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In John Steinbeck's novel, Of Mice and Men, he examines the struggle of being lower class in the United States during the Great Depression. This essay will examine how he pointedly used literary symbolism, tragedy, and foreshadowing to support his view of a society full of racism and discrimination toward mentally disabled citizens and the downtrodden. The characters in the book represent a slice of life he viewed as flawed and as victims of a world they could not change.
Symbolism plays a big factor in this story.
In the beginning, a snake appears in the field during the introduction of the two main characters, George and Lennie. The reader is confronted with a sense of foreboding danger, but is not aware of the magnitude of the danger, until later in the book when a heron swoops down and kills the snake. The snake represents the imminent danger Lennie will encounter as well as the symbolic biblical references of snakes and the presence of evil.
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This evil continues throughout the story manifested by other violent acts committed against small defenseless animals, and defenseless, unknowing humans. Lennie is a symbol of a representation of America...strong, yet vulnerable and weak. He unknowingly commits murder and hurts people and things weaker than he, but yet is really one of the weakest. The fact that his unbelievable strength makes him to hurt what he loves causes Lennie's joy to end in some form of suffering. The mouse symbolizes vulnerability regardless of innocence. In short, Lennie is like the mouse.
He was killed because of his vulnerability to the world, despite him being mentally handicapped.
Steinbeck exposed the tragedy of 1930's America by reminding the reader that people of both races were "stuck" living together in the same type of poverty and Hell on earth. They experienced loneliness and despair on a daily basis. For example, Curley's wife was talking to Lennie alone in the barn and tells him, "I get lonely, you can talk to people but I can't talk to nobody but Curley." This shows a sign of loneliness because no one wants to talk to Curley's wife because they're afraid that Curley will harm them, including Lennie. Steinbeck was critical of how the American Dream was only realized for a few. Characters dreamed about acquiring simple things, and unfortunately they had no idea they would or could not fulfill these dreams.
Of Mice and Men consists of very tragic events that foreshadow the ending of the book and close its main theme. Chapter three portrays this literary element when Carlson and Slim agreed to shoot Candy's old dog. Since Candy lost essentially everything he had before the Dust Bowl, killing his own dog would be something that he wouldn't bear thinking of. It was his only companion. Once the verdict was made to shoot it, Candy lied down on his bed staring at the ceiling. Carlson took his gun and the dog outside. Aa a shot was heard from a distance, Candy turned to face the wall. This form of tragedy also foreshadows the death of Lennie because it ends the suffering of the person or pet that they love. Later after that situation, Candy regrets not being there to shoot his dog and letting someone else do it. This thought process is to show how
Lennie and George both dream of having their own land. When George tells his story about their dream farm, Lennie eagerly responds with, "Tell about what we're gonna have in the garden and about the rabbits in the cages and about the rain in the winter and the stove. (Steinback, p.g. 14)" The reason he cares about rabbits is because he likes to pet soft things, but he tends to kill whatever he pets. Lennie is aware of this. At the end of the story, Lennie hallucinates a gigantic rabbit that tells him he, "ain't fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You'd forget 'em and let 'em go hungry. (Steinback, p.g. 102)" This is all said in 67Lennie's voice, showing that he knows that he will never get his dream. These rabbits symbolize self-sufficiency and this story shows that this will not be achieved by Lennie and will still be nothing but a dream.
The entire story poses a meaning to what life was like in the United States and how each individual in the story is affected by the Great Depression and how it conjured hate and violence within some characters like Curley and his wife. Steinback was able to portray the sad truth of America in one small story and in each chapter had hidden meanings that brought the struggles of the characters and made it similar to the broader population.
How Steinback Used the Story of Of Mice and Men to Explain?. (2019, Dec 15). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/how-steinback-used-the-story-of-of-mice-and-men-to-explain-the-example-essay
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