Steinbeck uses language which appeals to the reader's senses of sight and sound throughout the novella Of Mice and Men. Specifically he uses strong imagery in his description of setting, particularly at the beginning of each chapter. He also uses imagery in the various descriptions of the characters.
In the beginning of chapter one he creates a calm setting as he describes the tranquil area between the Gabilan Mountains and Salinas River where George...
Steinbeck uses language which appeals to the reader's senses of sight and sound throughout the novella Of Mice and Men. Specifically he uses strong imagery in his description of setting, particularly at the beginning of each chapter. He also uses imagery in the various descriptions of the characters.
In the beginning of chapter one he creates a calm setting as he describes the tranquil area between the Gabilan Mountains and Salinas River where George and Lennie first camp. Steinbeck writes,
Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of ‘coons, and with the spreadpads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.
At this point in the novel, things are relatively calm for George and Lennie. They are on their way to work and the dream of the "little piece of land" is still in tact.
In the final chapter, Steinbeck uses contrasting imagery to describe the very same setting. Instead of tranquility he portrays violence as a heron feeds on a water snake in the river:
A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.
The area is also described as windy and turbulent as Lennie appears on the scene. Steinbeck's imagery is more in line with what will happen next in the chapter when George is forced to kill Lennie.
Imagery is significant in the description of the setting in chapter five. This chapter will end the dream of the farm and will echo the title of the story. No matter what happens, George and Lennie are tied to a specific fate. Their "best laid plans" can never come to fruition. Steinbeck uses the image of the horses tied to the "halter chains" to mirror the plight of George and Lennie:
The horses stamped and snorted, and they chewed the straw of their bedding and they clashed the chains of their halters.
Like the horses, who can never escape, George and Lennie never break free from Lennie's compulsions which cause the inadvertent death of Curley's wife and destroy the dream.
Steinbeck makes use of onomatopoeia, when words imitate sounds, in beginning of chapter five:
There was the buzz of flies in the air, the lazy afternoon humming. From outside came the clang of horseshoes on the playing peg and the shouts of men, playing, encouraging, jeering. But in the barn it was quiet and humming and lazy and warm.
Buzz, clang and humming are all examples of strong sense imagery.
Steinbeck again creates a strong image in this chapter when he describes the moment right after Curley's wife dies. It seems as if the world almost stops, presumably to allow Curley's wife's soul to pass. It is a particularly powerful image. Steinbeck writes,
As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.
Steinbeck uses potent imagery to describe each of the characters. Lennie is described in animalistic and metaphorical terms in chapter one:
Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.
Candy is the old swamper character who first greets George and Lennie when they come to the ranch. Steinbeck describes an old, crippled man:
The door opened and a tall, stoop-shouldered old man came in. He was dressed in blue jeans and he carried a big push-broom in his left hand.
Curley, who is the boss's son and also a major antagonist to George and Lennie is described as edgy and belligerent:
His eyes passed over the new men and he stopped. He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious.
Curley's wife is portrayed as young and exuding sexual tension as she comes to the doorway of the bunkhouse:
A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide- spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers.
Steinbeck even uses potent imagery to describe Candy's old dog whose fate is decided in chapter three. Steinbeck writes:
And at his heels there walked a dragfooted sheepdog, gray of muzzle, and with pale, blind old eyes. The dog struggled lamely to the side of the room and lay down, grunting softly to himself and licking his grizzled, moth-eaten coat.
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