ok, so here's my final copy of my essay for Pruett.... I would really like it if you would tell me what you think....
I call it:
Of Mice and Manichaeism
Although the two main characters in Of Mice and Men have such a strong, brotherly bond, their opposing differences will eventually cause one to overcome the other. The dream of the farm which Lennie and George form, from the beginning of their friendship, cannot be accomplished while these differences exist. Lennie is a weight which is constantly pulling George down. If Lennie cannot control himself, the dream will never be reached. Thus, one of the two characters must die in order for the dream to come true. They are a pleasure to each other but, “our pleasures often oppose and thwart our schemes” (Fontenrose 1). Lennie and George cannot coexist in this perfect dream. Leo Gurko writes, “Lennie and George are fated by their very natures to be joined in extraordinary intimacy and irreconcilable hostility”, “one compelled to slay the other” (2). They are too different. One is dark and the other is light; the shades have to be separated. This belief in separation is similar to a third century religion called Manichaeism.
Manichaeism is so deeply buried in the human psyche that few people would ever notice its presence in Steinbeck’s writing. Manichaeism originated in third century Persia as the combination of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Gnosticism. Its creator, Manichaeus, rebelled against his father’s Gnostic Baptist community when he was twelve and received a vision telling him to form a new religion. Thus, Manichaeism was created. The religion taught that dark and light or evil and good were separated, both in matter and spirit, into two equal pieces. These pieces were represented by Steinbeck as Lennie and George. The two components were constantly engaged in epic warfare to determine which side was stronger. Manichaeus taught that the King of Darkness, and his army of Archons (or sons of Darkness), invaded the Kingdom of Light and killed one of the forms of God the Father called “Primitive Man.” The Father then used the Living Spirit, to rescue Primitive Man. The religion also states that the Living Spirit created the sun and moon from the dead bodies of some of the defeated Archons. DISCovering World History states that:
The Prince of Darkness then created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, through a complicated round of copulation and cannibalism. Though sired by Darkness, man still had particles of light imprisoned in his brain from Satan's contact with the aeon "Primitive Man". (“Manichaean Gnosticism…” 2)
DISCovering World History continues; stating that Manicheans also believe Jesus, Buddha, Manichaeus, and the prophets, were sent to earth in order to release the light from within man. (2). In order to get the imprisoned light out of the surviving Archons, God sent a Messenger out of pity, to seduce the Archons. The light which left the male Archons became trees, and the light which left female Archons became animals. This is why Manicheans believe violence towards any plant or animal containing light particles was a great sin. Sex, killing, eating meat, and drinking wine is strictly forbidden. In order for peace to return to the universe, the fragments of light and dark must be separated. Manichaeus said that after the Last Judgement, the earth would burn for over a thousand years. “By that time the last light particles would have been reunited with the light world, the material world would have ended, and light and darkness would be eternally separated” (“Manichaean Gnosticism…” 3).
The main Manichean element is made up of two equal polarities, one light and one dark; represented by George and Lennie. These two characters are locked together despite the fact that they have nothing in common except their dream of the farm. George is described as “small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp strong features”, and Lennie is “a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily” (Steinbeck 2). Steinbeck is describing two men who are opposite in completely every sense. Leo Gurko states “these deliberate polarities strain our belief in them as individual figures, but are absolutely necessary to establish them as reigning forces in the Manichean struggle for the world” (1). Since the characters are so different, it seems as if when put together they would make up one whole unit; each one representing a side. Yet, they are destined by their natures to eventually tear apart. Both characters are godlike because they hold the life of others in their hands. Lennie kills many creatures unknowingly, and George is forced to kill Lennie “consciously and calculatingly” (Gurko 1).
