Has someone ever compared you to an animal? When they do, they are giving you a relationship with an animal metaphorically. This is known as animal imagery. What this does is give you the characteristics of an animal, this is well known as animal imagery. John Steinbeck uses animal imagery in his novel Of Mice and Men to describe many characters such as Lennie, Curley, and Candy to give them a relationship with an animal, by doing so, Steinbeck gives them animal characteristics. This gives the reader a choice of how they want to perceive them based on the past and knowledge. What Steinbeck is trying to interpret with animal imagery is perception, everyone has their own conception and can view things based on knowledge and experiences. The working class of those times were dense people they would normally work and have a routine evolved around working, affecting their knowledge which in larger is affecting their point of view on things. Steinbeck uses many characters to generate animal imagery and show the different conceptions people have. My first example is Lennie, in Of Mice and Men Lennie is given the characteristics of many animals through animal imagery such as a bear, dog, …show more content…
“Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier“ (Steinbeck 62). With this quote Steinbeck is comparing Curley to a terrier and giving the terriers characteristics to Curley, based on the bigger message of perception that Steinbeck is trying to send you can perceive this as if Curly is a small innocent do like a terrier is or as an aggressive man also like the terrier is based on your past and knowledge. In conclusion, you can see how Steinbeck uses animal imagery to send the greater message of perception using Lennie, Curley, and Candy. He gives them the characteristics of the animal and leaves the reader's perception to perceive them as good or bad based on the reader's experiences and