"Of Mice And Men" Compare the opening of the novel "Of Mice and Men" with the opening of the film of the same name, using the language of media.

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"Of Mice And Men"

Compare the opening of the novel "Of Mice and Men" with the opening of the film of the same name, using the language of media.

The opening of the novel is a panorama to set the scene. Steinback deliberately illustrates a picture with the words he uses to show how he would stage this story as a theatre production. He does this intentionally at the start of each chapter. At the commencement of the novel Steinback supplies us with the Gabilan Mountains, the Salinas River, the town of Soledad, a narrow pool, a path through the willows, birds and animals and finally men.

The opening scene of the "Of Mice and Men" film is very gripping and stimulating for the audience as a result of the effecting haunting music combined with glimmers of light peeking through the darkness of what is perceived to be a train carriage, where George seems to be reminiscing.

The opening of the novel, however, is entirely different. No atmosphere is needed. It uses a lot of detailed descriptions to show its pleasant and tranquil atmosphere:

"On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones."

and

"on

crisp sycamore leaves."

The atmosphere of the film continues to build with intermittent lighting which, subsequently, gives the impression of movement until the ambient light finally rests on George's face. The music continues and swells until a flashback occurs and the lighting suddenly changes to brilliant sunlight and we see a long shot of a girl in a red dress frantically running towards the camera in an open field. As she approaches the camera we see the terrified expression on her face and notice that her dress is ripped and we realize that something bad has happened. The camera...