Main Charactersdline">Main Characters

• George Milton – A small and quick, dark of face and hair, cynical ranch hand. He looks after Lennie and dreams of a better life.
• Lennie Small – A man who travels with George. There is irony in his last name, as it is "Small" while he is a very big man physically. He is unaware of his own strength. His mental deficiency manifests in an obsession to stroke soft materials. Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife, and he is killed by George with a gun in order to be spared Curley's bitter revenge. His mental deficiency is never specified, but is suspected to be autistic and mentally retarded.^{[citation needed]}
• Candy – Candy is near to the end of his useful life on the ranch and he knows he has little to look forward to. The loss of his hand stresses the casual violence of the ranch-workers' lives. He also loses his dog - the only companionship he has enjoyed. However, he is given renewed comfort, strength and self-respect by the prospect of a part-ownership of 'the dream farm' with Lennie and George.
• Curley – Curley is an unpleasant, curly-haired character. He is the boss's son. He is a proficient boxer. He often picks fights and detests large people because he is self-conscious about his small stature. He takes a particular disliking to Lennie. During the book he picks a fight with Lennie because he mistakenly believes that Lennie is laughing at him. Lennie initially does not defend himself, but, at George's urging to fight back, he grabs Curley's hand and crushes it.
• Curley's wife – A young, sexy, pretty woman; sometimes called a "tart" by the men, she is gentle toward Lennie and doesn't take advantage of him. She is not named and is the only woman mentioned on the male-oriented ranch. She often flirts with the ranch men as a cry for attention and secretly hates her husband as he sees her as his trophy. She wanted to become an actress, but was unable to accomplish her goals.
• Slim – A jerkline skinner and the moral yardstick at the ranch, referred to as a "prince." All the other characters respect him, as he has an omniscient and omnipotent presence. He is illustrated as a Christ-like figure. Curley suspects he is having an affair with his wife. Slim helps Lennie avoid getting fired after the fight with Curley. Sometimes portrayed as the homosexual (with Lennie Small) of the ranch, (at one point in the original unedited first edition, often now removed due to modern political correctness)
• Crooks – The only black person on the ranch. He has a crooked back. He is discriminated against and has to sleep alone behind the stables, but he is allowed to play horseshoes with the other ranch workers. Due to his isolation, he judges people before he gets to know them. He likes his privacy, but is secretly pleased when Lennie visits him.
• Carlson – A large and insensitive man. He shoots Candy's dog and seems to have almost no empathy. He is the typical ranch worker at the time of the book. He owns a Luger.
• Whit – A young man; enthusiastic about life on the ranch, and is a regular visitor to the ranch. Wants to be in the action, wants to be accepted by all the other people.
• The Boss – He is Curley's father and he runs the ranch. Supposedly a nice man (despite a minor anger problem,) but he never takes part in the day-to-day action in the ranch. He does not respect his son.
• Aunt Clara – Lennie's previous guardian. Although she never directly appears, she plays a key role after Lennie kills Curley's Wife. Lennie's uses his visions of her as a way to deal with the guilt and consequences of his actions. She is the only positive female character in the story.

III.        Controversy

The novel was banned from various American school libraries or curricula in 1993 and 1994 for "promoting euthanasia" but remains required reading in many other American, Australian, British and Canadian high schools. Due to the novel's content it has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number six.

IV.       The creation of the novella

Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's first attempt at writing his form of novel called the play-novelette. He wanted to write a novel that could be played from its lines or a play that could be read like a novel. He considered this work a failure in the sense that it did not accomplish this.

Steinbeck originally titled it Something That Happened, however he changed the title after reading Robert Burns' poem, To a Mouse. The poem tells of the regret the narrator feels for having destroyed the home of a mouse while plowing his field. In essence, it tells of how no plan is fool-proof and how one can never truly be prepared for the future, for even the best of plans can go wrong.

Steinbeck wrote this book, along with The Grapes of Wrath, in what is now Monte Sereno, California, in his home at 16250 Greenwood Lane. Steinbeck's dog ate an early manuscript of the novel. It was very different from the final work.

