Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck about two ranch workers named George and Lennie who travel the country in search of a dream of land of their own. However their search of land is not helped by Lennie who is a fully grown man with a mental disability and who’s childish like behaviour lands both men in trouble with the law. George who is Lennie’s carer has to always help both of them out of tight situations: “You keep me in hot water all the time!” The novel begins with both men off to work in a new ranch in California. However tension begins to mount with Curley’s dislike of Lennie and Curley’s wife always trying to talk to the men. The great moment of tension in the novel is the shooting of Candy’s dog. This scene creates a spark throughout the whole of the novel where things start to go wrong. Steinbeck uses various techniques in the novel such as foreshadowing to lead up to the main scene of tension.
Tension in the novel begins gradually with early sightings that George and Lennie’s dream will be damaged. When George and Lennie are alone in the forest Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to relate back to what happened in Weed: “An’ you ain’t gonna do no bad things like you done in Weed, neither.” He then tells Lennie to come and hide in the forest if he does anything wrong as if George knows Lennie will do something: “…I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.” And when Lennie kills the mouse by petting him this foreshadows to the end of the novel where Lennie kills the puppy and Curley’s wife. This shows that Lennie is a possible threat and may do something similar. From this part of the novel tension is building to a point where Lennie and George will be disappointed.
The key scene of incidence in the novel is the shooting of Candy’s dog which continues the technique of foreshadowing. The scene is set in the bunk house where the mood is tense and Carlson has had enough of...