Compare varying ideas of "place" in John Steinbeck‘s Of Mice and Men. How does the dream of "a place" figure in the lives of characters in the novel?
             There are at least four ideas of "place" in Of Mice and Men to be considered. The first idea could be the "place" considered as the setting of the beginning of the story, where we see an idilic place, a wood full of trees, but also with a sense of destruction as we see the footsteps on the grass and the broken trees. The importance of this setting of the beginning is that it is repeated at the end of the story, where we find and idilic wood and some predator animal which could prepare us for the tragical ending.
             Another idea of "place" is the ranch from which George and Lennie come and the ranch to where they both go; these are physical places, from the first one they have to scape because of Lennie and in the second is where the whole action of the novel is developed. The second ranch is a microcosm where everyone plays a role, from The Boss to Crooks. Each of the characters which live there are really determined by that place.
             Within this place, the ranch, we find a very special place too; Crooks‘ private room. He does not allow whites in but he lets Lennie to go in. They share a lot of things, specially the fact that they are rejected by society, Crooks because he is black and crooked, and Lennie because he is mind-retarded. Crooks‘ private room is a place of isolation within the microcosm that the ranch is.
             But the most important idea of the story is "place" as George‘s dream. As the story goes on we realise that he is not the only one who shares that dream, or other kind of dreams, all closely related to "a place".
             Through the whole novel we perceive a sense of determinism where people are controlled by some unknown forces. Are caracter are lonely and unhappy with their lives (except Slim), but none of them can scape ...