"Between Man and Mouse" | a new interpretation of the symbolic meaning behind Steinbeck's characters

John Steinbeck was a leading writer of twentieth-century American literature who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962 for Between Man and Mouse. Between Man and Mouse was Steinbeck's first novel and drama, a short, pithy fable in more than two hundred languages around the world, and a fierce copyright battle in the history of American publishing.

Steinbeck originally named the book "What Happened," but changed the title after reading Pence's poem "To the Mouse."

"Regardless of the human mouse, and then carefully arranged

Accidents are often the case

Nothing but sadness and pain,

The joy of hope is no more! ”

The metaphorical meaning of this book is the powerlessness of human beings in the face of fate and the helpless choice of human beings in the face of loneliness and eternity. But after a hundred years of fermentation, the meaning people get from this book has become richer. As in the movie Fanboys (2009), when trying to get Linus to tell them the story of going to Skywalker Ranch, Hutch says, "Tell me about rabbits, George." "The rabbit thing here represents the unknown and the beautiful thing. For example, in Stephen King's novel Heart of Atlantis, Bobby Garfield uses the "rabbit farm" as a symbol of a happy life. Another example is the TV series My name is Earl (2005), Suplee is a stupid and gentle giant, while Lee, who has been taking care of him, is a cynical and intelligent person. It's like Lenny and George.

The richness of "Between Man and Mouse" may have long exceeded what Steinbeck originally wanted to express, and now I will dissect several representative characters in the book from my own perspective and dig out the symbolic meaning behind them.

01. Lenny: Symbolizes the dream of simple beauty itself.

Lenny, in the novel, has such an image description: "Tall and burly, the facial features are not obvious, the eyes are large, the eyes are dull, and the shoulders are broad but loose and sagging." "At first glance it looks like a bear is walking." He was a big man, surprisingly powerful, but surprisingly simple and stupid, and his mind was like a child's. Good-hearted but often strangled every life in his hand. He loved everything that was furry and cute, and he loved to hear George tell him about rabbits.

In the novel, he is misunderstood and raped for touching the velvet skirt of a farm woman; beaten by the farmer's son and crushes his palm in fear; because he loves to touch the plush puppy, he can't grasp the strength to pinch them to death; because the farmer's son's wife has soft hair, he twists her neck in panic.

Such a grotesque figure is the object of everyone's willingness to talk to, evoking everyone's desire for dreams. He never did things with malice, but he did things that had malicious consequences. In this book, Lenny ends up dying under the pistol of his best friend George.

He is simple and beautiful like the dreams that people first cherished, and everyone is willing to have such dreams, but dreams are so powerful and erratic, puzzling and difficult to grasp.

02. George: Symbolizes the person who pursues his dreams.

George, in the novel, describes it this way: "Short, with strong hands, slender arms, and a thin nose bridge." "He was a flexible and shrewd man, always with Lenny, constantly on the run with the love of troublesome Lenny.

Because Lenny loved to hear him talk about the "rabbit farm", he always told him over and over again, and he was also intoxicated by it. He needs Lenny to be by his side so that he's different from others, "We have a future, we have a future." We can speak our hearts to each other and care for each other. We don't go to a bar and die of drunkenness because we don't have a place. Because of Lenny, he believed that he was not alone, that he would own his own land.

He is different because of His Lenny, companionship and hope, not a homeless wanderer. This is like a person who pursues a dream, because he has a dream, he will draw a boundary with a mediocre person from now on, because of the dream, the soul can rely on something.

At the end of the novel, George shoots and kills Lenny with his own hands. It is also implied that George, who pursues his dreams, abandons his dreams and becomes one of the mediocre people, and has since "drunk and dreamed of death".

03. Candy: Symbolizes a nameless confessor who has no dreams.

Candy, an old man sweeping the floor on a farm without the palm of his right hand. He had a crippled and smelly old dog. This old dog has a symbolic meaning similar to that of Lenny, symbolizing the beliefs buried deep in the hearts of people. When the old dog is rejected and eventually shot and killed by carlson, a farm worker (including a similar ending to Lenny), it also means that Candy's beliefs in his heart are gone. At the moment when the old dog dies, it is doomed that Candy's dream will not be realized, and a person without faith will not realize his dream.

He had dreams, so he was easily attracted to what Lenny and George described as a "farm with rabbits" and was even willing to join in. But his dreams were easily shattered, and as soon as Lenny died, he was disheartened.

This is very similar to most people who are "full of ambition in stages, continue to eat and wait for death", who have no name in their lives, are aimless, and occasionally rise on a whim and are fleeting.

04. Slime: Symbolizes this human society where order is everywhere.

Slime, in the novel, describes him as follows: "His whole person exudes a kind of imperial majesty, a style that only a master and a master have." "He is the leading mule driver, the soul of the convoy." He exuded a solemn and calm demeanor, and as soon as he spoke, everyone immediately fell silent. "He seems to be an order-keeping presence on the farm.

When Carlson, a farm worker, offers to shoot and kill Candy's old dog, Candy pleads repeatedly and occasionally glances at Slime, hoping that Slime will help him intercede. When Slime silently agreed, Candy immediately lost hope and agreed to kill the dog. From here, we can see the majestic image of slime.

He is like the strict order of human society, trapping people in it. He was sometimes just and fair, sometimes almost ruthless. A nameless person like Candy will always be convinced to be trapped in it. He believed in his majesty as well as jealous of his majesty. Isn't that also the case with the human order?

05. Kruk: Symbolizes a person who has lost himself by being oppressed by others.

Cruk, who was a black man, was isolated by farm workers because of his race, and they even saw him as a. He was not allowed to enter the gongliao, he was not allowed to play poker with everyone, he could only live alone in the hut behind the stable, and he could only read a book alone.

When Lenny walked into his cabin, he showed extreme disapproval, but when he talked to Lenny, he showed extreme excitement and a strong desire to talk. When he heard Lenny and Candy talk about "a farm with rabbits", he also showed his yearning and even wanted to join. When Curley's wife walked into his room to express her contempt for them, he even said out loud, "Why did you run to the black man's room?" Who says you can come in and mess around here? You get out, the sooner the better. "It can be seen that he is also self-aware. People who want to fight for themselves.

But when Curley's wife said she was going to hang him, he immediately shrank into a ball, "and the whole person seemed to suddenly shrink, leaning against the wall." "The tighter it gets, the smaller it gets, and it's almost invisible." It was as if he had suddenly lost his personality, suddenly lost himself.

This suddenness of his was formed in countless times of snubs. He is a man who has lost himself to social oppression.

There is also the son of the farmer in the book, content with a little ability and proud and arrogant; the two farm workers symbolize the people who have been depraved for a long time.

Each of the characters in the book can have their own special symbolic meaning today. Isn't that why a classic is a classic?