Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

18 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

After having to leave their previous town, George and Lennie find themselves on another ranch as a stepping stone for their own future ranch.

This is the first time I've read this book independently since leaving school. School definitely made this book feel longer but it was a quick evening read of 120 pages.

Reading it in Secondary School, I used to think Curley's wife was the villain of the story. But having read it now as an adult, there are no villains. It is just a concise social commentary on life in 1930s America:
1. Sexism: Curley's wife didn't even have her own name and based on her conversation with Lennie, she didn't even have her own life - she just married Curley to get back at her mother. Dreamt of being an actress and making a name for herself.
2. Racism: Crooks also didn't even have his own name. He lived on his own, segregated from the rest of his colleagues based on the colour of his skin. He put up with racist slurs being hurled at him constantly.
3. Ableism: Crooks' nickname comes from his injury. Candy and Lennie get left out of the men's outing to town. And George frequently tells Lennie that Lennie is a burden.

The book is not well-written by modern standards for sure: racist, misogynistic and ableist terminology is rife. The repetition also becomes a bit painful at times. But in little over 100 pages, you understand the characters and there is no need to continue it much further than where it ends.

The story is wanting the American Dream. Everyone in this story wants it, dreams of it, works for it. But in the end, no one really achieves it.

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kearneth's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I do understand why some people would love this (I guess), I truly hated the experience of reading this novel. I found the characters to feel performative and hollow, and I truly was not able to get anything beneficial out of reading this novel.

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eliya's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i was really hoping that this was gonna end with the five of em living their best lives. this is hopelessly devastating.


the scene that steinbeck paints is very well done. heavily descriptive just up to the point where it sets the scene, no further, which i appreciated bc i get dizzy with too much detail.
quick read, horribly packed with internal conflict. poor george. poor lennie. poor mae. i strongly believe that steinbeck was not “demonstrating bias of the period” so much as participating in it heavily.


i’ll think about this book for a while.

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meggg508's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

this book made me feel so angry and conflicted and now i’m like AHH

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marenm's review

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emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0


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kou_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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orchidlilly's review

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Read it for school as I'm sure most people did. It's alright; way shorter than I thought it would be. The writing is good, but it also comes across as a little bit whiney and pessimistic, and it ends up sounding like every other book written and set in that era of time. It's extremely hard to like any of the characters, which might be the point but it made it kind of a slog to read even though it's so short.

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_gabi_'s review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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amiyaabrown's review

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emotional hopeful sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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bella_mckinnon's review

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adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

It was pretty underwhelming I thought. The style of writing and dialogue didn't do it for me, save for Steinbeck's visual imagery of the environment. I could clearly picture the an arid, Western landscape of Depression-era California which I enjoyed. I understand why it's a popular read and a modern classic, but the overall style, themes, characters and plot did not interest me. The simple-mindedness of some characters led to pretty superficial and understandably primitive views of other characters, particularly women like Curly's wife, who isn't even given a name and is always referred to as Curly's wife, as well as black people as seen in Crooks. The constant and flippant use of the n-word in reference to Crooks was also a turn-off, but again, I understand why it was used; it reflected white American views of black people at the time. So, I can see how it resonated with Americans in the 1930s, but it wasn't for me.

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