Capturing Cruelty in the Opening Scene of Essay

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Capturing Cruelty in the Opening Scene of John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The English author and historian Edward Gibbon once wrote that, "The works of man are impotent to the assaults of nature." Nowhere is this philosophical perspective better captured than in the John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The novel tells the story of two migrant agricultural workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, during the Great Depression in 1930's California. A central theme in the novel is man's cruelty to one another and how it drives them to hurt other human beings as in the case of Curley's viscous attack on the mentally-handicapped Lennie. In the opening scene of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the author establishes a contrast between innocence and cruelty through the use of expansive descriptions of nature, symbolism and characterization. This opening dichotomy is vital to an understanding of the theme of cruelty and the larger structure of the novel in light of its violent and disturbing end.

In the beginning passages of the novel, the reader encounters dramatic idyllic imagery of a riverbed in rural California. The scene is described as a winding tree-lined creek at the foot of "golden foothill slopes" where, "The Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool." The author continues to detail the physical beauty of the area but begins to describe nature as if it were an active agent, "The evening of a hot day started the little wind to move among the leaves," and "The shade climbed up the hills toward the top." Through descriptions such as these a picture of untrammeled innocent nature that is free of man-made intervention is forged by the author.

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Furthermore, through focusing on the physical beauty of nature the ugliness of man's actions is highlighted in regards to the deeds perpetrated later in the novel. To provide a contrasting example from the end of the work, Steinbeck writes in the final scene, "The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again." In this sentence we see no flowery adjectives like the opening scene's "golden foothill slopes" or the river running "deep and green" but only a single noun: hills. In short, by the end of the novel nature has stopped being an actor and transitioned to being a passive agent letting the violent actions of mankind roll over it uncontested. This fits into the larger theme of the novel regarding cruelty and how the actions of men not only corrupt themselves but the world around them.

The opening scene of the novel is also remarkable for its use of symbolism to drive home the novel's larger theme of cruelty and its effects. We see George describe in the opening scene his idealized farm, the few acres of nature where they will grow their own food and escape from the cruelty of the world. This is a major symbol in the novel as the dream of developing the land, of spoiling its natural beauty, is used to seduce the characters and lead them into temptation. Though introduced in the opening paragraph, characters throughout the entire book are drawn to its physical beauty and idyllic appeal from Candy to the cynical Crooks. A paradise for those who want to be in control of their own lives, the farm represents the possibility of freedom, self-reliance and safety from the cruelties of the world. Yet, it is during a detailed description of….....

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