Use Of Literary Devices In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Literary Device #1—Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing: Use of phrases or words to give the reader a hint or sign of something that will happen in the future in the story.

Example: “She’s gonna make a mess. They’s gonna be a bad mess about her. She’s a jail bait all set on the trigger.” (51) Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Function:

Context: In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Curley’s wife is the loneliest character in the story because she is the only girl in the ranch. Thus, she always tries to escape from the lonely situation with talking and flirting with another guy. For example, when Lennie sees her early in the story, she flirts to Lennie, and make Lennie admires and likes her. But, George knows if Curley’s wife is not a good person, so

As a result, George tries to solve the problem but unfortunately, he cannot find another way to save Lennie except kills him. He feels if Lennie is his responsibility, so he does not want anybody to kill him except himself. As a result, their dream of “live off the fatta lan’”(14) that they were talking about over and over from the beginning of the story is gone. George cannot get his own place by himself or without Lennie. In addition, there are foreshadows and many similarities between Candy’s dog death and Lennie’s death. First, both Candy’s dog and Lennie is killed because people around him does not like them and want them to die. Second, the gun that is used to kill the dog and Lennie is same. Third, Carlson and George kill them in the same way; they shot both of them in the back of their head. Fourth, Candy also tells George earlier if he better shoots his dog by himself, and that is same when George wants to shoot Lennie by himself. As a conclusion, the death of Candy’s dog has much in common with Lennie’s death. Both of Candy and George does not want them to get killed, but condition and people around them force Candy and George to kill them. Finally, the death of Curley’s wife caused a lot of problem, which makes George, Lennie, and Candy’s dream to have their own place is gone. Therefore, if Lennie does not talk to Curley’s wife, there will be no problem that is foreshadowed when Carlson kills Candy’s