Innocence and Hostility in Romeo and Juliet and Of Mice and Men Essay

mavin dictionary defines purity as license from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through lose of knowledge of evil. Thus innocence is the state wherein ace is, in a sense, pure free from interrogative and dread and woe, unmarred by sorrow or the countless ills running rampant in the world. Innocence is associated with children and animals and nature. But for growth to occur, Innocence must be slain in monastic rescript for Experience to flourish. This climbing bittersweet rebirth from child to adult is the natural way of life one cannot stay innocent forever.Oftentimes, this transition from innocent child to arrestd adult occurs in the face of dislike, as in Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, where the youngish lovers, to combat the hatred their families have for one another, cave in their love, their innocence, and their lives. This theme exists as well in Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, where George kills Lennie to save him from suffering, and in the doing so, also slays their sh ared reverie of causeing land and being free men. In Romeo and Juliet, the enmity between the Capulets and the Montagues creates the conflict that drives the play.This generation-spanning hatred consumes everything it touches it causes the deaths of Mercutio at the turn over of Tybalt, and drives Romeo to avenge his friends death by death penalty Tybalt in turn. The distaste borne of this act forces Romeo to vanish and Juliet to feign death Romeo, consumed by grief, kills himself, and Juliet upon waking to occur her husband dead, does the same. We see that the hostility permeates every facet of the play. Innocence, symbolized by the young lovers, is ultimately slain by the hostility shared between the two families.In Steinbecks Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie, two farm hands, share a dream to own a piece of land, and in doing so, become free men. George appoints himself caretaker of Lennie, a large, abnormally unassailable man with the mind of a young child. The hostil ity that proves the downfall of these two men stems from Curley, the son of the paste owner. A man possessed of a misfortunate temper and a violent streak, his cruelty forces his married woman to seek the company of other men. She spends time with Lennie.Warned that her front line causes trouble, he attempts to silence her when she creates a scene, and inadvertently kills her, his actions impelled by fear concerning the hostility of Curley. Alarmed by his actions, he flees. The slaying of Innocence occurs when George kills Lennie in order to save him from cruel treatment and death at the hands of Curley and the other men. But in slaying Lennie, George also kills their dream of owning land, and being free men, and his own innocence as well. In both these stories hostility drives the conflict, propelling actions onward to the end, where innocence is slain and experience gleaned.In Romeo and Juliet the death of the two lovers causes the families to grow up, and annihilate the hatr ed and hostility between the two houses. In killing themselves the title characters also kill the hostility that led them to their deaths, and though innocence dies, peace is achieved. In Of Mice and Men, the hostility of Curley does not die what dies is the innocence of a dream and the the innocence of childhood, symbolized by Lennie. George gains experience, he grows up, and in doing so realizes the futility of the dream of being free in the face of the hostility of the landowners, as represented by Curley.And so Innocence is slain, and gives way to experience. Hostility system in the world to aid in that transition. One cannot be Innocent always, and death and tragedy discover lessons one must learn in order to live in the world. Lovers die, as do hopes and dreams, scarcely no matter how tragic or weighty the events may be, one always gains lessons, often severe, from these losses. such(prenominal) is life, as reflected in these works.Works CitedShakespeare, William. Romeo an d Juliet. Washington DC Washington Square Press, 2004 Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York Penguin, 1978