The American (novel)

The American is a novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly in 1876-1877 and then as a book in 1877. The novel is an uneasy combination of social comedy and melodrama concerning the adventures and misadventures of Christopher Newman, an essentially good-hearted but rather gauche American businessman on his first tour of Europe. Newman is looking for a world different from the simple, harsh realities of 19th century American business. He encounters both the beauty and the ugliness of Europe, and learns not to take either for granted. The core of the novel concerns Newman's courtship of a young widow from an aristrocatic Parisian family.

I.    Plot summary

The novel opens in the Louvre, where Christopher Newman, a rich, (early) retired businessman and Civil War veteran, meets the pretty but amateurish copyist Noemie Nioche at "work" in the museum. He also meets Tom Tristram, an oafish old friend from America, who takes him to meet his wife Lizzie.

Lizzie Tristram, a perceptive if somewhat bitter woman, introduces Newman to Claire de Cintre, a rather ethereal French noblewoman. Newman falls in love with Claire and they agree to marry. Claire's mother, Madame de Bellegarde, and her older brother, Urbain de Bellegarde, are of two minds about Newman. They like his money but can't abide his democratic and commercial nature. Claire's younger brother, the appealing and energetic Valentin de Bellegarde, becomes good friends with Newman and favors his marriage to Claire.

Claire's mother and older brother finally forbid her marriage to Newman, despite his best attempts to appease them. Meanwhile, Valentin has met and fallen for the worthless Noemie Nioche and is mortally wounded in a duel over the girl. As he lies dying, Valentin tells Newman a grim family secret: his mother and older brother murdered his father.

After her marriage is forbidden Claire enters a Carmelite convent, much to Newman's despair. Newman obtains written evidence of the murder committed by Madame de Bellegarde and Urbain, and determines to use it as revenge against them. But Newman's own good nature frustrates his plan, as he finally decides that revenge would be useless. In the novel's closing scene he burns the incriminating document. And yet, even in that ending, Newman's good nature is torn in two -- the novel's ending could hardly be considered "closed."

II.  Major themes

The plot summary alone should alert the reader to the split in the book. The first half of the novel - Newman's courtship of Claire and his efforts to ingratiate himself with her family - is a witty and perceptive treatment of the clash between Newman's brash and assertive American nature and the haughty, traditionalist views of the French aristocracy. This portion of the novel delights most readers with its humor and grace.

Unfortunately, the second half of the book descends into dubious and sometimes laughable melodrama, with the duel, the convent, and the deep dark family secret. James still writes with vigor and a sure eye for detail, especially in Valentin's death scene. But many readers have found it impossible to take all the plot material seriously.

Newman's renunciation of his chance for revenge is well prepared by James' treatment of his open and appealing nature, though some may consider his refusal stilted and unconvincing. The renunciation theme would echo throughout much of James' fiction, with characters giving up material advantages because of moral scruples.

The American was popular as one of the first international novels contrasting the rising and forceful New World and the cultured but sinful Old World. James originally conceived the novel as a reply to Alexandre Dumas, fils' play L'Étrangère, which presented Americans as crude and disreputable. While Newman is occasionally too forward or cocksure, his honesty and optimism offer a much more favorable view of America's potential.

III.        Literary significance & criticism

When James came to revise the book in 1907 for inclusion in the New York Edition of his fiction, he realized how fanciful much of the plot was. He made enormous revisions in the book to try to make all the goings-on more believable, but he was still forced to confess in his preface that The American remained more of a traditional romance rather than a realistic novel.

Most critics have regretted the New York Edition revisions as unfortunate marrings of the novel's original exuberance and charm. The earlier version of the book has normally been used in modern editions. Critics generally concede that the second half of the novel suffers from improbability, but still find the book a vivid and attractive example of James' early style. More recently, some pundits have taken Newman to task as an obnoxious and even imperialistic westerner. But James' hero still finds many supporters, among critics and readers in general.

The American generally flows well and is easily accessible to today's reader, more so than some of James's later novels. Newman's friendship with Valentin de Bellegarde is particularly well-drawn, and the descriptions of upper-class Parisian life are vivid. The modern reader may be somewhat taken aback, however, that in a lengthy novel primarily about courtship and marriage, James totally ignores the theme of sexual attraction. Newman seems to see Claire de Cintre only in terms of her elegance and suitability as a consort for a rich and accomplished man like himself. As for Claire, we learn nothing about what transpired between her and her first (much older) husband, nor is anything significant revealed about her feelings for Newman. Only the mercenary Mademoiselle Nioche is presented as a sexual being, and this only in the most oblique and negative terms. Even by Victorian standards, James's reticence on sexual matters is striking.

The Great Gatsby (by Scott Fitzgerald 1925)

The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, the story is set in New York City and Long Island during the summer of 1922.

The novel chronicles an era that Fitzgerald himself dubbed the "Jazz Age." Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and consumption of alcohol mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and encouraged organized crime. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and lack of morality that went with it.

The Great Gatsby was not popular upon initial printing and sold fewer than 25,000 copies during the remaining fifteen years of Fitzgerald's life.

Although it was adapted into both a Broadway play and a Hollywood film within a year of publication, it was largely forgotten during the Great Depression and World War II. After it was republished in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership, and is now often regarded as the Great American Novel. It is now a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world.

I.    Plot summary

Nick Carraway, a bond dealer from the Midwest, befriends his neighbor Jay Gatsby, an extremely wealthy man known for hosting lavish soirées in his Long Island mansion. Gatsby's great wealth is a subject of much rumor; none of the guests Nick meets at Gatsby's parties know much about his past. Nick also visits Tom Buchanan, a phenomenally wealthy former college athlete, and his wife Daisy, who is Nick's cousin.

Gatsby is famous for his parties. Every Saturday, hundreds of people come to Gatsby's house for the lavish parties. Nick soon finds himself in this party scene, although he states that he despises the entire concept of mindless entertainment. Later, Nick learns from Gatsby that Gatsby was holding these parties in hopes that Daisy, his former lover, would stumble into one of them by chance. Daisy and Gatsby soon begin an affair after a meeting arranged by Nick, at Gatsby's request, which is at first strained (unnerving Nick), but turns more communicative when Gatsby begins to relax. In the meantime, Nick and Jordan, a character first introduced during Nick's first visit to Tom and Daisy's home, start a relationship, which Nick already predicts will be superficial.superficial.

Eventually, in an explosive scene, Tom notices Gatsby's love for Daisy and that Gatsby is also a bootlegger. Tom claims that he's been "researching" about Gatsby and expresses his hatred towards Gatsby by untactfully accusing Gatsby of illegal activities. During this scene, Gatsby forces Daisy to claim that she has never loved Tom in hopes of erasing the last five years of her past so that she may simply come back to him. Daisy says what Gatsby tells her to say, but hesitantly. Tom, noticing this uncomfortable bond between Daisy and Gatsby, orders them to drive back home from the hotel back to Tom's house together, mocking Gatsby by saying that he knows nothing can happen between Daisy and Gatsby. Tom takes his time getting home with Nick and Jordan.

George Wilson and his wife, Myrtle, with whom Tom is having an affair, are also having an argument. She runs out of the house, only to be hit by Gatsby's car, driven by Daisy, and is killed instantly. On the way back home, Tom, Jordan, and Nick notice the car accident. Tom mutters that Wilson, who is an auto repairman, will finally have some business, but stops shortly after noticing something wrong. Tom soon realizes that his lover is dead. During this grotesque scene, Wilson comes out of his shop, half-insane and half in shock and talks about a yellow car. Tom leads Wilson into a private place and tells him that the yellow car was not his - Tom was driving Gatsby's yellow car when they were driving to the hotel and stopped by at Wilson's for gasoline. Wilson does not seem to listen and from that point and after that confrontation, Wilson is portrayed as an insane character. He stays up all night rocking back and forth, muttering nonsense while his neighbor patiently watches over him. He finally makes the connection that whoever driving that yellow car must have been the man Myrtle was having an affair with and makes up his mind to find that yellow car.

