Of Mice And Men Theme Essay

Words: 605
Pages: 3

In the story, “Of Mice and Men”, the author, John Steinbeck, portrays the theme of grief and pain for promised joy but will inevitably end in failure. To start off with, one example of the theme in the story is when Lennie gets his mice taken away from him while they are walking to the new farm. Lennie shows how he always kills the mice that he pets and he is ready to have rabbits that aren't as fragile,”Lennie looked sadly up at him. "They was so little," he said apologetically. "I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little. I wish’t we’d get the rabbits pretty soon, George. They ain’t so little.’”(Steinbeck 9-10). Lennie is sad that he does not have the mouse anymore to pet, but he is hopeful that someday he will get his own rabbits that …show more content…
This was the beginning of the end for Lennie as he starts to make panicked decisions later that would put him in a bad position which would leave him not being able to tend to the rabbits. Lastly, along with Lennie getting his mice taken away and Lennie getting a puppy, another example of steinbeck showing the theme of grief and pain for promised joy is when Lennie and George were getting money to buy a house and some land to live off of. Lennie tells about how he is feeling in the moment when he knew that he would not be able to tend to the rabbits and get a ranch of their own,”’I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing.’ He pawed up the hay until it partly covered her”(Steinbeck 91-92). In this action, Lennie knew that he was for sure in trouble for what he had done and was very doubtful that he would eventually be able to tend the the rabbits. He had been hopeful before, but this was worst. Now Lennie would find himself failing again with the pain and grief because of what he had