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OMAM (Parallels and Paradoxes (Clara the brothel owner and Aunt Clara are…
OMAM
Parallels and Paradoxes
Clara the brothel owner and Aunt Clara are two mature women we can compare with each other. While one is exactly what the other isn't, they still have the same name. Aunt Clara is the nice and caring person who looked after Lennie when he was younger. She was open-minded and very generous. On the other hand, Clara the brothel owner was selfish, rude, provocative and she only cared about her money.
Clara the brothel Owner and Suzy are also paradoxes. Both of them have the same job but Clara is really vulgar and tightfisted while Suzy is more charismatic, easy-going and has more education.
Candy and his dog are both very similar. The parallels between those two characters are really present throughout the book. Candy has a missing hand while his dog is really old and handicapped. Both of them are lonely and don't have that much hygiene. It's often repeated, in the first chapters, that Candy's dog smells really bad. With the description of Candy, we can imagine he is the same
George and Lennie are totally different. One of them is the tall, strong, dumb worker while the other one is the brain. They complete each other but their relationship is weird because peoples could think that George, who is smaller and has fewer capacities to do hand-work, takes advantage of Lennie.
When Candy's dog was killed by Carlson, Candy felt really bad and regretted it not doing it himself. At the end of the book, we can see this same situation except that in this case, it was George who had to kill Lennie to avoid him to suffer. We can see that the characters learned from previous experiences.
George and Curley are very similar, and that's probably why they don't like each other. Even though George still has a pure heart because he has Lennie, he is the brain of the duo and takes a leadership role. Curley does the same thing because he thinks that, as the boss's son, he can decide on what is happening.
Crooks, Lennie and Curley's wife are the three outcasts of the book. Crooks is left out because of his skin color, Lennie because of his limited mental capacity and Curley's wife because she is a woman. The three of them are sad and lonely. Lennie and Curley's wife both have this unattainable dream that fills them with hope but Crooks is smart and thinks that because of his skin color, it would be the same thing everywhere.
Curley's wife and the girl in weed have a lot in common. Both of them are directly characterized as pretty, well dressed and heavily made-up and indirectly characterized as trouble makers.
Womens
Women's are considered as objects, we can see that through the fact that they have no name and, if they do have a name, they are either dead or brothel owners which, in both cases is bad. They are sexualised, objectified and considered as trouble-makers
The presence of a brothel in a story where all the characters are males is really significant. It shows that the women's are only there to satisfy their desires and nothing else.
Only one women is actually present in the novella. The others are only mentionned a couple of times.
Curley's wife is described as a stupid troublemaker who should go and work in the kitchen instead of talking to the guys. It is true that she flirts excessively and that her way of dressing-up is inappropriate for a ranch life. In the end of the book, Lennie dies because of her.
Themes
Loneliness lead to meanness is a theme explored throughout the book but it's mostly present in the scene where Crooks makes Lennie feel really sad about George not coming back
Women are an insignificant part of the society: It's clearly expressed that the women are unwanted (see "women" section"
Unachievable dream: Lennie, George, Curley's wife, Crooks, and Candy had dreams for their future but they all got lost somewhere on the way... Either because of the death of someone or because of the control of someone else.
Symbols
For Lennie, the rabbit symbolizes the dream that he and George have of having their own ranch, a few acres, purple rabbits and other farm animals.
For Curley's wife, the letter that she was supposed to receive from the Hollywood actor symbolized her dream of becoming an actress. However, this dream was destroyed because her parents thought she was too young and took the letter away when it came/the star didn't send the letter.
Setting
The 6 chapters of the book start with a precise and detailed description of the setting. For the first chapter, it would be Salinas Valley, the place in California where the story takes place. In the second chapter, the ranch is thoroughly described. The third chapter is lighter on descriptions but the atmosphere in the bunkhouse is still described. The fourth chapter starts with a complete description of Crooks little cabin and the fifth chapter starts with a description of the barn where Curley's wife will die in the sixth chapter. The last chapter is parallel to the first chapter. The Valley is described in a pleasant but also scary way.
Language is very significant in OMAM. In a normal book, the vocabulary would be simple and "normal" while in OMAM, the characters use slang and so does the narrator. It's a way to make the reader dive right into the time period of the book.