Of Mice and Men: How Does Steinbeck Use Foreshadowing Any good detective looks for clues or hints to solve a case. As readers, we act like detectives to put clues together and find out what really happened. Foreshadowing is similar to this because it gives us clues to see what will occur in a future event. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing very often to tell us what could possibly happen. In this book, two men dream to have their own piece of land together, but they can’t buy it because they don't have enough money. The two men set out find a job for money but along the way, many obstacles are thrown at them, and some of them they ca n not dodge. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses multiple examples of foreshadowing to tell us that plans go askew, and also to tell us about certain events like, the death of Curley’s wife, loss of the farm dream, and the death of Lennie. Not all things go as planned, such as George and Lennie expected to keep their job. The problem was, Lennie is accused of …show more content…
Once again, Lennie finds himself in trouble, when he killed Curley’s wife. He remembers what George told him, “...I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” (Chapter 1). That is exactly what Lennie does, he runs straight to the camping spot. When everyone finally sees Curley’s wife dead, they all know who it was and set out to kill him. George sets out as well to see if he can reach Lennie before the rest of the men. “I oughtta of shot that dog myself, George, I shouldn't oughtta of let no stranger shoot my dog” (Chapter 3). That is what Candy said to George after Carlson shot his dog. “George… reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson’s Luger…” (Chapter 6) This is when George finally reaches Lennie and decides to go ahead and put him out of his own misery, so he shoots him. John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing by clearly using Candy’s dog to represent Lennie’s
Indeed Steinbeck uses foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men, and one of the places he uses it is when George and Lennie talk about having their own farm and living off the fat of the land. He foreshadows that George and Lennie will not live out their dream. One way that he foreshadows this is when George was telling Lennie about their plan to get their own farm and live off the fat of the land, but George decided he didn’t want to talk about it anymore. It says on page 15, “Nut’s!... I ain’t got time for no more.” You can take what he says in many ways, but what makes the most sense is he didn’t want to get his hopes up, much less Lennie’s, for what was likely not going to happen. Another time when Steinback used foreshadowing was when Lennie walked into Crooks’ room, and they started
Arguably the biggest example of foreshadowing came from Lennie getting shot. In the book on pg. 12 it said, “George said, ‘I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.’” This quote represents foreshadowing as it says Lennie will be shot. The book ended with Lennie getting shot by George as George couldn’t stand seeing Lennie getting killed by anyone else. Also this quote shows foreshadowing as Lennie was shot like a dog. In the quote it said that somebody would shoot him like a coyote. By saying that he would get shot like a coyote, he meant getting shot when he wouldn’t even expect it. This is exactly what George did at the end; he shot Lennie when he wasn’t expecting it.
Foreshadowing is a literary device in which a writer gives an advance hint of what is to come later in the story. An example of foreshadowing Wiesel exercises is when he uses Moshie the Beadle to introduce the kind of person he was before and after his experience in a labor camp. Moshie’s suffering foreshadows his and his family’s outcome. Moshie had managed to escape and return to Sighet
Literature is difficult for some and effortless for others, but there is a type of literature that is commonly used by many people and most use it without knowing. It is called allusion which is the reference to another person or item. John Steinbeck uses allusion to foreshadow what will happen in his book Of Mice and Men. In the book Of Mice and Men the two main characters are George, a smart and short man and Lennie, a strong but dumb man who both lived during the Great Depression. They are migrant workers that get in trouble a lot of times and run from town to town trying to find work, until they stumble upon a ranch that they can work on. During their stay and the ranch foreshadowing suggests what would happen next, but the book still had many twist that foreshadowing did not suggest. In Of Mice and Men Steinbeck uses foreshadowing in various ways to suggest that George and Lennie’s plan would go askew, that Curley’s wife would die, that George and Lennie would lose of the farm dream, and how Lennie would die.