Lennie represents the dark side of Steinbeck’s mini-Manichean universe. His energies are all focused in a sexual, physical realm; similar to most creatures of darkness. Manicheans believed that sex was a sin, as it would cause the light which was imprisoned within people to be lost. Lennie’s whole personality is based on physicality. Leo Gurko states that Lennie is a “mindless, overwhelming force” who “kills everything he touches.” “As a force, he draws no distinction between life and death. He extracts as much pleasure in stroking a dead mouse as a live one” (1). Since darkness is the driving force behind Lennie’s persona, he kills rabbits, mice, puppies, and Curley’s wife inadvertently and illogically. Creatures of darkness constantly drag down all other characters around them. Their main purpose is to consume others. Lennie is constantly dragging down and limiting George throughout the novel.
George is the good, godly side of the Manichean undertone of this story. He doesn’t have the same sexual temptations which Lennie does. When some of the men decide to go to a brothel, George refuses, as a righteous Manichean would. Also George always feels obligated to save Lennie from his downward spiral; very similarly to how the God, in the teachings of Manichaeus, felt pity for the Archons. “Lennie is [George’s] charge,” states Gurko, “but also an immense counterweight pulling him constantly toward destruction” (1). George’s need to find Lennie salvation is almost a religious mission. One critic writes that George Milton is put “by literary allusion near the godhead, above the subhuman creatures, able to judge whether they should live or die” (Spilka 1). George is similar to a missionary trying to give Lennie salvation. Yet, the dualities between Lennie and George make this impossible, which is why one must be defeated in the end. This is predicted in John Steinbeck’s Fiction Revisted, when the author mentions the “principal forces that are responsible for the ‘going under’ of one who refuses, in the words of Sir Henry Morgan, to ‘split’ before ‘civilization’” (French 72). If Lennie and George had not ‘split’ they would have gone under, and the dream of the farm would never be accomplished.
One way that the righteousness of these characters is represented is through the characters with whom they associate. “The dark, psychologically disturbed figures” (Gurko 2) are attracted by Lennie. These figures are: Candy, a one armed handyman; Curley, “a viscous stunted figure seeking to compensate for his lack of sexual potency”; Curley’s wife, a “sexual temptress” (2); and Crooks, a black man with a crooked back. Lennie’s friends are described by Curley’s wife as the “weak ones” (Steinbeck 77) that have been left behind. Through these friendships it is easy to see that darkness is already rejoining, and preparing to split away at the end of the novel. The only man in the book who is really drawn to George is Slim. He is described as a divine presence who:
moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen… there was a gravity in his manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he spoke. His authority was so great that his word was taken on any subject, be it politics of love… His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought (Steinbeck 34).
Slim is an omnipresent force on the ranch. He is a symbol of goodness, righteousness, and beauty. He is “endowed with godlike attributes” (Gurko 2). This is why he is so drawn to George, the light side of this Manichean parable. Slim is the only character who realizes that the light and dark had to be separated, saying, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda,” while the dark, disfigured characters simply continue their lives and ask, “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?” (Steinbeck 107).
Once the book has ended, light and dark have been separated permanently. Yet Steinbeck never informs the reader as to what happens after. The reader never learns whether or not George gets the ranch without Lennie. Through the Manichean belief system, one could even ask the question, “Did Lennie get the ranch, even in the separated darkness?” This thought brings a ray of hope into this otherwise tragic story. Perhaps, like the Archons, Lennie has been reborn in the trees and animals present in the grove at the beginning of the story. The optimistic reader can realize that Lennie is embodied in the
“willows fresh and green with every spring,… and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool” and the rabbits which “come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening … deer that come to drink in the dark” “the heron [which] pounded the air with its wings,” and “the little snake [which] slid in among the reeds at the pool’s side”
(Steinbeck 1 & 100).
I still don't think it's perfect though....
but my mom didn't bash it into the ground too bad, so.... I suppose it's ok.
Tell me what you think...
ok bye!
-Jimbo
QOTD:
The Prince of Darkness then created the first human beings, Adam and Eve, through a complicated round of copulation and cannibalism.
(if you didn't read the essay, that's all you need to know)
nostalgic
happy
