In the story Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are working on a ranch for little money per month during the time of The Great Depression. They are lonely and isolated from society because they cannot afford to have a proper home and they are pretty much not a part of society. The story Of Mice and Men is can easily be connected to the story Holes by Louis Sachar.
 |
| Book cover of Holes |
Holes is a story that revolves around a young boy named Stanley Yelnats and Hector Zeroni, nicknamed Zero. The plot of the story is that Stanley Yelnats has been wrongly accused of stealing the shoes of a baseball player named Clyde Livingston. As a result of his falsely accused crime, he is sent to a juvenile detention camp called Camp Green Lake. Here they are forced to dig holes for the reason that the Warden (boss) of Camp Green Lake is searching for treasure that a woman named Kate Barlow stole from Stanley's grandmother. Stanley nor the rest of the camp members don't know the reason they are digging the holes. Later in the story, Zero decides to run away into the desert and Stanley decides to look for him. Stanley and Zero are close friends. Eventually, Stanley's attorney comes to help him and Stanley and Zero and are released from the Camp.
This story can be easily related to Of Mice and Men in many ways. Sure, the people in Holes aren't living on a ranch, however they are working very hard labour just like the people in Of Mice and Men. In both stories, the people are lonely and isolated from society. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie and the rest of the ranch members have no where to go but live on the ranch because they need a job and are poor. They are isolated from society because they have no place to go because they need to be constantly working on the ranch. In Holes, the people are definitely lonely and isolated from society because they are in a juvenile prison. They are now allowed to go anywhere else. On top of that, the camp is located in the middle of a desert that has suffered from drought for a very long time. Also, Zero's mom abandoned him and left Zero homeless for a long time before he was sent to the camp. Even though the story doesn't take place at the time of The Great Depression, Zero had to probably live in the same conditions as George and Lennie had to (excluding working on a ranch). For these reasons, this is how the story Holes related to the subject of loneliness and alienation presented by Of Mice and Men.
The theme Of Mice and Men, in my opinion is that even the most loneliness and isolated people from society have the biggest dreams. In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie's dream is to own that $600 piece of land that they found. Lennie wants to pet soft things (especially rabbits) all day and George wants to own his own land where he can create his own rules and his own way of life without anyone telling him what to do. In Holes, the people of the camp want to leave the camp and go back to their original life. Zero wants to be back with his mother because she abandoned him like I said. However the story doesn't state whether this has been accomplished. Stanley wants to leave the camp because he was sent there for something he didn't do. Eventually his attorney gets Stanley out of the camp and Stanley returns back to his way of life.
The story Holes and Of Mice and Men both show similar characteristics. They both involve lonely and isolated men working on some sort of field for little or no money all day long. The characters in both stories want to leave the conditions that they have to face with. Both stories also show the subject of loneliness and alienation and the theme of Of Mice and Men.
Thanks for reading,
~ Ramez Fares
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holes_(novel)#elya
http://www.louissachar.com/images/HolesCover.jpg
http://sites.cdnis.edu.hk/students/042706/files/2011/12/HolesMovie.jpg
Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin, 1937. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment