Of Mice and Men

Nature/Animals

By Leah, Dan and Maja

Nature/AnimalsSteinbeck compares the looks and features of the characters in Of Miceand Men to animals e.g. “Bristly whitewhiskers”. This shows that Steinbeck iscomparing Candy’s facial features to acat’s whiskers.

Nature/AnimalsJohn Steinbeck is very passionate about

nature, he writes about it with lots of detailed

description and also very poetically, “The

Salinas river drops in close to the hillside bank

and runs deep and green”. This shows that

Steinbeck includes his passion for nature within

the book Of Mice and Men.

Nature/AnimalsJohn Steinbeck describes the setting in fulldetail for instance, “The little breeze blew over theclearing and the leaves rustled and the windwaves flowed up the green pool”. This quoteshows that Steinbeck is very passionate whendescribing the landscape and nature around him.He uses alliteration ‘breeze blew’ wind waves’within the description to make the reader feelpassionate about nature too.

Nature/Animals

Steinbeck describes the animals in Of Mice and Men withpassion and feeling, “The ancient dog walked lamely inthrough the open door. He gazed about with mild, half-blind eyes. He sniffed, and then lay down and put hishead between his paws” This shows Steinbeck puts hispersonal opinion and feelings into the description of thedog, and uses emotive language ‘lamely, half-blind’within his description of Candy’s dog to make the readerfeel sorry him.

Nature/AnimalsJohn Steinbeck is very passionate aboutnature, especially the morning and evening. Hewrites about the evening very poetically: “Alreadythe sun had left the valley to go climbing up theGabilan mountains , and the hilltops were rosy withsun. But by the pool among the mottledsycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen.” Thisshows that Steinbeck has used personification “goclimbing” to make the description of nature morepassionate and to make it seem more alive.

Nature/AnimalsJohn Steinbeck uses the title ‘Of Mice And Men’because it relates to how humans and animalsare all equal and no matter what you are your dreams canbe crushed. Also the title can refer to Lennie and the mouse he found,as Lennie seeks companionship and friendship withanimals. And like friendship, even though the mouse wasdead he never wanted to let it go, ‘Give it here!’ saidGeorge ‘Aw, leave me have it, George’ said Lennie. This tells us that he didn’t want to give it to Georgebecause he didn’t want to let his friend go.

Nature/AnimalsIn the book Lennie is compared to animals‘snorting into the water like a horse’, ‘Lenniedabbled his big paw in the water’. Steinbeck doesthis to show his appearance and his behaviour. ‘Big paw’ tells us that he has big hands. ‘Snorting into the water like a horse’ shows us thathe has child like behaviour. He sees water andwants to drink it! – but the style in which he doesthis shows us that he has no sense of properbehaviour.

Nature/AnimalsIn ‘Of Mice and Men’ the main events happen around animals.The killing of Candy’s dog was a main event, because is relatesto when George had to kill Lennie. George learnt to kill Lenniewithout him feeling a thing because of what Carlson said beforehe killed the dog ‘The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feelnothing. I’d put the gun right there.’ ‘Right back of the head.’

Also George realises that he should be the one to kill Lennie, asCandy felt guilty about not killing his own dog, so if Lennie andthe dog are similar, then George didn’t want to feel guilty aboutnot killing Lennie, similar to how Candy felt when Carlson shothis dog.