Animal Imagery In Of Mice And Men By John Steinbeck

For instance, in King Lear, Edgar states, “wine loved I deeply, dice dearly: and in woman out-paramoured the Turk: false of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, dog in madness, lion in prey” (3.4.65-66). In the quotation, he compares himself and his family members to the above animals which can potentially represent his altering emotions throughout the play. The “Sloth” is one of the seven deadly sins and signifies laziness representing Edgar’s nature in the beginning of the play when he is unable to identify his brother’s untrue loyalty, the fox illustrates his clever understanding of the situation and his brother’s true personality, the wolf is a reference to Edmund who is greedy for his father’s land and wealth, and the mad dog can depict his father Gloucester who is suffering from Edmund’s disloyalty. The “lion in prey” suggests that everything is going tragically wrong as lions attack the prey, they are not themselves the prey. All in all, this exhibits how Edmund wrongs the family and his disloyalty ends his relationship with his brother and his father. This furthermore forces Edgar to take the form of poor Tom, depicting his tragic life resulting from his brother’s disloyalty. Whereas Shakespeare uses the verbal description of animals to illustrate the breaking of a relationship, Steinbeck uses actual animals to elucidate

“Of Mice and Men,” a novel written by John Steinbeck, and “To a Mouse,” a poem written by Robert Burns, are similar not just by coincidence. Though 152 years apart in age, evidence of the poem’s influence is easily seen in Steinbeck’s work. The most notable influence is the title, of course, which is directly taken from a quote in the poem. Though this instance is quite apparent, the influence doesn’t stop there. “Of Mice and Men” and “To a Mouse” have several similar thematic structures, including characters, plot similarities, and setting.

In the story Of Mice and Men, it follows a disabled man and his crafty caretaker looking for work on a farm. The few characters that are shown in the book possess very diverse personalities that fit into different archetypes, many of them challenge the stereotypes that surrounded them during the early twentieth century. Archetypes are characteristics that are commonly seen in literature and real life. In the book Of Mice and Men there are seven distinct archetypes that all have different characteristics in them. One thing that all the characters have in common, though, is loneliness. Throughout the book the theme of loneliness is constantly there, and one of the loneliest characters is Crooks. Crooks fits the archetype of an outcast

Lennie Smalls is a very immature, simple, strong and caring guy. Since he has a mental disability he does not know his own strength. He can sometimes man handle animals or people because to him he does not see anything wrong with it. The archetype I am giving Lennie is innocent. Archetypes are characteristics of easy or well-known traits from children’s literature, pop culture, or even everyday life, they help the readers connect with the characters quickly and accurately. Lennie’s archetype is innocent because he is always so caring to others. He is also taken advantage of a lot. Lennie is always so positive even when the hardest situations are thrown at him. In John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men novel Lennie Smalls archetype is portrayed

The novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck is set in America in the 1930’s and it describes the lives of migrant farmers as they go from farm to farm looking for jobs. It also shows the loneliness of the characters and the hard work that they put in. The main characters of the book are Lennie, a man-child, and George, a small man but very powerful character that takes care of Lennie in their journey. Also when they get to the farm they meet the bosses wife who is very lonely and looks for company in the workers. Steinbeck uses characterization to bring his characters to life using various techniques.

The long, hard war of human equality in society, has been a war since the beginning of civilization. The Great Depression, a tragic time in America’s history, reflects American determination, but also social inequality. In the fiction novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses symbolism and characterization to address ableism and sexism in society. Steinbeck addresses these flaws in society in an attempt to ultimately bring awareness these riffs before society falls.

Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, constantly uses similes and metaphors associated with nature and animals. They symbolize the lack and yearning of nature, in the novel. For instance, when Montag escapes the city, he encounters a dear, which he first thought was the hound. The depletion of nature is notable because Montag appreciates his new view of a world filled with beautiful things that were created by earth itself and not man-made.

The idyllic nature of one’s dream compels them forward, albeit an almost impossible one. The continual use of vivid imagery greatly immerses the reader; the reader could see George and Lennie’s “little house and a couple of acres” (14) and smell “the bacon and the hams” (57). Steinbeck appeals to the senses to show the alluring qualities of their dream. George’s repetitive depictions of their own land shows the importance of their dreams; without it, there would be no plot, no story, no desire to progress. It would be a story of two nondescript men, wandering aimlessly across the vast American west. Steinbeck chooses to incorporate imagery throughout the story to emphasize what the fruits of one’s labor will result in. The dreamlike setting of George and Lennie’s farm shows the impossibility of it, as a place that perfect would not be in the mortal world.

The nature imagery used expresses the flaws of Puritan thought and anxieties towards outside forces, both seen and unseen. Through his use of nature imagery and diction, the reader obtains a better understanding of such Puritan anxiety within the community as they try to maintain their utopian society from collapsing to these supernatural forces caused by an irritated and vengeful Devil.

“And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.” In the book, “ Of Mice and Men ,” by John Steinbeck (13), the author uses so many symbols in his characters and in the background throughout the story. In the book, everything represents symbolism whether it is the characters or the setting of the time and place they are in. The time period in “ OF Mice and Men “ is around the 1930s during the Great Depression. The men and women in the story aren’t very educated by how they talk and pronounce words. The setting is in Salinas Valley, California which is located in Northern California just south of San Francisco.

This can be linked to The Hunchback in the Park, where several pieces of evidence of animal imagery which have the same effect can be found. Examples of this include ‘Like the park birds he came early’ and ‘Through the loud zoo of the willow groves’. In addition, animals only communicate very basically, without the complexity that humans do. By referring to the two characters as animals in the poems, both poets exemplify how isolated the characters are from a normal society.

John Steinbeck, an American novelist, is well-known for his familiar themes of depression and loneliness. He uses these themes throughout a majority of his novels. These themes come from his childhood and growing up during the stock market crash. A reader can see his depiction of his childhood era. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck shows the prominent themes of loneliness, the need for relationships, and the loss of dreams in the 1930s through the novels’ character.

Through the novella, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, the authors use of motifs of Lennie getting in trouble reveals the theme of friendship is an important part to living a fulfilling life. Through the whole book George is helping Lennie get out of sticky situations, but the motif of Lennie getting in trouble ends their friendship in a very tragic way. Toward the end of the book, George had to kill Lennie, his best friend, because there isn’t anyway out of the sticky situation that doesn’t involve Lennie dying. After killing Lennie George was in shock of what he had just done. Steinbeck narrates, “But Carlson was standing over George.

John Steinbeck’s 1949 novella entitled Of Mice and Men uses many significant symbols to convey meanings about the human condition. Such symbols include hands to represent labour, cards to signify chance and taking a risk, and finally, rabbits to suggest ideas about achieving one’s hopes and dreams. Symbols are a key central device in delivering meaning, as they consistently repeated throughout the narrative and are typically associated with the novella’s many characters.

I also learned that Romanticists had a fondness for writing and emphasizing the feelings of living things, particularly animals. In the poem "To a Mouse", the author expresses deep care and concern for a mouse who is left for dead, whose house is destroyed, and left to starve. The speaker responds to this by rescuing, feeding, and providing shelter for the poor mouse. This alone shows great care for an animal, even though it's usually considered a pest among others. Another example of fascination of an animal is in the poem "The Tyger", where our speaker describes in wonder and majesty a fierce and frightening tiger. He presents it in the sense of seeing this animal as nearly god-like by wondering how it came with such balanced form and such herculean strength.