He finds himself in Tom's house with a gun and Tom - while packing for an escape trip with Daisy - gives Wilson Gatsby's name. In the meantime, Gatsby is sitting by his pool, overwhelmed with depression, thinking that Daisy no longer loves him. While he is still hoping for a call from Daisy, Wilson comes and shoots Gatsby. He then commits suicide on the lawn not too far away.

The press and police label Wilson as "insane" the moment they see what has happened. This angers Nick because Wilson was the average man who eventually ended up dying a death caused by Tom's affair and Daisy's recklessness.

With Gatsby dead, Nick tries to find people who will attend his funeral only to find that not even his crooked business partners will be there to mourn for him. Finally, Mr. Gatz, Gatsby's father (Gatsby gave himself a new name after leaving home) comes to the funeral, apparently still trapped in the past. He shows Nick a well-worn photograph of Gatsby's house and a book that Gatsby wrote in as a child.

Only three people attend Gatsby's actual funeral - Nick, Mr. Gatz, and "Owl Eyes," a random man who had enjoyed Gatsby's parties, and whom Nick never sees again. After permanently severing connections between himself and Jordan, Tom, and Daisy, Nick leaves New York and goes back to the Midwest.

II.Composition

With Gatsby, Fitzgerald made a conscious departure from the composition process of his previous novels. He began composing the novel in 1923, but ended up discarding most of the false start—though some of it would resurface in the story "Absolution." Unlike his previous works, Fitzgerald intended to heavily edit and reshape Gatsby, believing that it held the potential to launch him toward literary acclaim. He told his editor Max Perkins that the novel was a “consciously artistic achievement," and a "purely creative work—not trashy imaginings as in my stories but the sustained imagination of a sincere and yet radiant world." He added later during the editing process that he felt “an enormous power in me now, more than I've ever had.”

Along with the editing, which reframed both Daisy and Gatsby’s characters, Fitzgerald also wavered on the title of the novel. Among various titles considered were Among Ashheaps and Millionaires, Gold-Hatted Gatsby, The High-Bouncing Lover, and On the Road to West Egg. Fitzgerald also considered several variations on titles alluding to the Roman character Trimalchio from the Satyricon. Weeks before Gatsby was to be published, he wrote Perkins saying that he preferred Trimalchio's Banquet. At the last moment, Fitzgerald also considered the title Under the Red, White and Blue, referring to the book's ties with the American dream and other symbols of America. He then came up with the title The Great Gatsby which he submitted to his publisher. However, he once again changed his mind and wanted to change the title back to Under the Red, White and Blue, but by then it was too late to change. Hence the title remained The Great Gatsby.

III.        Cover art

The cover art for The Great Gatsby has seen a distribution on par with its related novel; it is one of the most widely disseminated dustjacket composite-spine covers of the 20th century. Commissioned by Charles Scribner of Francis Cugat (brother to Xavier), it was completed before the novel, and Fitzgerald once claimed that the cover was "written into" the novel.

After several initial sketches of various completeness, Cugat decided upon a gouache depicting two reclining nudes forming the irises of a pair of disembodied female eyes hovering above the bright lights of an amusement park. There is no nose but full, voluptuous lips, and descending from the right eye is a green tear. The eyes are reminiscent of those of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg, while the hue of the tear is similar to the light at the end of Daisy's dock. Extending the theme of lights, the amusement park echoes a common theme of the novel.

These lights also could lead to a different interpretation of the cover. The girl whose face is portrayed on the cover could be seen as a "flapper". She is looking at the materialism and the sexual sins being committed and is sad, but she is part of the group that promotes both. Just as this, Nick detests the cheap party life but admits many times throughout the book that he was in fact enjoying being part of it.