Foreshadowing is used throughout the novel to show how most characters had a dream of their own but it didn’t end up in the right direction. One example of this is when Lennie wanted to tend the rabbits since that was really his dream once they worked and got all them acres. One quote from the book that proves this is “ He shook her then, and he was angry with her. “ Don’t you go yelling’,” he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.” ( Steinbeck,pg.91) This quote from the text shows the theme by using foreshadowing because since it was Curley’s wife, Curley himself would want to kill him. He would get fired which would make it harder for him to
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men tells a story of two very different friends how both share the dream of one day buying their own farm. George and Lennie are both two workers that take temporary jobs at different ranches. That the new job that they get to meet Candy, the old “swamper” who cleans the bunkhouse; Slim, the “prince of the ranch”; Crooks, the African American stable hand. Then there is also Curley, the boss’s son and Curley’s wife, women that is desperate for the attention. Throughout the story, Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowing to prepare the reader what is about to occur. The plans of the characters going “askew,” the death of Curley’s wife, the loss of the farm dream, and the death of Lennie; are four clear examples of Steinbeck’s
John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing by alluding the poem To a Mouse. In the poem To a Mouse” it qoutes “You need not to start away so hasty with hurrying scamper… with murdering plough-staff. Your small house, too in ruin! Its feeble walls the winds are scattering! And nothing now, to build a new one, of course grass green!” In the poem the farmer ruins the mouses house, but also
In the novel “Of Mice and Men” written by John Steinbeck, two migrant workers named George and Lennie embark on a journey to work from ranch to ranch and save enough money to buy their own farm. Their plan takes a crucial turn in which they didn’t look forward to. Throughout the novel foreshadowing plays an important part in the readers’ point of view throughout the novel. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to indicate clues of what is to come in the future. There are four examples where foreshadowing is used in Of Mice and Men, “plans go askew”, death of Curley’s wife, loss of farm dream, and death of Lennie. How did Steinbeck use foreshadowing to give clues leading to the four important points?
Another example of foreshadowing is when the painter lets his paintbrush fall down to the drop cloths after Wehling killed Dr. Hitz and Leora Duncan. The painter says that he is done painting and has had enough of the Happy Garden of Life, which is the mural he was painting and what was referred to as the characters’ perfect world. When the painter says he is done with the Happy Garden of Life it foretells the readers his next decisions. Those next decisions are him picking up the pistol, really intending on killing himself but he didn’t have the nerve, and instead calling the number; 2BRO2B. After calling this number a nice woman, just like Leora Duncan, picked up the phone and said “Federal Bureau of Termination” which shows us that he was planning on ending his life because he was done living the life he had been living. The painter then said that he would like to get an appointment as soon as
The first example of foreshadowing is when Doodle buries the scarlet ibis in the petunia bed. “He took out a piece of string from his pocket and, without touching the ibis, looped one end around its neck. . . he carried the bird around to the front yard and dug a hole in the flower garden”(Hurst 423). This is foreshadowing that Doodle is going to die in the story later, and is going to be bleeding red because the scarlet ibis is red. The next example of foreshadowing is when Doodles dad asks Mr. Heath to build a coffin to his size dimensions. “Daddy had Mr. Heath, build a little mahogany coffin for him”(Hurst 416). It foreshadows by saying that Doodle is going to die in the story but the characters don’t know when. These are a few foreshadowing examples in the story “The Scarlet
In John Steinbeck’s famous novel Of Mice and Men, foreshadowing plays a large part in the reader’s experience. Almost every event that is important was foreshowed at some people, such as the multiple deaths that occur throughout. If Steinbeck wasn't so prolific in his use of foreshadowing the readers experience would be very different.
Foreshadowing is used in almost every book or story ever written. In The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst, the foreshadowing is about the narrator’s little brother, Doodle. Hurst uses personification in the beginning of the book to say that a family member of the narrator died by plants speaking. Hurst also suggests that the narrator takes Doodle for granted and how he later wants to help Doodle. Then Hurst states that there was hope for Doodle and comparing the hope to leaves. The author’s purpose in using foreshadowing is that it allows him to make the short story more interesting, as well as allowing him to make the reader think about what he is writing and it lets him reveal something about the theme of the story.
“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.
In his novella, Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to show how unrealistic the dream of Lennie and George is and to further illustrate the inevitability of fate.
“In the town they tell the story of the great pearl - how it was found and how it was lost again.” The beginning quote of “The Pearl” already gives a hint of foreshadowing. It tells the readers that a pearl will be found, but then be lost again. Foreshadowing is an element of writing that is often something that a reader will find while analyzing the story. Foreshadowing is a great way to give suspicion and excitement to a story. It also creates an active reader as they are constantly predicting what the hint could be foreshadowing at. From the opening sentence to the end of the novella John Steinbeck creates suspense in the reader by foreshadowing.