The Use Of Foreshadowing In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The group of men walked through the hot sun of the terrain of Midwestern U.S. in their classic 1920s Levi’s jeans. The time was the Great Depression where John Steinbeck places his novella Of Mice and Men. John Steinbeck's novella is about the journey of two friends, George and Lennie, working on a farm who face obstacles of dreams, friendship, loneliness, and anger. George subsists more of a caretaker to Lennie with traits of intellect, witty, and trustworthy. However, Lennie is the opposite, being moronic, strong, and has a tendency to not know his full strength. Other characters which are important to mention consist of Slim, Curley, Carlson, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife all which have an important role in the novella. Out of all these

Throughout the book, John Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to hint at future events of George and Lennie’s friendship. Steinbeck starts this part of the novella with Curley wanting to fight with Lennie. George speaks to Lennie about this in the barn until “both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off” (31). “Rectangle of sunlight in the doorway was cut off” symbolizes all things bad showing that later in the story Curley’s wife is going to do something that will change George and Lennie’s friendship. Foreshadowing is shown first when Curley’s wife blocks the sunlight and leads to Curley’s wife manipulating Lennie into stroking her hair. Then dramatically changing into Lennie killing her messing up George and his friendship. Foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men are used to show events of change of friendship between George and Lennie such as in this quote, Curley’s wife being manipulative which leads to the change of friendship. Changes of friendship are shown

John Steinbeck starts chapter six of the novella with Lennie in the barn alone trying to figure out what he will do with the puppy he recently killed. As he is burying the puppy, Curley’s wife comes in and starts to manipulate him into talking to her by explaining her problems. She says “why can't I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely” (). “Why can’t I talk to you” shows that Curley’s wife is characterized as someone manipulative by trying to talk to Lennie even though George told Lennie not to. On the other hand, it also characterizes Curley’s wife as someone who just longs for a companion and because no one talks to her, she becomes manipulative. Characterization of Curley’s wife is used to create sympathy for her and to lead her to Lennie which ends up badly when Lennie kills her forcing George to kill Lennie. George and Lennie’s friendship is ended because of the loneliness of Curley’s wife because it leads her to talk to Lennie. John Steinbeck creates sympathy for the manipulative Curley’s wife in chapter 6, however, the more known side to her is when she talks to Crooks. Crooks is an old black man who has been discriminated against and has been isolated his entire life. “Well, you keep your place then, Nigger. I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny.” (). “I could get you strung up on a tree so