Steinbeck Opening Scene

It isn’t the most stunning room in the world.  The light brown walls and ceiling make the room very warm and welcoming.  There are a few, tiny white spots on the walls from the cheap paint that was used.  A large lofted bed sits on four wooden stilts along the far corner of the walls with its headboard parallel to the shorter side of the rectangular room.  Hanging from the side of the bed is a small rack with a random assortment of clothes dangling from it.  Under the bed is a gray couch and metal shelves.  On the couch is colored pillows that do not fit the color scheme of the room, an unused gym bag, and a worn out school bag.  The shelves are stacked with books, and some dusty old star wars toys.  Across from the bed is a white dresser filled with clothes and a white T.V. on top.  Next to the T.V. is a colorful globe sitting on top of a VCR.  To the right of the white dresser is a lamp.  The lamp has 5 flexible arms extending from the base with a bright bulb at the end of each of them.  The lamp casted many shadows all over the room.  Above the dresser is a clock that seems to stay still as time goes on.   In between the bed and dresser is a desk filled with a large assortment of pens and different materials.  Above the desk is a window with bamboo shutters covering it.  Across from the desk is a closet filled with clothes and shoes.  The whole room is tied together with the dark grey carpet.  On the carpet is a small dog sleeping soundly.   The door is plain white with nothing on it.  As the door knob starts to turn and the door slowly opens, the sleeping dog wakes up and starts barking excitedly.

Of Mice and Men Chapter. 5 Response

In the book Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck illustrates through Curley’s wife that a person might act evil to other people but sometimes it’s because they are misunderstood.  Some of the men on the ranch thought that she was jailbait and tried to avoid contact with her.  She constantly tried to flirt with other men on the ranch despite her marriage.  Because she did these things doesn’t necessarily make her evil.  “Well, I ain’t told this to nobody before.  Maybe I ought’n to.  I don’t like Curley.  He ain’t a nice fella.”  This is what Curley’s wife said to Lennie when they were alone together in the barn.  It shows that she wants to get way from Curley which is why she always is flirting with many other guys on the ranch.  “I lived right in Salinas.  Come there when I was a kid.  Well, a show came through, an’ I met one of actors.  He says I could go with that show.  But my ol’ lady wouldn’t let me.  She says because I was only fifteen.  But the guy says I coulda.  If I’d went, I wouldn’t be livin’ like this, you bet.”  “ ‘Nother time I met a guy, an’ he was in pitchers.  Went out to the Riverside Dance Palace with him.  He says he was gonna put me in the movies.  Says I was a natural.  Soon’s he got back to Hollywood he was gonna write to me about it.  I never got that letter.  I always thought my ol’ lady stole it.  Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of myself.  These two quotes shows that she was always held back by her mother during her life.  They emphasize the fact that her whole life, others were trying to keep her grounded, and Curley is just another one of those people who is restricting her from doing what she wants.  In all, her actions didn’t make her deserve getting killed by Lennie.  She was misunderstood for having bad intentions, when what she really wanted was just to be free from Curley and be free for once in her life.