Of Mice and Men tells a story based in California during the 1930s; of two men who have very different characteristics, but share the same goal. The men, George and Lennie, are migrant workers. At their new job, they meet many individuals: Candy, who is very old and cleans the bunkhouse; Curley, who is the boss’s son; Curley's wife, Crooks, the stable hand; and Slim, who is known as the “prince of the ranch.” Though they recently started, their new job quickly goes downhill. John Steinbeck’s book is carefully written and often uses hints to foretell what will happen next.
John Steinbeck first uses foreshadowing in the title of his book. The book title, Of Mice and Men, is an allusion to a poem by Robert Burns titled To a Mouse. To a Mouse is from the perspective of Burns when he accidentally plowed up a mouse’s nest. Line twenty-one of the poem states “The best laid schemes of mice and
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In chapter three, Carlson is complaining about Candy’s old dog while trying to convince Candy to kill it. Candy says how he’s had his dog for so long while Carlson explains how much better he’d be without it; akin to how George complains to Lennie how much better he’d be without him. Carlson then offers to shoot Candy’s dog painlessly for him. Candy reluctantly agrees. Carlson shoots the dog in the back of the head outside the bunkhouse. Later on, Candy admits to George that he wished he shot his dog himself. In chapter six, after Lennie kills Curley’s wife, Curley is searching for Lennie with the intention to kill him painfully. George finds Lennie in their agreed-upon place “in the brush.” George kills Lennie painlessly; much like how Carlson shot Candy’s dog painlessly. George does this because he would feel guilty; suchlike Candy and his dog. He also most likely wanted Lennie to die painlessly. This is foreshadowing because Steinbeck creates a parallel between Lennie and the