brings the dream all the more closer and more reachable for Lennie and George. It all goes wrong however, when Lennie’s childlike obsession for â€Å"petting† things goes out of hand, and he ends up killing Curley’s wife. Curley’s wife in pursuit of company leads her to Lennie. She pours out her pent up frustration of her unrealised dreams and ambitions. When she realises Lennie isn’t taking much interest, she lets him feel her hair. Lennie being Lennie strokes harder and harder even though Curley’s wife begs him to stop. As we already know from the book, Lennie gets confused very easily and panics. When he felt Curley’s wife struggling, â€Å"Lennie was in panic† which shows us that Lennie cannot understand what he should do, and believes that putting his hand over â€Å"her mouth and nose† is the right thing to do to stop her screaming. This shows us that Lennie is not rational. As she struggled to get out of his grasp he accidentally broke her neck. Lennie then ran off to his hiding place where he was told to go if he ever did a ‘bad thing.’ When Curley discovers his wife’s body, he runs after Lennie with a mob including George. George realises that if the mob catches Lennie, he will be lynched for the murder of a woman, and feels that it is much more painless for George to kill him himself. This also shows us the attitude of the time in that part of America. The police will not be involved, as the company is driven on revenge. This is the end of the great dream that George had manufactured, all gone in the wink of an eye. All the anticipation for the life they might of had is gone. Candy shows that he is still willing to carry out the dream when he says â€Å"You an’ me can go there an’ live nice can’t we George?† This twist in the plot relates back to the title of the novel, where it says how easily plans can go wrong. I feel Curley’s wife is the most despairing and lonely character in the book. She has no friends, no future, no respect and she doesn’t even deserve a name. She is just called â€Å"Curley’s wife†. I feel sorry for her because, all she wants is someone to talk to, to converse with, and in her mind the only way she can do this is by flaunting herself to the men just to get noticed. This leads her to be perceived as a ‘tart’ by the men, and they think she has â€Å"got the eye† on all of them. I think she represents absolute loneliness and desperation to achieve something better in life. The only reason she parades herself is to get attention. She believes that ‘ain’t none of them cares how I gotta live.’ This is in fact true, because no one in the book cares about her or how she feels not even her husband, which must be very depressing for her. This situation leads her to become frustrated and she lets it all out during a conversation with Crooks, Lennie and Candy. She ‘flared up’ and started to pour out her feelings about how she doesn’t like her husband and begins to pick on and threaten Crooks to make her feel powerful and tells him â€Å"I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it aint even funny†. This incident really gives us an insight on how unhappy and bitter she is with her life. Her marriage to Curley was an attempt to escape her solitary life. In fact it has only made it worse. Curley holds no respect for his wife and regards her as a trophy. His insecure feelings towards his wife, forces her into flirting with the other ranchers. Her visits to find Curley are only there so that she can speak to somebody, but none of them seem to realise this and instead regard her as a hussy. In conclusion, I think that â€Å"Of Mice And Men† is very appropriate to life, because dreams and ambitions are fragile, and can easily be lost. Even the best plans depend on lots of factors that can go wrong. I do however think that things could have turned out differently. If Curley had only a little respect for his wife, and gave her the love and affection that she needed, she would not have had to gone to Lennie to tell him her problems, and her death could have been prevented. I do think that George did the right thing at the end of the book, and Slim understood this as he said â€Å"You hadda, George. I swear you hadda.† Lennie would have only been more confused if he would have had to answer endless questions about the death of Curley’s wife. We can tell how much affection George felt for Lennie, because before he died, he left Lennie with the vision of their dream, and tells him that â€Å"Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Aint gonna be no more trouble.† I think on the basis of this novel, Steinbeck’s views are quite pessimistic in the fact that not everybody thinks that dreams are so easily lost. We can tell that Steinbeck appreciates nature and the beauty of it though, because of the many references to it. For example before Lennie dies, he describes â€Å"the deep green pool† and â€Å"the hilltops were rosy†. It is almost as if he believes that whatever mankind may do, nature will always be there.

The Visual Dimension of Hindu Rituals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Visual Dimension of Hindu Rituals - Essay Example From this paper it is clear that since sacrifices are held in high esteem in Hinduism, the people practicing Hinduism often perform them in special places. It is important to remember to remember that ceremonies and other Hindu rites often happen in temple settings. In doing so, they are often directed towards gods and goddesses, who are given a lot of respect and religious concern among those that practice Hinduism. However, it inasmuch as Hinduism has a lot of sacrifices and rituals, a good number of them are often performed in people’s homes. Perhaps the reason given for it is that not all the rituals and ceremonies done are directed towards the gods and goddesses.   Just like in other religions and cultures, death marks a highly critical moment in Hinduism.This essay discusses that  the reason that makes death a very important element for Hindus is that it brings an end to life. Secondly, death ushers one into a new form of life. In this regard, death is simply a trans ition time that all people have to follow for reaching the other form of life. In celebrating the life of the deceased, Hinduism has special funeral rites that have to be performed, better known as shraddha.  These rituals also referred to as samskaras, because they are important rites of passage for the Hindus. Inasmuch as this form of religion may seem to give much emphasis to sacrifices, it is what makes them unique and separate from other forms of religion and cultures across the world.

Fast Food Nation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fast Food Nation - Essay Example These guidelines were innocuous, and included such advice as making sure that the parking lots were well-lit and that there was improved visibility within their stores. The restaurant industry opposed these guidelines, and basically bought off congressmen with lobbying money (Schlosser, 2001, p. 86). Some people have the value and belief that America is exceptional, and, as such, should spread its culture around the world. According to Schlossen, this has been accomplished by the fast food industry. Schlosser uses the case study of Plauen, a city in what Schlosser refers to as â€Å"new Germany,† to illustrate the point. Schlosser portrays the McDonald’s in this city as a kind of bright spot in a city that is otherwise depressed, with high unemployment and men desperate for work. Schlosser ends the story of Plauen by describing a bar that opened in that city that has a country-western feel to it, and this, implies Schlosser, defines Plauen today. The dream that Plauen h as now comes not from the circumstances of Plauen itself, because the town is depressed, but, rather, by the shining example of McDonald’s, which fills the hearts of the Plauen people with hope of a better future, a future that is similar to the American Dream. And this is all because, implies Schlosser, Plauen has been supplied this American Dream through the presence of the first American fast food restaurant, McDonald’s (Schlosser, 2001, p. 252). Schlosser also uses the example of Dachau, which has a McDonald’s close to the notorious concentration camp. Just like in Plauen, the McDonald’s in Dachau was filled with people with Americanized clothes, eating Americanized burgers (Schlosser, 2001, p. 232). While this might seem to some to be insensitive to the history of Dachau, in that McDonald’s appears to be crassly commercialized and capitalizing on a tragedy by luring visitors to the ghastly Dachau site to its restaurant, it can be seen in anoth er way. And that is that McDonald’s is merely performing a service for the visitors of Dachau, in that the people who visit the site need to eat, so McDonald’s is simply making doing so convenient. Nevertheless, because the people in the Dachau McDonald’s are Americanized with their clothing and so forth, Schlosser sees this as another example of Americanization in Germany, made all the more insidious because the McDonald’s is capitalizing on a particularly horrible part of German history. There are also health concerns, and there are cultural values and beliefs that we should be free of pathogens, and that the government should do a good job of inspecting our food to make sure that we are not exposed. However, there is a resistance to any changes that should be made in this area, just as there is a resistance to change regarding OSHA regulations, as described above. It started with the expose by Upton Sinclair, called The Jungle, which is now required re ading for most schoolchildren. Schlosser says that the meatpacking industry was resistant to change in Upton Sinclair’s day and continues to be so – â€Å"The industry has repeatedly denied that problems exist, impugned the motives of its critics, fought vehemently against federal oversight, sought to avoid any responsibility for outbreaks of food poisoning, and worked hard to shift the costs of food safety efforts onto the

US - Russian relations; how the embargo is affecting trade and the Outline

US - Russian relations; how the embargo is affecting trade and the economy - Outline Example The U.S government, for instance strongly condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea2. The U.S imposed sanctions against 64 Russian individuals and organizations for destabilizing Ukraine. This paper will discuss how the recent US embargo on Russia is negatively affecting trade and the economy (in Russia), and how or if it may also affect a particular nation within the European Union. Congressional action in the U.S. has focused on providing help to the new Ukrainian government and also the sanctions against Russia for its annexation of Crimea. President Obama warned Russia that it would face several costs for its ongoing actions in Ukraine3. For instance, the United States suspended most bilateral cooperation with Russia. It also announced that it would suspend several projects that were planned under the guidance of U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission. The U.S government also put restrictions on defence-related support to Russia especially the exports4. The United States issued an Executive Order that imposed asset freezes and visa bans against the people that undermined the democratic processes laid down in Ukraine. These people included 23 high-ranking Russian government officials and parliamentarians, 4 wealthy businesspersons in Putin’s inner circle. The government also placed sanctions on organizations that included bank, energy companies and other organizations that had a link to Putin’s inner circle. All these were done as part of an action to prevent further escalation of the crisis in Ukraine5. As stated earlier, several countries and regions including the U.S, EU and Japan placed sanctions on Russia following its actions in Ukraine. Several countries including Albania, Canada, Moldovia, Australia, Switzerland and Montenegro followed suit6. However, the effects of the U.S sanctions on Russia are different to those of the other

