I NEED HELP WITH TWO QUESTIONS FOR ENGLISH THAT ARE DUE TOMORROW. PLEASE HELP.
1. WHAT IS THE ASSESSMENT OF POLITICS AS VIEWED IN "ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT" AND "IN OF MICE AND MEN" ?
2. DISCUSS THE THEME OF "JULIUS CAESAR" AND "OF MICE AND MEN". WHAT COMMON INSIGHTS DO THE WRITERS SHARE?
Answer:
From PrfLud:
I guess you could look at the theme of friendship in both J.C. and Of Mice and Men. How do the authors view friendship and its outcome as it relates to both works. ( Lenny/George -- Caesar/Brutus). This is just a thought.
From SusanI371:
Part 1... Certainly in "All Quiet"... Paul Baumer comes to see politics as totally useless and stupid. A bunch of old men prosecuting a war that has no meaning and about which they understand virtually nothing. So they send the young men out to die.
Steinbeck was more directly concerned, I would say, with the immediate corruption of politics, but it seems to me that he had more faith in the idea that things could be better. Certainly the struggle of his protagonists, albeit they often lost in the end, seemed courageous and admirable to Steinbeck. To Paul Baumer (and REmarque, one assumes) the whole process seemed utterly futile.
Hope this is helpful. It is a personal view that others might disagree with.
From PrfMatthew:
I think the authors of "All Quiet" and "Mice & Men" were both skeptical about the ability of the masses and of public institutions and governments to act justly or to confront humanity's major existential dilemmas. Injustice, insensitivity, cruelty were too powerful. The individual of good conscience didn't stand much of a chance.
As far as Shakespeare and Steinbeck sharing views, I suppose you could ask if Lenny qualifies as a tragic hero and if so, what is his tragic flaw? As has already been pointed out, the question of friendship among men is another common theme. Caesar is about the temptation to betray one's friend for a supposedly higher political cause. Some have admired Brutus for what he did. Dante , on the other hand, placed him in the worst pit of Hell, right next to Judas. Compare this to Steinbeck: Is Lenny betrayed?
I think a clear point of divergence between the play and novel is that Shakespeare is concerned with the Roman aristocracy and Steinbeck with the common working man.
