One of my favorite novels, Of Mice and Men, presented a clear quest of two characters striving towards one goal in the beginning, but reaching another in the end.
1. Our quester: two men, Lennie and George, who have been best friends since they were small children. Lennie is a large, mentally disabled man who relies on George, a small, sharp man, to get through each day.
2. A place to go: George and Lennie are dropped off by a bus many miles from where they are to start work on a plantation. They must first make it through camping together one night in order to make it to their destination where…
3. A stated reason to go there: George has a dream of owning his own land and starting a farm where he and Lennie can live together without having a boss.
4. Challenges and trials: Lennie is mentally disabled which holds back George from already fulfilling his dream. Lennie doesn’t understand or know how to control his own strength. George has to continuously cover for Lennie in order for the two to keep their job and keep earning money. Also, Curly’s wife, a much too flirtatious women, causes the biggest challenge of all, George’s decision of how to truly save Lennie from an awful, life-threatening mistake. Wealth presents reoccurring trials throughout the book because in society, the strong, or rich, always defeat the weak, the poor. Reaching the “American Dream” is also an impossible dream to reach that is George’s main goal.
5. The real reason to go: George has always been just as attached to Lennie as Lennie was dependent on him. Throughout the quest, George discovers more and more that Lennie is not capable of living the perfect life style George has set up for him in his imagination. Also, George realizes that no one is capable of living that perfect lifestyle, not even himself. Through continuous struggles to earn enough money for the all-important acre of land, George learns that hard and constant work can never buy true happiness and also learns what it is to be a true friend to Lennie, knowing exactly what is best for him.
Monday, June 20, 2011
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