Motifs (Grade This)

Have you thought about all the different motifs that occurred in the story Of Mice and Men? What about how the women in the book corrupted others. Loneliness and companionship was also a motif along with strengths and weaknesses. You see them multiple times through the whole story.
Let’s start by pointing out the motif, corrupting women. First, how about the flophouse girls that were briefly in the book. It’s easy to see how they corrupted the men. Even in their short appearance in the book they managed to corrupt the men by simply using man’s known weakness of their strong hormones. Secondly, Aunt Clara played her part of being corruptive. I mean have you ever thought about about the difference in the story if the “sweet old” Aunt Clara hadn’t given Lennie soft things to pet. For one Lennie would never had killed his new puppy whom he loved and cherished and two he would have never killed Curly’s Wife. Just the fact that Curly’s Wife would have still been alive is a big difference. Lennie would probably never been shot and he probably would have been able to tend the rabbits. “Thanks a lot Aunt Clara!” Thirdly, we all know about Curly’s Wife corrupting powers. She was like Little Nicole. Her name was nothing but trouble for any man she came near. If it wasn’t for flirtatious behavior Lennie would have been alive to tend the rabbits.
Don’t forget about the motif of loneliness and companionship. Lennie and George were like brothers as you may interpret it. However George of course was the older brother. He tried his best to look out for Lennie and keep him out of trouble. Later on in the story Candy made his offer to become a part of their companionship. What about the lonely people though like Crook and Curly’s Wife. Even though Crook said he didn’t want any whites in his home. It was obvious that he was dieing for a friend he could talk to. The same goes for Curly’s Wife. We saw that her life was everything but a good time. All she did was sit around and wait for Curly to come home. That ain’t right!
Last but not least, strengths and weaknesses were a motif in this book, especially with Lennie. Lennie had weaknesses were his retardation and his lack of gentleness with fragile things. Just them alone got him into more trouble then he could handle. His strengths were his strength when working out in the fields and his acceptance of other people. Both gave him some benefits in the story, however his strength of being accepting of others also got him into trouble with Curly.
I’m sure you didn’t even realize all these motifs in the story. Just to remind you they were corrupting women, loneliness and companionship, and strengths and weaknesses of Lennie. Besides the ones identified what repetitive acts did you see?