Animal Imagery in Steinbeck's Character Development

The background into a character is one of the most important necessities for understanding a book. John Steinbeck uses certain repetitive imagery whenever describing a character to give readers an insight on their mannerisms and peculiarities. Among the images Steinbeck uses, the dog and the bear are the most important. John Steinbeck develops the persona and character of Lennie, a big, strong farmhand that is small minded,by the animal imagery that he uses to describe him and through this Steinbeck conveys his overall message about farmhands of the time.
Steinbeck creates Lennie’s persona as a strong but not at all bright farm hand with his use of bear imagery. As Lennie walks he is described as: “Dragging his feet a little, the way a bear

drags his paws”(Steinbeck 2). From the get go, Steinbeck gives us background on Lennie by comparing him to a bear. Although bears are top tier predators with large amounts of strength, their intelligence is inferior to some other animals. The implication being, that Lennie may be large, but he doesn’t have the strongest mental capabilities. As Lennie becomes more known, the imagery builds, ‘“Lennie dabbled his big paw and wiggled his fingers so the water rose in little splashes… ‘look, George. Look what I done’”(3). In addition to the bear imagery representing Lennie in stature and in mind, the bear imagery conveys a playfulness about him like two bear cubs playing and rolling around on the ground. This helps us to understand that Lennie has the emotional maturity of a child or cub.
By representing Lennie as not only a bear but as a dog too, Steinbeck also allows us an insight into George and Lennie’s relationship. Steinbeck illustrates Lennie as a dog to show the powerlessness he has in comparison to George. He writes, “Slowly, like a terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again”(9). Lennie is shown here as a dog because of his nature to do and follow exactly what George says. Just as a dog does, Lennie also gets excited whenever George tells him something. Steinbeck includes this in order to give us insight into their symbiotic relationship. George receives companionship from Lennie while Lennie receives George’s guidance and protection from the world. Many dogs often run away when given the chance. Lennie does the same while keeping with the dog imagery here: “looking wildly at the brush line as though he contemplated running for his freedom”(8). Lennie often is compared to a dog because of his simplistic nature his inability to think like a mature human. The dog imagery also ties into the end of the book when, as some dog owners have to do, George takes the liberty of putting Lennie down.
Although these pieces of imagery are speaking about Lennie, John Steinbeck is sharing a commentary on the working class people of the time.

The farmhands were obviously not the most educated so Steinbeck uses Lennie as a hyperbole of how the farm hands lived. They were strong, absent minded and animalistic in the way that they isolated themselves by moving often. The men ‘“go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch”’(14). This animalistic style of living is what a lot of the workers did. The workers worked for a month just to have some fun for a single night and then moved on without caring about the future. Steinbeck includes the image of the dog's tail to reinforce that this is an animalistic way of living. Steinbeck tells his overall message through his use of the title Of Mice and Men which comes from the poem To a Mouse. The author Robert Burns writes, “Still thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me! The present only toucheth thee”(To a Mouse). This is the main message that Steinbeck is getting across about the farmhands of the time.That they didn’t care about leaving because they lived in the present just as Lennie does. As slim puts it: “they just come in and get their bunk and work a month, and then quit and go out alone”(39). Steinbeck uses Lennie as a hyperbole of how the working class at the time lived. They would work a bit then move on because like animals, they were antisocial and didn’t care about where the future would take

them.
Steinbeck as a masterful author, uses a wide variety of clues to help the reader get a grasp of an underlying message from and interesting and timeless story. By using animal imagery, he allows the reader to understand the way that Lennie was, and how this stands for the working class people of the time. Both Lennie and the workers live in the present without caring much about the future. Lennie is the meaning of: “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley”(To a Mouse). In that he lives in the present because the trying to plan for future will leave you with “nought but grief an’ pain”(To a Mouse).