A comparison of the heroic figures within Of Mice & Men (John Steinbeck, :: English Literature

A comparison of the sensationic figures within Of Mice & Men (John Steinbeck, published 1938) and The Sextons Hero (Elizabeth Gaskell, 1950s)A comparison of the supporteric figures within Of Mice & men and The Sextons HeroAlthough twain Of Mice & Men (John Steinbeck, published 1938) and TheSextons Hero (Elizabeth Gaskell, 1950s) contain story lines, &references that emphasise heroism, they are both set in very differentlocations & time periods, so their solely apparent link is heroism.Of Mice & Men is set in California within the 1930s during the timeof the depression. During this time many people lived in poverty,struggling to find employment, and had to reanimate to travelling fromranch to ranch in search of it. Unemployment had risen to 25% in theUnited States. At this time the American dream that so many hadsought afterwards out had become nothing more than a lost dream.The Sextons Hero is set around 1850. The story has a Christianinfluence. Of Mice and Men begins in the Cal ifornian countryside andthen moves into the setting of the Ranch and finally at the end of thestory the characters are taken back into the countryside. The SextonsHero also features a mix of countryside and settlement settings. Thestory begins in the Churchyard and moves into a village in Lancashire,North England. Of Mice and Men is write in the third person and istold chronologically whereas The Sextons Hero is written in a morerecollective, third person form (person at the church yard and thenthe Sexton remembering).In both Of Mice and Men and The Sextons hero, there is a singularhero that the story focuses on. Although both characters are bothseen as heroes they are very different people, with very little incommon. The stereotypical hero that many of us are used to todaythrough watching television and films would be a character likeSuperman or Spiderman, a person who is typically strong, fearless,brave, and has some sort of special power. They also end up catchingthe villain a nd saving the girl. We can see from the example of sarin and George that this stereotype of a hero does not alwaysapply to all heroes and that Gilbert and George are not stereotypicalheroes, although both do share sealed aspects of the stereotypicalhero.The theme of heroism is introduced very differently in each story. InOf Mice and Men it is introduced implicitly to the reader. Readerslook at the characters and their relationships with others and decidefor themselves what a hero is. In The Sextons Hero the theme of