Both Steinbeck And Shelley Create Characters Who Are Alienated From Society. Discuss How Their Characters Are Portrayed

Essay by adliv666College, UndergraduateA+, December 2002

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Both Steinbeck And Shelley Create Characters Who Are Alienated From Society. Discuss How Their Characters Are Portrayed

In both "Frankenstein" and "Of Mice and Men", there have been characters created who have been alienated from society.

We can compare the characters of the creature and Lennie; they are described as or given the image of their child like behaviour and thoughts, "His jaws opened, and he muttered some inarticulate sounds while a grin wrinkled his cheeks". This made the creature seem like a baby. This was in the part of the novel where the creature was created. Mary Shelley makes the creature seem like a baby and makes it so the creature sees Victor as a father to amplify the creature's feelings when he is rejected by Victor. "Blubberin' like a baby! Jesus Christ! A big guy like you." This shows Lennie's child like side. I think Steinbeck made Lennie more child like because it creates more sympathy for Lennie when George gets angry at him and when Curly hits him.

Another way to compare these two characters is by their size and strength that make these two characters so isolated by the rest of society. The creature is described as inhuman or superhuman, "His stature, also, as he approached, seemed to exceed that of a man." He is also described as inhuman when he is on the ship, "Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to describe; gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its proportions. As he hung over the coffin his face was concealed by long locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and apparent texture like that of a mummy." He is never described like a man in the entire novel. Lennie though is described as an...