Comparing Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men
Comparing Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men
The two novels that I have studied, Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men, are very different. Of Mice and Men is set in 1930’s America during the Great Depression. There was a high unemployment rate, which meant that people had to travel along vast amounts of land for a single job. It was a struggle for financial freedom, which is a theme to the novel. Great Expectations is set in England in 1891. During this time, death was a common occurrence and happened often. The main character Pip begins to tell us about death right from the start of the novel and it is a constant theme throughout it.
The landscape in Of Mice and Men starts on a very grand scale first describing ‘golden foothill slopes,’ and then describing the ‘rocky Gabilan Mountains.’ This gives the reader the impression of an immense landscape that has had little or no human contact If I was seeing this area for the first time, the first thing I would notice was how massive and peaceful the area was. I would then notice the smaller things that give the area its natural individuality like: ‘leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs across them.’ The atmosphere of peace and tranquility is achieved by how Steinbeck describes certain areas: ‘the water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands.’ This imagery is very powerful because water makes me feel relaxed and the phrase ‘slipped twinkling,’ helped to emphasize the relaxed slow feel of the area. The ‘yellow sands,’ makes me imagine warmth like a slow afternoon. This leads onto the general fact that Steinbeck has not included any swift motions in his description. Everything is slow, methodical and relaxed. This vivid description helps us appreciate the setting and we it helps to emphasize the entry of the characters shattering the peace later on in the chapter.
In Great Expectations, the landscape is introduced to us in a very different way, than in Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men was set in 1930’s America, but Great Expectations was set in 1861 England and therefore has a very different landscape. We are addressed directly by Pip, and he describes the landscape from his own point of view. ‘Ours is the...