Comparing Characterization in Steinbecks Of Mice and Men and The Pearl :: Steinbeck Of Mice and Men Essays

Of Mice and Men and The Pearl: Characterization What is depth, and what does it mean? Depth is the extent, the intensity, depth is a distinct level of detail. When someone talks about depth of characterization, they are talking about the level of intensity that someone is using in order to describe a character. John Ernst Steinbeck, in The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath describes many of his main characters in great depth. Steinbeck and Characterization What is depth, and what does it mean? Depth is the extent, the intensity, depth is a distinct level of detail. When someone talks about depth of characterization, they are talking about the level of intensity that someone is using in order to describe a character. John Ernst Steinbeck, in The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, and The Grapes of Wrath describes many of his main characters in great depth. In Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a story of two traveling laborers who are on their way to a job loading barley at a California ranch. The two most important characters in the novel are George Milton and Lennie Small. They are ordinary workmen, moving from town to town and job to job, but they symbolize much more than that. Their names give us our first hints about them. One of Steinbeck's favorite books when he was growing up was Paradise Lost by John Milton. In this long poem, Milton describes the beginnings of evil in the world. He tells of Lucifer's fall from heaven and the creation of hell. He also describes Adam and Eve's fall from grace in the Garden of Eden. By giving George the last name of Milton, Steinbeck seems to be showing that he is an example of fallen man, someone who is doomed to loneliness and who wants to return to the Garden of Eden. Perhaps this is why George is always talking about having his own place and living "off the fat of the land," as Adam and Eve did before their fall. Lennie is anything but small physically. He is a big man who is often described with animal images. In the opening scene of the book his hands are called paws and he snorts like a horse (Steinbeck, Mice 3). Yet Lennie is small on brains and on responsibility. Someone has always taken care of Lennie and done his thinking and talking for him. First his Aunt Clara looked after him, and now George does. He is like a child, a term George uses several times in describing Lennie to Slim.