Friday, February 21, 2014
"OF Mice and Men"
Watch the movie "Of Mice and Men" and choose one of the topics addressed in the story. Then, compare it to the situation in our context .
1. Role of women in that time
2. Workers' living conditions
3. Friendship
4. Racial discrimination
5. Metaphors (love, animals'slaughters, etc.)
6. Isolation
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ReplyDelete4. Racial Discrimination
ReplyDeleteIn the movie “Of Mice and Men” we can see in a very clear and forcible way several types and ways of racism that black people have to endure some years ago (and even nowadays) just because they have a different skin colour.
In the particular case of the movie the only character with black skin must bear every single way of discrimination from the others. For instance his boss does not have a worthy job from him, (his work is the worst), also he has not the freedom to go where his coworkers go, he cannot have a place where they rest and sleep, and something even more trivial, he cannot speak with anybody, and all these silly restrictions just because he has black skin.
In order to make a little parallel of racial discrimination before and nowadays, it is possible to affirm that thanks to the civil rights movement the situation not only from black people but also for the minorities have changed a lot but not enough; because still in this century, it is possible to find several cases of racial discrimination in so many aspects and categories like sports, politics, religion, etc.
4.Racial discrimination.....
ReplyDeleteEven in our times, there are traces of slavery and racism. However I can say, that now, the world tries to have another perspective. Nevertheless I can say, that now the world tries to have another perspective, to look with more compassionate eyes at the problem of discrimination that invades us.
In the movie, though more explicit, in the book of Of mice and men, they show us an overwhelming epoch, times of suffering, where our forbears had to take the burden of the slavery, the persons of black race only were used and outraged . They could not share with white skin people, because at that time Africans decent were of dirty blood, and skin. They had separate bedrooms, their opinion, or their conversations had no power or sense simply because of their skin color.
In despite of campaigns and advertisements, even in the twenty-first century there is racism, because we could not cut the mental shackles of the past, we have much to work with. You can tell that some are more lenient with those who suffered everything, and nobody rewarded them anything.
2. Workers' living conditions
ReplyDeleteThe workers' living condition of the film are hard. They have to work all day, they don't have social security, and they don't have a good salary. Even though the workers have meal that's not enough for a good life.
There is man who has the worst living conditions because he is black and the white men don't let him to do things they normally do.
It can be compare whith the workers' condition of nowadays.Many workers of the country who have to spend their work force just for a litle income without the right conditions of a worker.
life in country some times is not easy. and even more when goverment does not help and invest in the people of those regions some time far off the city.
I agree with you, but I also think that here, in this country not only they who works on the farms have bad living conditions; we can also see that the same thing happened with people who live in the big cities and that earn the miserable colombian salarie. Some of them maybe have social secuity that's true; but obviously the money they earn is not enough to accomplish all their obligations.
Delete1. Role of women in that time:
ReplyDeleteThe first and most remarkable thing that I could notice in the movie was that the name of Curley’s wife was never mentioned, not once. Which says a lot of women’s importance in that time. In my opinion, men of the ranch had two perspectives about what women are and how they deserve to be treated: On the one hand, men considered that women had no importance, and that the only purpose of their lifes was to serve men . That’s why Curley’s wife wasn't called by her own name, because nobody thought that she was important by herself, as an individual person. On the other hand, she was seen as a temptation and was associated with evil because of her beauty and the way men felt attracted by her.
Since this woman felt so ignored and lonely, she wore a lot of make up and dressed provocative to flirt with the ranchers and find some attention. Nevertheless, she knew that her purpose in life was bigger than just find some attention in a group of ranchers. She had a dream, she wanted to be a famous actress that implies being recognize and respected by society .
Certainly role of women has changed in our society, nowadays there are laws that protect us and we have gained significant legal rights. However, for many people , including some women, men are still the stronger gender. Therefore, in many cases women choose to live unhappy depending on men because they have fear to not be successful by themselves.
Of metaphors and associations
ReplyDeleteAs a movie and a piece of art work in general, the movie is full of metaphors, for me, this movie runs in circles, because every sign repeats itself until the cycle is closed, it doesn't make it a bad thing, it's part of the whole metaphore of life, lonelyness, love... That makes it an awesome film I think. The metaphors that I chose, besides, illustrate as well my idea of cycle in the movie :
1) A beautiful woman running away in a red dress: Lenny and George started the movie escaping from one place because of a woman, at the beginig we just have a hint of it, and at the end they seem to be in a simillar position. The red-dressed woman is a beauty and maybe the representation of what they can't have, in the case of Lenny, something pretty to hold, and in George's love, true companion, stability, because what a woman usually represents (stereotypically speaking, and movies play with stereotypes) is the idea of a family.
2) A train: in painting, a road, a car, or a train, are synonims or images of change, of moving forward, and in Lenny and George's case was pretty clear that they craved for it. Again the sign repeats itself at the end of the movie, but maybe in a darker way because now George is alone, and the future that he dreamed of was more uncertain than ever.
3) The mice: It may seem silly or random, but Lenny loves little creatures and they seem to die everytime they spend to much time with him; he's kind and loves beauty, but cannot take care of anything living because he's too strong and doesn't even realizes it. He destroys everything he loves without even notice it...even the dream that he and George had.
4) The old man's dog: The old man's old dog is a metaphor of life, death and friendship, we can see reflected on the old man's relationship with his dog Lenny and George's. The old man took care of his dog even if it was a bother and of no use for everyone else because it was his only friend as well as George did with Lenny even if he was cognitively disable and always led him into trouble. When the sign repeat itself and Lenny and George were in the same position that the old man and his dog at some point, Georges takes the desition that the old man couldn't.
5) Pigeon flying: We associate birds with freedom and peace, even more pigeons. When the girl dies, a pigeon started flying around the barn. The girl was like a caged bird, she was like a little defenseless exhibition animal that no one took care off. Some say that dead is a release, some disagree (I put that into your consideration), but if we talk about images, what this one says is: she was now free.
3. Friendship
ReplyDeleteIn the movie we can see a little approach of what a friendship is but to be honest I think there is not a friendship at all.
At first we can appreciate a kind of friendship between George and Lennie. I said “kind of” because even that they have been traveling and working together for a while George takes care of Lennie more because he has compassion for him ,in addition, he express several times how easy his life would be without Lennie. Then, they actually never have a strong relationship, George just helps Lennie to survive and of course they are next to each other all the time but not together.
Secondly there was a kind man on the ranch whose name was Slim. He was much more open than the rest of the men on the ranch. There was a moment when all men were working and George wanted some water, Slim gave some to him and they had the opportunity to talk for a little bit, actually Slim invited George into conversation. I will say that probably Slim wanted to be kind with the new worker but in my opinion they didn't really build a relationship.
Finally Curley's wife tried several times to invite Lennie into conversation, almost at the end of the movie she got it. In fact, she feels a need for companionship but her husband doesn’t fill it. Because Lennie is innocent and thinks like a child and Curley's wife was so desperate for someone to talk with, there was an approach between them. Both of them wanted to have a friend but they never had the opportunity to have a close friendship because right at that moment a tragedy happened.
In conclusion, in the movie “Of Mice and Men” we can see how people live their hard life: working the whole week and wasting their money on prostitutes and alcohol on weekends. Most of them don’t care about their future, they just live a monotonous and without sense life where they work because they have to do it but they don’t even care about having a good personal relationship between them or to share their happiness or sadness with a close friend who listen to and care about their feelings.