Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel Essay -- Mice Men Jo

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck: Film vs. Novel The film is severely different from the novel, as the director, Gary Sinise, made deliberate changes to influence the audience's feelings and reactions. He has altered and added scenes as he saw this as necessary to create the right kind of atmosphere and to keep the plot flowing. The whole story is about two men, George and Lennie. These are very two very different characters; the novel describes them as opposites. Lennie is a very large and burly while George is 'small and quick'. In the book they wear exactly the same thing, but as the film has to rely on devices and stereotypes to pass the message across quickly, they dress Lennie in dungarees to show how different they area and to show the childlikeness of Lennie. There is a problem with Lennie; he has a child's mind. This causes many problems for the pair and results in Lennie's unavoidable death. There are two things that cause these many problems- one being the fact that Lennie likes to stroke soft things. When he was young, his aunt Clara had given him a piece of velvet (it only makes you wonder if he hadn't have lost that, his life might have been saved.) Because of his "condition", he likes to keep mice. But once again his strength is a problem. When he's scared he holds onto things, so, when the mice bite him he crushes them to death. These problems echo through the story, Curly's hand, the pup and ultimately Curly's wife. There are three particular differences, the beginning and the end and Curly's wife. In the beginning of the novel, the author sets the scene quite vividly, and explains it in explicit detail. In the beginning of the film there are white credits on a black b... ...r if she deserves it. In the novel she walks in uninvited to join Crooks, Lennie and George in Crook's room. She threatens Crooks with being lynched and the way she does this makes her come across as vile and bitter. In the film she doesn't; she catches the men outside and talks at one point. She says Curley became mad and smashed all her records, this immediately makes you feel sorry for her as she is clearly vulnerable. All doubts are erased as you listen to what she says next and sympathise with her; this is something the novel tries to avoid doing. Her death scene is exactly the same, showing that whatever the character may be like, we all sympathise with her tragic death. Although the novel and film have the same story line, just by altering certain things you get a whole different aspect and create a totally different effect on the audience.