Of Mice and Men Compared to La Strada Essay Example for Free

Of Mice and Men Compared to La Strada Essay This is shown by often showing her by the playful sea as well as being followed by animals and children throughout the film. Then there is Zampano, a rather dull muscle man who doesn’t think much before he acts. Yet, Gelsomina follows him with unwavering commitment throughout the film. Only once does she appear to doubt her place with him and shortly after us seeing her doubt her place the Fool, an innocent playful man, puts her back in the mindset that that is her purpose. After all everything has a purpose, even a pebble. The Fool, or Il Mato, is always messing with Zampano and is constantly outsmarting him. Right from the first time we see these two characters it is clear that Zampano despises the fool and eventually chases after him with a knife. The knife represents Zampano’s physical approach to things and how he is viewed in terms of masculinity. The Fool continues messing with Zampano, until Zampano accidentally kills him. His immediate thought it that his career is over and this shows just how physical he is and how he sees everything as â€Å"what can it do for me? †. He bought Gelsomina from her family, certainly not for her benefit but for his own. This behavior also shows in the way he treats Rosa, he views women as things that are there to benefit him. He didn’t realize his own strength and later says in the movie â€Å"It was only two punches, two punches! †. Here hes clearly trying to justify the wrong he unknowingly committed. This isn’t the only wrong. Towards the end of the film Zampano leaves Gelsomina with some money and her trumpet and years later finds out that she died because he left her there. I believe that him leaving her was foreshadowing her death because there is no way she would know what to do, she didn’t know how to survive without him. In Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, the main characters are the innocent simple-minded Lenny and his friend George, both of whom are very strong workingmen who travel around looking for physical labor that can be done. Lenny is mentally retarded and follows George like a puppy. George is often around animals, from the little mouse he was carrying in his pocket to the puppy he loved so much. In the beginning of the book George used to mess with Lenny because of his unwavering devotion but once he realized how genuine it was he stopped it immediately. George is described as a relatively strong man who is very smart and does the thinking for both him and Lenny. He watches out for Lenny and feels responsible for him. Lenny feels that his place is always right next to George. However in the end of this book George abuses Lenny’s trust and murders him with the gun used to kill Candy’s dog around the time they arrived. He even killed him the same way that they killed the dog, one shot, right to the back of the head. I believe Steinbeck having the dog killed, foreshadows the death of Lenny. Not just that he will die, but that someone who loves him will be the one to kill him. I think it shows that Lenny will die because he is always around animals, you’re supposed to associate him with animals and pets, and that this dog isn’t like most other dogs just like Lenny isn’t like most other people. They both have things working against them. For Lenny it’s being mentally retarded and for the dog it is the way that age has affected him. Both of these stories have a lot in common as far as archetypal symbolism goes. They both have the child-like, innocent character represented by Gelsomina and Lenny. By having these characters in these pieces the audience is given someone to care about and feel attached to. These two both act and are treated very much like children which makes it easy for us to see them in an innocent, positive light giving us someone to be interested in, we want to make sure they are okay and that nothing bad happens to them. There are many ways you can tell how innocent these characters are, both are shown with small animals a lot and Gelsomina is also shown in the same shot as the ocean a lot. These stories also have the physical male characters that very much affect the lives of the innocent characters. These physical characters would be George and Zampano, while these two characters themselves have very little in common as far as the time they lived and their profession their personal tales draw a surprising amount of parallels. These two are both protectors of the innocent characters, given the task to watch over them and are responsible for Lenny and Gelsomina. Both George and Zampano end up killing their innocent companion in the end. The deaths of Lenny and Gelsomina are both heavily foreshadowed. Zampano is very obvious with the fact that he doesn’t care what happens to Gelsomina and like having to take care of her. So when he leaves her by the side of the road it’s hard to be surprised because this was something you could see him doing to Gelsomina because he always treated her like a burden. However when George ends up killing Lenny it comes as a huge shock to the reader because he had always loved and protected him. Even though he didn’t want to kill Lenny it was for the safety of the people that Lenny interacted with so George felt he had to kill him. Both George and Zampano are very effected by the deaths of Lenny and Gelsomina. When they both realize what they have done, they return to the place where the story started. For Zampano and Gelsomina that is the ocean whereas for George and Lenny it is their own personal Eden in the woods. This is part of a reoccurring theme of cycles throughout these stories that are very important to the story. La Strada starts off with a shot of Gelsomina by the ocean, something much like her. It goes with the flow and doesn’t put up much resistance and is innocent and beautiful. At the end of the film, when Zampano has realized he is responsible for the death of Gelsomina he returns to the sea. The same is true for the beginning of Of Mice And Men, George and Lenny had just set up camp by a little river in the woods, a place where others had clearly been before. At the end of the book, Lenny was killed in that very spot after he ran away from the farm. These stories are both great examples of classic character archetypes and clearly show the heroes journey. Lenny and Gelsomina both clearly have a call to adventure, for Lenny it is going to work at a new farm with George and for Gelsomina it is when Zampano buys her from her family. They have their awakenings, Gelsomina’s is when the fool gives her the pebble and teaches her that everything has a purpose, George’s is when he crushes Curly’s hand. They have their helpers, the Fool and all the other men on the farm. Their transformations are a little different, for George it would be when he kills Curly’s wife and realizes he needs to run, for Gelsomina, though we don’t see it, it is when she realizes that she is alone and that Zampano has left her. Last of all is the return, unfortunately for our innocent characters this is tied into their deaths, and the actual killing/realization of their deaths.