Rhetorical analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Rhetorical analysis - Essay Example The audience, who happen to be the citizens of United States and Ohioans to be precise, and the topic, came in time when the United States was in a verge of collapsing economically and addressing economic issues and combining them with the political good will was objective. The use of pathos, logos and ethos by the Ohio governor, Mr. John Kasich, combined with imagery and rhetoric questions was not only objective but convincing in delivery of his speech on opportunities and the appropriate approach to end the Ohioans’ misery of poverty and joblessness. The use of imagery to describe the wellbeing of Ohioans in the wake of a new political era drove the point home of what Ohioans wanted for a long time. For instance the use of â€Å"digging into a bowl of chicken soup at a Bob Evan’s restaurant† signifies the economic wellbeing of the consumer, who in this case is the Ohioan, which is a revelation of good leadership focusing on the common citizen. This is because n ot all of Ohio residents would afford chicken and/or an expensive meal in one of the remarkable restaurants and creating job opportunities would somehow guarantee such a meal even if it means thrice a week. The use of figurative language in the description of importance of helping the poor, Mr. John Kasich drives his point home and the authoritative aspect of his speech is broadly brought out. For instance, when he stresses out the need for uplifting the needy by asking, â€Å"when you die and go to heaven, St. Peter is not probably going to ask you much about what you did to keep the government small, but what you did for the poor†, he broadly brings out the political will he has for the people of Ohio and the outcome of his actions which will be graded by satisfaction of the people. As an experienced politician and longtime serving public servant, Mr. Kasich uses ethos to lure Ohio residents into re-electing him again in the polls. For instance, his experience on matters of finance and taxation enabled him sign the biggest tax cut in the country after converting a $7.7 billion budget deficit into a $2.5 billion surplus. The authoritative aspect is brought out by his connective aspect of politics and religion in a bid to drive his mission of â€Å"More Aid for Poor† forward and still maintaining the cliche of the people and political future. For instance, by arguing that he was raised as a catholic but drifted in faith at adulthood converting to evangelical protestant for the last 25 years and claiming that â€Å"to a larger mission one of his Christian faith has called him to shoulder; helping the poor, the beleaguered and the downtrodden, and trying to heal them and lift them up, shows the connective aspect of politics and religion in a bid to solve the long-term historical miseries. The timing of the speech rhymed well with the economic hardship moment in the United States economy in that during the time there were struggles by the national government to increase national tax to finance its spending. The use of a practical approach, guided by his exemplary experience in the management field, gave him a hand of driving his agenda home and convincing the residents. His agenda

Middle east studies global prespectives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Middle east studies global prespectives - Essay Example There are numerous progressive laws that have been devised in regard to education in Lebanon but they are yet to be enforced. These laws have a potential of improving the Lebanese education system and consequently improving the life of the Lebanese (Samira, Achim & Sarhan 64). Also, it can promote respect and understanding among all political and religious groups in Lebanon. Education in Lebanon is compulsory. Compulsory education in the country was adopted as early as 1736 and influenced the adoption of the compulsory education in Ottoman Empire in 1869 (Hamdan 5). The compulsory education was abandon by the Ottoman Empire rulers but was readopted in Lebanon in 1959. In 1971, the Lebanese education system established Education Centre for research and Development (ECRD) (Hamdan 5). ECRD has a responsibility to drafting state schools’ textbooks, setting the curriculums and overseeing the Lebanese education system at large. Lebanon took part in the world conference that adopted World Declaration on Education for All which classifies education as a human right. This made Lebanese education system to set several objectives and means to achieve them. These objectives include broadening the means and scope of basic education, facilitating universal access to learning and promoting equity. ECRD also changed the curriculum to include subjects such as The atre, Arts and IT at the basic education level. The ministry of education and higher education in 2004 published national strategy for education for all. Lebanon education system consists of primary education and intermediate education, secondary education, vocational and technical education, and higher education (Samira, Achim & Sarhan 55). Primary education in Lebanon has been free since 1987. English, Arabic, and French are the instructional medium in the private schools. The duration of Lebanese primary education is 5 years (Hamdan 15). After completion of primary

