Literature Essay Outline: Anger (student work)

·         Anger is the most significant theme in the novella ‘Of Mice and Men’ because it is the only theme that affects all the characters throughout the text. This is seen with all the main characters in the book.

·         Anger affects George as he becomes frustrated and angry at Lennie when he has to repeat everything and most of the time it doesn’t have a significant impact on his memory. ‘I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ you’re a crazy bastard!’  This shows how George is affected by anger because he gets angry at Lennie because in a way he is angry at himself and Lennie provides a scapegoat on which to place his blame. This is also seen when George points out that he should have left Lennie a long time ago. Racism is not as important a theme as anger as it does not affect George it only separates him from crooks but they talk to each other civilly when Lennie intrudes into Crook’s hut.

·         Also angry that he has to keep on moving the whole time and that his dream is unreachable that is why he blames Lennie

·         Anger affects Curley because: anger at humiliation, CW anger prevents them if wanted to from a proper relationship they are always looking for each other, Georges anger towards him makes everyone else feel anger towards him for example slim ‘I’ll get the rat myself’. Inferiority complex creates anger towards bigger men such as Lennie creating anger towards himself ‘come on ya big bastard’. Friendship does not affect him

·         Anger affects Curley’s Wife because: Angry at herself, angry at her mother, angry she is married to Curley ‘the girl flared up ‘sure I got a husband’’, angry Lennie messes up hair, ‘she cried angrily, ‘You stop it now, you’ll mess it all up’’ always seems angry and when dead her usual anger doesn’t show. Angry when men don’t tell her things

·         Anger Affects Crooks because: anger that his rights are not significant, ‘a black man’s gotta have some rights even if he don’t like them’, he is separated from other men, ‘they play cards in there, but I can’t play cause I’m black’, Angry his race is different, his rights that he has aren’t being respected ‘ you got no rights comin in a colored man’s room’

·         Anger affects Candy because: Dog killed because of anger, anger he didn’t kill it himself ‘I shoulda done it myself’

·         Anger affects Carlson because: Anger towards dog and kills it, doesn’t feel friendship and could be seen to be a predominately angry character. ‘Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys’

·         Anger affects Lennie because: affected by G’s anger towards him, anger at puppy and CW when they die blames it on them, ‘God damn you! Why you got to get killed?’

·         Anger however is not shown with Slim’s character. Steinbeck does not directly articulate that Slim feels anger. It is implied in the final pages that slim feels anger. On the contrary ‘I’ll get that rat myself’ anger reciprocal of Curley’s anger

·         This has shown how anger is the most important theme because of how it directly and indirectly affects all the characters.