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

Tone in Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck famously said, “All great and precious things are lonely.” This was the mindset he had when he wrote Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men tells the story of George and Lennie, two displaced ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. When they find the ranch, Lennie’s habits progress and guarantee trouble. In the novel, Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses the literary devices of imagery, simile, and personification to create a graceful tone.

Throughout the novel, Steinbeck describes small details in many scenes with the use of imagery, which overall creates a graceful tone. Steinbeck describes at the beginning

He uses personification to give life to many inanimate things and he gives a tone of graceful while doing so. At the end of the first night, for emphasis of the night’s power, “the sycamore leaves whispered in a little night breeze” (Steinbeck 56). In this quotation, Steinbeck uses chilling words to give a graceful tone. Steinbeck says that the night has power with his sentence structure and syntax. With words like ‘whispered’ and ‘breeze’, Steinbeck is trying to emphasize the late night scene that Lennie and George were sleepily conversing in. By giving life to leaves, Steinbeck brings a smooth writing style, by peacefully describing a little night breeze. The words that he uses are evidence of his graceful tone. At sundown on the second day, “the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains” (Steinbeck 59). In real life, the sun cannot climb a slope, but Steinbeck paints the scene by giving life to the sun. Words that are warm and delicate are used to make the reader feel the sentence and to show the tone of graceful. The reader can feel what the protagonists are feeling: a gorgeous sunset. At the climax of the book, “A moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment...sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment” (Steinbeck 78). A common phenomenon is converted into a light personification of moments. Steinbeck uses this literary device to enhance the reader’s understanding of plot development, and to show how long this scene feels like. Steinbeck drags out this moment in time when Lennie has just killed Curley’s wife and he is momentarily shocked. This is the climax of the story, Lennie has just shook Curley’s wife with the force of his hand and he cannot begin to comprehend what follows. Personification is used to enhance scenes and to appeal to the reader. Personification is clearly used to show feeling and the tone of the