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An Analysis Of Symbols In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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In John Steinbeck’s novella “Of Mice and Men”, he enacts through his writing, the themes, of Violence and Dreams, Hopes and Plans. John Steinbeck relates back to those themes through Rabbits, Bunkhouse, and Lennie Small. The symbol, setting, and person chosen all represent Dreams, Hopes and Plans and Violence. Rabbits represent Dreams, Hopes and Plans because Lennie was always dreaming of raising the Rabbits. Bunkhouse represents Violence because all of the people who stay there are extremely rowdy and cruel. Finally, Lennie embodies Violence because of his consistency to massacre innocent beings. The Symbol I will be depicting in this story is rabbits. I have chosen rabbits because they represent Dreams, Hopes and Plans. Rabbits represent Dreams, Hopes and Plans because they were what Lennie always looked forward to whenever times got hard. An example of this is, “George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live on …show more content…

Lennie Smalls depicts Dreams, Hopes and Plans, and he represents Violence. Lennie represents Dreams, Hopes and Plans by always looking forward to the Dream House that him and George are going to have, he is always looking forward to the rabbits that he is going to tend later on. This is shown by, “But you ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits.” (9) Violence is embodied by Lennie because he does violent things whenever he gets scared. An example of this is, “Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do.” (21) This shows that he was scared and just held on to the dress, and the girl thought that Lennie was trying to rape

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For Lennie’s archetype, his character represents innocence. In the story, Lennie is always in need to pet some kind of animal. His want of constant comfort from an animal is a childish quality for a grown man to have. This childish quality makes Lennie’s character have the innocence of a child no older than eight years old.

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One such quote, “Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as a mice.” When Lennie says this it means that he’s starting to kill bigger animals even though he doesn’t mean to and he likes the animals. When Curley’s wife walks in after this and Lennie doesn’t want to talk to her because she’s trouble, it’s evident that something bad is going to happen to her. “Jus’ wanted to feel that girl’s dress-jus’ wanted to pet it like it was a mouse

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At the beginning of the novel we see that Lennie had killed a mouse and was carrying it in his pocket. The mouse that Lennie carries in his pocket can be seen as a representative of Lennie. A mouse is generally seen as insignificant, not important and occupies a low space amongst other animals. It is frequently reviled as being undesirable and destroying it generally causes no concern. Much the same can be said about Lennie among his own species.

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In the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Steinbeck uses other characters to foreshadows an event that's going to happen to Lennie and George under the same condition. George and Lennie wanted to fulfill their dreams by working at the ranch, but things do not go smoothly for them as the planned. Like what happened in Weed, meeting Curley’s wife, the unfortunate death of Candy’s dog, and how Lennie does not realize his strength which he might accidentally kill someone shows upcoming events. Many behaviors of Lennie lead to the downfall of George and Lennie’s dream because what happened in Weed, where Lennie scared a girl so like an animal he could not control his impulse to hold on to her dress. This foreshadows that with his uncontrollable strength he could hurt another person impulsively.

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This also shows the overpowering control George has over Lennie’s conscience, and the consequence that Lennie can’t remember his own actions, only the stories George repeats. He is never truly angry with Lennie for his petty mistakes, he is simply thinking of the limitations of their dreams because of Lennie’s unpredictable actions. It seems George can only control Lennie by threatening him with the thing he cares about most which is the farm, “But you ain’t gonna get in no trouble, because if you do, I won’t let you tend the rabbits” he threatens, trying to make Lennie remember the importance of his actions (36). George is constantly complaining that he could have a better life and even have a farm without Lennie to look after, but he also wants a companion. Lennie is often simple minded and easily influenced, but intuitive enough to manipulate George’s loneliness, “If you don’t want me George I can go up in that cave over there and leave,” George quickly denies this saying “No, look I was just foolin’ Lennie, ‘cause I want you to stay with me” (20).

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‘’The girl rabbits and in an tells the law she has been raped. The guys in weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. ’’ Lennie is not the smartest but when he does something wrong he does not mean it at all he just doesn't know what he is doing. The things Lennie does continues

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At the end of the book, he hallucinates a "gigantic rabbit" that tells him he "ain't fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You'd forget 'em and let 'em go hungry". This giant rabbit suggest that deep down, lennie knows that his dream will never come true. These symbols show just how segregated and sad these people are due to their race or

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Now although Lennie may not be the size of a mouse, he represents the viewpoint of the mouse. In similarity to this, George’s viewpoint represents the farmers. The following paragraphs will show how this metaphorical relation was applied. Like the mouse, Lennie can be seen as “helpless”. When a person thinks of a mouse,

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There are striking similarities between the types of violence humans inflict in Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men and Robert Burns’ poem "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”. In the poem, Burns narrates a situation where, while plowing, accidentally destroys a mouse’s home for the winter. So even though he was unintentional in the causing of distress, it still happened. This situation draws parallels to Lennie inadvertently making George’s life hard and hurting those around him in Of Mice and Men.

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Wenn du eine groß genug Lüge erzählst und es oft genug erzählt, wird man glauben - If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed - Adolf Hitler. After being taught about the Nazis one would believe that a group of students would not be able to mindlessly fall into the description of a fascist society. Todd Strasser’s novel The Wave suggests that anyone can be guided so dauntlessly by someone who they believe has more power than them. The Wave became fascist when - american high school history teacher - Mr Ross Assigned different responsibilities to students such as ‘agents’ trying to call out students disobeying the rules of the wave.

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1. Of Mice and Men contains many symbols. Discuss two of these symbols. Two prevalent symbols in “Of Mice And Men” by John Steinbeck are dogs and rabbits. Dogs are used in the novel to represent Lennie, and they way he’s treated.

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Lennie is triggered when certain things happen, like when he kills the mouse, he goes into another state of mind. When Lennie is not triggered he is described as an innocent, kind person or as others would say he is a big baby. Not many people see Lennie’s aggression except for George. George tries to handle Lennie 's anger with trying to demand him to do this or that but it never helps Lennie in the long run.

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“The unavoidable truth is, however, that Lennie, be he innocent “natural,” uncontrollable id, or simply a huge child, is above all dangerous.” (Owens) Children are known for having tempers. They have trouble expressing their feelings in words. Lennie is a lot like this and with his enormous strength, it is difficult to control him. Of Mice and Men shows many thematic ideas that relate to the world today even though it is set in the 1930’s.

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He jus’ wanted to touch that red dress, like he wants to pet them pups all the time’” (Steinbeck 42). This quote is the first example in which Lennie’s mental disability gets in the way of his dreams. George tells Slim what had happened in Weed between Lennie and the woman in the red dress and how the whole situation started. “‘Sure, he 's [Lennie] jes like a kid.

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The book Of Mice and Men is full of puzzling examples of the human condition, from Lennie and his mental disability to Curley only caring about his social appearance. With characters like these two, the book exploits the human condition that concerns circumstances life has given you. John Steinbeck brings to life what being a laborer in the American depression meant to the men and one woman who had enough personality to stand out. Steinbeck shows the human condition of men while they survive in the American depression.

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