Of Mice and Men Essay Light and dark themes are used all around us even if we cannot see them. We see them in life and death, in joy and anger, and even in the setting of the sun. John Steinbeck uses light and dark imagery that is present in aspects throughout the novel Of mice and men Death is undoubtedly a horrible thing, but there can be light because of that darkness. Mercy killing is an example of this. When life has gotten so bad that death is a kindness, some light can come from darkness. We see this idea in mice and men when Candie's ancient dog is being put down. Slim told candy that his dog “ain't no good to himself. [he] wisht somebody'd shoot [him] if [he] got old an' a cripple” (Steinbeck 45). Slim has realized that the dog has …show more content…
He loves animals but repeatedly kills them because of his size and clumsiness. Lennie is given a puppy in hopes that he can pet it without it dying. Puppies are more resilient than some smaller animals. Lennie accidentally killed his puppy and got angry because of it. When Lennie realized his puppy was dead “Suddenly his anger arose. "God damn you," he cried. "Why do you got to get killed? You ain't so little as mice." He picked up the pup and hurled it from him”(Steinbeck 83). Lennie is extremely caring towards animals. Seeing Lennie get so angry at his dead puppy shows us that he has a dark side. We see throughout of mice and men Lennie repeating this theme of getting angry or scared for little things. For the most part, Lennie is harmless and innocent. After Lennie had realized what he had done his “ woe came back on him. ‘Jus my pup,’ he said sadly. ‘Jus' my little pup”(Steinbeck 84-85). Even though a second earlier he was yelling at the puppy now he is regretting it. Lennie’s sporadic behavior represents the light and dark of human nature. Even though Lennie really cares for his puppy he couldn’t help getting mad at it. We see the jump from darkness to light over and over again in Lennie throughout this