Of Mice And Men Rhetorical Analysis

John Steinbeck’s novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ explores the life of itinerant workers during the Great Depression. The realistic plot represents the dreams of many workers during the depression and struggles they faced to achieve them. The text is supported with various literary techniques such as, foreshadowing, animal imagery, symbolism and the intertextual meaning of the title itself. The novel’s success relies heavily on the author’s ability to interweave literary and stylistic devices to stimulate the reader’s interest in the novel.

Steinbeck’s writing style in the novel, ‘Of Mice and Men’ draws heavily on light and dark imagery as a literary device. The imagery symbolises the dream and obstacles that occurred throughout the text. One example

In Burns’ poem a farmer planned to plow the field and while the farmer was doing so the farmer unintentionally plowed into a mouse’s nest, showing that, “The best laid schemes of Mice and Men often go awry.” In the novel George and Lennie had a thorough plan in their heads of how the farm will look like and what would be on the farm. The plan is repeated many times in the text. Though the plan was well executed in their minds, everything went wrong because of Lennie not having the ability to control himself. The dream was ruined and there was no chance of Lennie getting his rabbits. The title also indicates that mice have a part in story. Mice was something that Lennie liked to pet because he was fond of small, soft things. This fondness also led to the abolishment of the dream. During the Great Depression there was a huge difference between people of lower and higher class. The mice from the titley is representing the lower class and the men are the upper class. The novel shows the ways itinerant workers were treated compared to upper class. Intertextuality between the poem and the novel foreshadowed some parts of the text and hinted some factors that may ruin the dream of owning a

From the beginning of the novel to the very end speech and description all indicate foreshadowing. In many instances the foreshadowing made a chain as the text progressed. One chain was the Lennie’s liking for soft things. The chain started off with the reader being informed about Lennie’s liking for soft things started at a young age when he was given a scrap of velvet. “You get right up an’ take this pup back to the nest,” “You want to kill him?’ these quotations were said by George who indicated some type of trouble caused by Lennie relating to soft things. In the end of the book the foreshadowing chain still occurred. Lennie ended up killing the puppy and Curley’s wife due to his liking of soft things and this lead to him being in trouble. Another type of foreshadowing that was used in the novel by Steinbeck is animal imagery. In the beginning chapters of the text comparisons between certain animals and Lennie. An quotation from the novel that shows animal imagery is, “I want you to stay with me, Lennie. Jesus Christ, somebody’d shoot you for a coyote if you was by yourself.” Coyotes are seen by pests by people, when George said this he indirectly called Lennie a pest. During the time that the text is set in people like Lennie, who are on the dumber side of things were looked down upon. The quotation also foreshadowed that an event will occur in which Lennie will get shot due