Loss

Question 1

George losing lennie, he has to shoot him

Answer 1

• merciful justice displayed when Georges shoots Lennie, as he spares him of a brutal mob attack.
• he shoots him, so justice is obtained but out of mercy not malice as George does what is best for him
• ‘I just done it’ – not proud of it but knows its for best
• also demonstrated when Curley is humiliated after attacking Lennie, as he deserves the spectacle, ‘Curley was flopping like a fish on a line’
• Steinbeck demonstrates to reader how some justice is necessary and sometimes is beneficent for the greater good of society
• In society there was large in justice and when white supremacies lynched black people, there was almost never any Justice. Steinbeck shows that Justice is essential and society needs to change

Question 2

Curley’s wife losing her future

Answer 2

‘ he says he was gonna put me in the movies, he says I was a natural’

• The establishment of dramatic irony emphasises the tragedy of Curley’s wife’s life.
• Her dream was never materialised. ‘He says I was a natural’ -noun.
• He was only complimenting her to get her to do what he wanted.
• In reality it was never going to happen, reflecting the inevitable tragedy of a working class woman trying to make something of herself. Reader feels sympathy for how she was groomed. Golden age of Hollywood when this was a common thing.
• Now she’s left isolated, confined and unhappy on the ranch. With the sickening dramatic irony that her dream was never going to come true. Her happiness and hope for the future, essentially an insidious lie from a perverted movie director

Question 3

George’s loss of his dream, most pivotal moment in the book

Answer 3

• ‘they got a future’
• ‘An’ live of the fatta the lan’
• ‘I knowed we’d never do her’. = sad; Georges strive for self-sufficiency was ironically out of his control