Steinbeck and His Techniques for Success in "Of Mice and Men"

In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to give readers insight on pivotal events in the book. Steinbeck foreshadows pivotal events in the book by using symbols of light and dark. In the book, the setting for a scene will darken when Curley’s wife or an antagonist walks in. “ Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunlight in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in”(41). Furthermore, that darkness shows something bad will occur at that moment or because of that character. Another example of foreshadowing is Candy and his dog. There is parallelism between George to Candy and Lennie to the old dog. The character Carlson says “Got no teeth”(44) when referring to Candy’s dog which is parallel to when George says Lennie isn’t harmful. Later when the dog is put down, the reader can infer from the foreshadowing that Lennie will get shot as well. The effect the foreshadowing has for the book’s tone is that takes away from the suspense and adds to the sadness when there is no happy

“Look, George. Look what I done” (Steinbeck, Pg. 3). Here Steinbeck gives us the idea that Lennie looks up to George in everything he does like a child does to his parents. Lennie can’t take of himself since he is mentally handicapped so we get an idea that even though they are just friends, George is like a father figure to Lennie. Also by the word choice in the dialogue we can see that Lennie communicates in a particular way like if he just learn to speak, therefore he could be compared as a child. “I wasn’t doin’ nothing bad with it, George. Jus’ strokin’ it.” Steinbeck uses dialogue to give us an idea of George’s strong personality. “Don’t let him pull you in-but- if the son of a bitch” This quote gives us the idea that George’s personality is very strong and defensive by the explicit language which shows us anger. Also it gives us a idea that even though he is strong and aggressive he cares about what happens to Lennie. This can relate to the link that he treats him like he is his

From the beginning, George tells Lennie to avoid Curley and Curley’s wife. There are multiple uses of foreshadowing that the reader can understand that John steinbeck is leading this to a tremendous event in the end. “"If he tangles with you, Lennie, we're gonna get　the can. Don't make no mistake about that. He's the boss's son.　Look, Lennie. You try to keep away from him, will you? Don't never　speak to him. If he comes in here you move clear to the other side of the room. Will you do that, Lennie?" "I don't want no trouble," Lennie mourned. "I never done nothing　to him." "Well, that won't do you no good if Curley wants to plug himself　up for a fighter. Just don't have nothing to do with him. Will you　remember?"　 "Sure, George. I ain't gonna say a

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

Steinbeck uses foreshadowing through the name of the book, given to it by the poem, “To A Mouse” by Robert Burns. The poem is a story of a farmer, plowing his farm, when he plows a mouse’s home. The mouse then begins to run away. “But Mouse, you are not alone...The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew.” (Burns, To a Mouse) In the poem it is implied that the mouse’s dreams are forgotten and lost. John Steinbeck references the poem in the name, implying, the mens’ dreams will not come true.

After the farm hands and Curley found Curley’s wife dead in the barn they all set out in search for Lennie “When you see ‘um, don’t give ‘im no chance. Shoot for his guts.” (Steinbeck:97) Lucky for Lennie, George knew where he would be hiding, back at the bush where George told him to go if he got in trouble. George ran ahead of the group and found Lennie in the bush. Lennie told George what he had done and George tried to tell him that it would be all fine. Lennie gets George to tell him about the future again and then George takes out Carlson’s lugar that he had taken and shot Lennie in the back of the head. He believed he was

Although Steinbeck’s insistent foreshadowing of these characteristics makes Lennie a rather simple character, Lennie’s simplicity is essential to Steinbeck’s idea of the novel. Since the tragedy depends upon the outcome seeming to be expected, we as the reader must know from the start that Lennie is doomed, and must be

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.

Unit 3A The Good and Bad in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men characters I am writing this essay to explain how John Steinbeck presents good and bad in the characters George and Curley from the novella “Of Mice and Men.” Also in this essay I will discuss Steinbeck’s uses of explicit language to help us understand character types for the characters Curley and George. The last thing that this essay will show is how Steinbeck engages us to show good and bad in characters. John Steinbeck wanted us to understand men, as “if you understand each other you will be kind to each other”.

Steinbeck is a well known for his writings during the Great Depression. The majority of his works were based out of California. He does a great job of realizing what part of history he is apart of and communicating his themes to the readers. What people don’t always understand is that he teaches us history through fictional stories, something that many authors may never be able to achieve. He uses the everyday man to teach the reader about the time period and history. In one of his many famous pieces, “Of Mice and Men,” migrant workers George and Lennie are let off a bus in California and forced to find work. They struggle, but they never leave one another and eventually lie their way into a job working on a ranch. Eventually George

In “Of Mice and Men”, John Steinbeck uses literary elements which still appeal to readers today. Throughout the book, Steinbeck tells the story of two homeless farm hands during the Great Depression, named Lennie and George. Lennie, a big dopey man, who doesn’t know the extent of his own strength is lead by George, the smarter of the two, as they travel across California in search of work. During their travels, George and Lennie experience constant discrimination and work only to pursue their dreams. Furthermore, throughout the novella, Steinbeck uses symbolism to show how activities such as discrimination and dreaming are part of the human condition, and have persisted throughout time.

This poem was a reflection of the idea that there will always be a struggle between those with power and the powerless. The importance and emphasis of this theme reappears in various forms, from Lennie’s intellectual disadvantage to Slim’s societal struggle. The powerless idea is relevant to a physically strong man like Lennie because of his mental handicap, but it can also apply to Crooks as a reflection of the division in social class. As portrayed in the meaning of the poem, the powerless constantly struggled to find their inner voice and are both forced into doing something against their will. In the first stanza, George abstained Lennie from keeping a dead mouse in his pocket. When selecting textual evidence, I wanted to revealed George’s

The next important character is Lennie Small. Lennie is a massive, extremely strong man, “Strong as a bull” (22). The most obvious feature of Lennie’s character is that he seams to be retarded somehow. He is a man who has the mind of a child. Slim is the first to notice this, remarking that Lennie is “Jes’ like a kid” (43). Later in the novel, Curley’s wife also says, “Jus’ like a big baby” (90) when refering to Lennie. Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and this is one of the reasons which lead to the eventual altercations. He realizes he is “Strong as a bull” (22), but he can’t judge how much force to use for certain actions. Despite the major flaws in his character, Lennie is amiable and friendly, and doesn’t do any bad things on purpose. Lennie has sort of a blind faith in George. He trusts in George to protect him and look after his welfare. For example, the incident George describes to Slim “One day a bunch of guys was standin’ around up on the Sacramento River. I was feelin’ pretty smart. I turns to Lennie and says, ‘Jump in’. An’ he jumps”(40). This proves that Lennie will do anything for George. Although Lennie may be of low intelligence, he can still be quite crafty. After threatening to leave, Lennie stays but asks George to, “Tell me-like you done before. About the rabits” (13). George does so.

In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the literary elements foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony to represent the tragedy of George and Lennie’s fate. Foreshadowing is used for leading on plots, keeping the reader in suspense, making the reader think, and infer what might happen next. The reader will want to know whether they are right or wrong and will keep reading. An example of foreshadowing was the conflict having to do with Candy’s dog.

(Steinbeck 14). Lennie and George have each other, and their unconventional relationship prevents them from becoming lonely. The italics used in the quote give the characters voices a tone that seems like it should be read like a song. The indirect characterization of speech and the way that Steinbeck displays the speech, with italics, it seems as though Lennie is giddy with excitement, when dreaming about their life. Because the readers have concluded that Lennie has a childish nature, they can infer how Lennie would be saying this, and therefore develop his childish, naive character.