Got Defeated

Celine Peltier
October 5, 2011
2nd draft

The author Walker Percy wrote: “In the world, goodness is destined to be defeated.” Percy is correct when he says this. No matter how good people do or the good deeds they do, the outcome isn’t always good. The saying “do good and good would come to you” doesn’t always work out in people’s favor. No matter how some people try, they could never seek goodness in the end. In Ken Kesey’s novel One Flow Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men use symbolism and conflict to show that the main characters seek goodness but get defeated in the end.
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” Steinbeck uses conflict to show the main character’s goodness gets defeated. Lennie couldn’t control his anger when: “He shook her and was angry with her. Don’t you go telling. He shook and her body flopped like a fish and she was still, for Lennie broken her neck”(91). Because of Lennie’s mental illness he doesn’t mean to harm anyone or anything when he does something wrong. All Lennie cares about is him and George get the ranch and him tending to the rabbits. George would always tell Lennie to stay away from Curley’s wife but she keeps coming on to him. When she pushed herself on him the last time, he wanted to touch her soft hair. When she freaked out, Lennie lost his innocence and his goodness when he couldn’t control his anger and broke her neck.   This conflict is people vs. people because of his actions, Curly want to hurt Lennie in so many ways.   This is also self vs. self-conflict because as much as George told Lennie to stay way from Carly’s wife, he can’t resist her soft hair.   Also in the novel the other main character George goodness got defeated. He has to choose either letting his friend suffer or put him out of his misery:
“And George raised the gun and steadied it and he brought the muzzle of it lose to the back of Lennie’s head the hand shook violently but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the...