John Steinbeck Case
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Innocence
John Steinbeck, the well-known author of The Pearl, Of Mice and Men, and The Red Pony, shows us many points throughout these three novels. Death, lost dreams and suffering of the innocent shows us the good and evil in our world. In these three stories we see the pain and despair of those who do not deserve it. The death of a close family member, the lost dream of one day knowing the ones closest to you will make your family very proud, and the struggle of fighting to stay alive are hard things to go through. Steinbeck uses tragedy to show that being innocent does not always keep safety and harm out of the way.
Death is a powerful thing. In the three book Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, and The Red Pony death occurs. Death in these stories do not just happen to anyone in the story, it only happens to the innocent characters. The innocent animal may die, or the grown man that has a childlike innocence, or maybe even the little baby boy that never even had the chance to grow up and show the world who he is. Death is not an easy thing, especially if it happens to someone so innocent and someone so close to your heart.
Being innocent does not mean death is out of the way. In the book Of Mice and Men many little mice are killed by a man who knows no better. The mice in the story are sweet innocent creatures that do not cause evil; they are just furry soft creatures that have a heart and can calm Lennie. Lennie was given a puppy because it is bigger than a mouse but also very soft. Lennie loved that puppy but he loved it a little too much. He once pet the puppy so hard that he killed it. That puppy was just an innocent creature that got stuck with the wrong person. Death was right in front of him. When a litter of puppies are born only so many will be able to nurse from the mother, since there were so many puppies were born many of them had to be drowned. Those innocent puppies had a very short life. Death was in the path of the innocent puppies. The older dog in the story was in the way but always was sweet. The dog was killed with a gun for no reason. The dog was sweet and innocent and in deaths path. Lennie is a sweet innocent man or “boy” who does not know the difference between right and wrong. He is very polite when it comes to sharing. In the beginning of the story Lennie says to George “Thats good. You drink some, George. You take a good big drink.” This shows us how loving Lennie is. He is as innocent as a child. George asks Lennie “Whatd you take out of that pocket?” Lennie replies “Aint a thing in my pocket.” Lennie is acting like a clever child, but yet he is still being innocent. Lennie is strong but does not realize how strong he is. He has killed many mice, one dog, and a woman. Lennie shook a woman so hard that he killed her with his bare hands. Lennie did not know that what he was doing was wrong, so therefor he is innocent. At the end of the story Lennies best friend George shot him.
In the book The Pearl Coyotito, the son of Kino and Juana, was shot. Coyotito was an innocent baby boy new to the world. Kino had found a pearl and it was called the greatest pearl in the world. The pearl caused Kino, Juana, and Coyotito to get out of town. Trackers started following them to hunt Kino down and get the pearl. In the midst of the tracking Kino and his family one of the trackers thought he heard a coyote, so he shot in the place he thought it was. The tracker ended up shooting sweet and innocent Coyotito. Death was in the path of Coyotito.
In the book The Red Pony tragedy struck young Jody when his pony, Gabilan, passed away. Jody took such good care of Gabilan and loved him dearly. Gabilan became extremely ill to the point where Billy Buck could not even save him. The innocent pony soon became so weak that he made his way to the top of the hill and passed on. Death was in the path of Gabilan. The mother horse, Nellie, had to die in order for her colt to live. Nellie was innocent and loving, but death was in her path.
Struggle, just like death, is not an easy thing to go through. In the three books Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, and The Red Pony, struggle is faced by almost every single character. It may be the struggle of living with a lie, a struggle of making the right decision and doing the right thing. It may even be the struggle to see that life goes on even when it feels like it never will go on. Struggle is a constant reminder that going through things without help will
Struggle is something so hard to go through, it fills hearts with pain and doubt and there is just no stopping it. Although not all struggling is physical, sometimes struggling can be mental or emotional. Struggle can know that someone who is loved is not going to have a future no matter how bad it might have been.
In the book Of Mice and Men almost every character struggles with something. George struggles with the constant battle of knowing he is lying to Lennie. George promised Lennie that one day they would not have to work on someone elses ranch. He promised that they would someday never have to listen to anybody else and nobody could control what they do. George promised Lennie that they would have their own property with many animals and their own things to take care of on the property. Lennie struggles from not knowing what is going on, but when he does know what is going on he struggles with knowing people are annoyed with him and just want him out of their way. Lennie does not know that difference between right