The most famous line from Of Mice and Men, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go arise,” demonstrates the theme of how intentions of futuristic times often become demolished. Steinbeck implements foreshadowing, characterization, and symbolism to develop the theme throughout the plot. John Steinbeck communicates the theme by foreshadowing Curley’s wife being uses murdered, George taking the life of his best friend, and Lennie and George’s incomplete dream. In the novella, Steinbeck explains Lennie’s fascination with petting soft objects. Starting in the first chapter, Lennie picks up the mouse to pet it and then strangles and suffocates the creature . Lennie explains to George “ I could pet it with my thumb while we walked along.” This foreshadows the event of Lennie murdering Curley’s wife. The theme is created by showing Lennie's intentions being positive, but in the end his plans went so far askew leading him to murder a man’s wife. Steinbeck uses the event of Candy’s dog being shot to foreshadow George’s struggle …show more content…
Lennie’s character is developed by his speech and actions. Due to his lack of intelligence, his innocent intentions turn into horrific complications. The strong, yet mentally deficient character has plans and hopes for the future that soon become memories of the past. George, Lennie’s best friend, is loyal, compassionate, and caring. George’s character is augmented throughout the story; although, he is faced with many trials and tribulations. George desires to have a farm, a home, and a family. He does everything in his power to achieve these goals, but unfortunately does not succeed. George is faced with an unbearable decision which will affect both him and Lennie. The character has to put his best friend to death for his own good. In the event, the theme is once again exhibited. George and Lennie’s best-laid plan had just become
Of Mice and Men was an excellent novel about two migrant workers traveling in Southern California, trying to make enough money to fulfill their dream of attaining their own plot of land. They have trouble accomplishing this goal when Lennie, the big and clueless on of the two, consistently makes mistakes, some of them being vital. The author, John Steinbeck, uses great techniques and literary devices that build up to the climax and resolution. Throughout the story, he describes how several characters all have/had dreams or goals, but none of them truly achieved those dreams. All of these literary devices, techniques, and the entire plot lead up to my thesis statement.
Dreaming is something everyone does and that we hope will come true, everything that people dreamed about would come true and everything will be perfect but that doesn’t always happen. In the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is a fiction story about two men having a dream of getting some acres and not have anyone boss them around but problems happen and they weren’t able to have that dream come true. Steinbeck wants us to understand that dreaming is something that everyone does but it doesn’t always come true for us. John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing throughout the book to show us that having a huge dream that we hope to come true won’t always come true even if we try or work our hardest to make it come true. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing
How Foreshadowing is used in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Foreshadowing is an indication of a future event. Of Mice and Men is written about two men, in the late 1930’s, trying to survive in a world full of jealousy, racial superiority, and misunderstandings. This book is important because Steinbeck wanted people to understand that there is a need for social changes. Foreshadowing in this book helps people understand how badly social outcasts were treated.
What comes to mind when the word loyalty is mentioned? A dog, a pet, friends or family is what most people think of when the word is mentioned. However, many would not associate the word loyalty with loneliness. When John Steinbeck thought of loyalty he wrote of deep friendships and a dog and its owner’s love. Loyalty can be associated with loneliness because by the end of a friendship or family member, someone is always gone before the other, due to old age or a medical issue that has come up.
“...As they move wearily from harvest to harvest, there is one urge and one overwhelming need, to acquire a little land again, and to settle on it and stop their wandering”. Steinbeck says this in The Harvest Gypsies to express how the american dream was desired greatly by wanderers in California during The Great Depression. In the book Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck, Lennie’s life was very similar to the wanders in The Harvest Gypsies. He was a wander in California and had a dream of owning a ranch. He failed to achieve his dream of the ranch.
Every time any character in the story gets attached or close to one another, something bad happens between the relationship and goes wrong. George is a very practical man. He gets the relationship between him and Lennie in a very practical way rather than being emotional. He can even kill another person just for his
The novella ‘of Mice and Men’ was written by John Steinbeck in the 1930s. It is set in a difficult period of time when America was sunk in deep depression. However, themes of loyalty shine brightly throughout the novella. He shows that even though Americas economy is in tatters, loyalty can still be as prominent. There were also distinct themes of disloyalty, mainly between characters.
In 1937 in the midst of The Great Depression, John Steinback published ‘Of Mice and Men’. This story introduced two characters by the name of George and Lennie. The two friends travel across California looking for work. In the book, the author portrays Lennie a huge, strong, and slow learning man. With the authors indirect characterization about Lennie, some critics infer that Lennie is forgetful and never intends to hurt anyone.
Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowed that Lennie well get into trouble again. The first foreshadowed is when George and Lennie are at the green pool George tells Lennie to come back here and hide in the brush when he get in trouble. This show us that Lennie well get into trouble it just a matter of when. The second foreshadowed is when George and Lennie first seen Curley and how Curley went after Lennie just because he a big man. This show that Curley going to pick a fight with Lennie later on.
When George tells Lennie to meet him in the bushes if anything bad happens this is foreshadowing to the ending of the book when Lennie has to meet him there. Also, Candy telling George that he regretted not killing his dog himself leads to the end where George kills Lennie because he didn't want to live with the same regret as Candy. Lastly, all of the times that Lennie kills animals by petting them foreshadows to when Lennie kills Curley’s wife. The ending of John Steinbeck’s book would not make sense without him putting examples of foreshadowing in the
In John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men there are a lot of themes. The themes consist of friendship, loneliness, discrimination and dreams. All of these themes are important, and play immense role in the outcome at the end. The major theme is that friends stick together; unconditionally; this is demonstrated through Lennie and George's actions in Weed, in the bunk house, and in the aftermath of Curly's wife's death. One example of true friends sticking together is exemplified when George stays with Lennie after Lennie's actions in Weed.
George and Lennie, prominent characters in the story Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, are migrant workers—men who move from place to place to do seasonal work— who end up in California and are faced with numerous problems. Set in the era of the great depression, the story of Lennie and George, two very different men who have formed a family-like union, takes place on a farm where Lennie struggles to stay out of trouble. Having committed an unintentional, harmful act, Lennie is faces severe consequences; and George must decide to make a necessary decision which changes the mood of the entire novel. By the comparison and contrast of George and Lennie, unique characters who are very different from each other, the reader can better acquaint himself
Knowing that Lennie has killed Curley’s wife and will be shot by Curley, George rushes to the river to get to Lennie first. The two men talk for a short while, then George silently brings the gun to Lennie’s head and shoots him. Steinbeck’s use of foreshadowing effective in this novel. Steinbeck
That George got rid of the burden that Lennie was to him. On the other hand, George also knows what Lennie is capable of and knows what Lennie has done in the past. For example, the thing that happened in weed, “So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do” (Steinbeck 41). Lennie panics too much and just freaks people out, so George put Lennie out of his confusion. In the end, George murdering his friend was well justified.
John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a short novel that packs a punch and really looks back at America’s past and mistakes. Steinbeck paints a picture of the late 1920s and early 1930s through two men, George and Lennie. George looks after the mentally challenged Lennie and must take action by soon ending Lennie’s life. The characters in the novel all struggle with heartbreaking conflicts but, no one else suffers more than Lennie and George. These conflicts are often supported imagery in the text.