Of Mice and Men

1. Of Mice and Men Nature/Animals By Leah, Dan and Maja

2. Nature/Animals Steinbeck compares the looks and features of the characters in Of Mice and Men to animals e.g. “Bristly white whiskers”. This shows that Steinbeck is comparing Candy’s facial features to a cat’s whiskers.

3. Nature/Animals John 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.

4. Nature/Animals John Steinbeck describes the setting in full detail for instance, “The little breeze blew over the clearing and the leaves rustled and the wind waves flowed up the green pool”. This quote shows that Steinbeck is very passionate when describing the landscape and nature around him. He uses alliteration ‘breeze blew’ wind waves’ within the description to make the reader feel passionate about nature too.

5. Nature/Animals Steinbeck describes the animals in Of Mice and Men with passion and feeling, “The ancient dog walked lamely in through the open door. He gazed about with mild, half- blind eyes. He sniffed, and then lay down and put his head between his paws” This shows Steinbeck puts his personal opinion and feelings into the description of the dog, and uses emotive language ‘lamely, half-blind’ within his description of Candy’s dog to make the reader feel sorry him.

6. Nature/Animals John Steinbeck is very passionate about nature, especially the morning and evening. He writes about the evening very poetically: “Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the Gabilan mountains , and the hilltops were rosy with sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen.” This shows that Steinbeck has used personification “go climbing” to make the description of nature more passionate and to make it seem more alive.

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

8. Nature/Animals In the book Lennie is compared to animals ‘snorting into the water like a horse’, ‘Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water’. Steinbeck does this 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 that he has child like behaviour. He sees water and wants to drink it! – but the style in which he does this shows us that he has no sense of proper behaviour.

9. Nature/Animals In ‘Of Mice and Men’ the main events happen around animals. The killing of Candy’s dog was a main event, because is relates to when George had to kill Lennie. George learnt to kill Lennie without him feeling a thing because of what Carlson said before he killed the dog ‘The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feel nothing. I’d put the gun right there.’ ‘Right back of the head.’ Also George realises that he should be the one to kill Lennie, as Candy felt guilty about not killing his own dog, so if Lennie and the dog are similar, then George didn’t want to feel guilty about not killing Lennie, similar to how Candy felt when Carlson shot his dog.