Web 2.0 Learning Essay Example for Free

Web 2.0 Learning Essay The original wiki, The Portland Pattern Repository (Portland pattern repository, n. d) was created by Full Name Cunningham in 1995 (c2. com/cgi. wiki? WikiHistory – reference properly – if there is no author use the title of the page The definition of a wiki is a webpage or set of webpages that can be easily edited by anyone who is allowed access (Edersbach et al. ,2006 ). The overriding goal of a wiki is to become a shared repository of knowledge with the knowledge base growing over time (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Chawner and Lewis (2004) noted that a wiki is an example of â€Å"social software†, â€Å"a type of software that makes it easy for groups of people to work in a virtual environment†. However, Viegas , Wattenberg and Dave (2004) indicate that wikis are vulnerable to malicious edits or â€Å"vandalism,† which can be a problem at may levels. However, Cych (2006) argues that acts of vandalism and mistakes are rectified quite quickly by the self-moderation processes at work (a couple of sentences expanding on this issue is needed here – if I were you I’d try and refer to something which discusses the accuracy of wikipedia against the encyclopeadia britannica). As an alternative to the global editing of wiki’s, restricting access to registered users only is often used for professional, work group wikis. One of the great features of a wiki is its capacity to be able easily editable. A wiki has the capacity to be able to be edited collaboratively rather the information presented in wikis have the option to be edited or added utilizing a very rudimentary mark-up computer code that would use a internet explorer or browser. Broken down, one page within a wiki is referred by many as a wiki page as compared to the entire set of wiki pages is called a wiki when taken into consideration (Cunningham Leuf 2001). Thus, it can be generalized that a wiki is a collection of information where contributors can contribute collectively and users can access freely information. This has been proven as one of the most accessible or effective web 2. 0 applications in providing accessible and affordable information to students and researchers. One characteristic of a wiki that has made it so popular in sharing and communicating information to students is its ease of usability. Students need not have a degree in computer science or web applications but rather just the passion of sharing intuition and a little bit of patience in order to learn the scripts involved in the programming. They are free and without any need for registration so that users need not have the need to register or pay any amount (Aigrain 2003). It also offers real-time editing and creation so it provides the opportunity for students, researchers and faculty with much needed time as they acquire, research, and provide information within the educational institution. To summarize, unlike blogs, Wikis tend to be more structured and flexible,and, while blogs can be highly personal, wikis are intensely collaborative (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Wikipedia Wikipedia is full blown example of a Wiki. Wikipedia is the pet-project of Wikimedia Foundation which is a non-profit organization that aims to provide encyclopaedia-type information to internet users. Wikipedia has then turned out to become almost a household name, with more than 8,000,000 online articles that is accessible in the internet and is presented in more than 250 languages (it is noteworthy that almost 2,000,000 of those articles are made in English). These articles are peer-developed, rather they are developed and continually improved by researchers, users and experts of a particular field in order to provide the most accurate and up to date information on a given topic/subject (Hinchcliffe, 2006). Currently, Wikipedia holds just below 610 million words which are approximately 15 times more than what Encyclopaedia Britannica holds in these books (Godwin-Jones, 2003). Because of its nature of being able to be written collaboratively by practically anyone that has something to contribute in the page, its fame and usefulness as a resource for information has steadily increased even from the start of its creation. Currently Wikipedia is within the top ten websites around the world that is being visited daily by users worldwide (Chawner Lewis, 2004). The name â€Å"Wikipedia† that was developed by Wikimedia is a combination of two words – Wiki which points to an online collaborative effort in creating an article or text and Encyclopedia (Godwin-Jones, 2003). But fame is without its critics. Because of Wikipedia’s astronomical rise and open nature, other people critical about these aspects have begun to look closer on wikipedia’s accuracy, precision with respect to how it is able to present information and reliability for users and researchers alike. Wikipedia has been constantly hounded with comments pertaining to high vulnerability of being vandalized and used for spreading wrong information that can be used as reference. However, because of its huge support from users, contributors and sub-programs have begun to address these problems (Chawner Lewis, 2004). In addition to this, there were studies conducted that focused on these two aspects of wikipedia and they showed that in general, Wikipedia’s instances of vandalism is rather short-lived and is as accurate as any other encyclopaedia, online or hard bound. Because of this it has won such prestigious awards as the Time Person of the year that focused on how Web 2. 0 technologies has furthered and practically galvanized online collaboration and collective effort throughout the world in order to produce scholarly articles for free.