Of Mice and Men opens with a description of the setting of the story written in a sort of timeless zone not a tense, simply illustrating the scenery and creating an image for the reader to imagine. The beginning is like the creation story, unfolding all the life around. Starting with the plants and tree’s
‘Willows fresh and green with every spring’ and moving to the animals
‘Rabbits came out of the brush’, this is sort of like the evolution of time, starting with the simpler life forms and moving on until Steinbeck finally reaches the last creation, the people.
Steinbeck does not give the names of the characters straight away; this may be for a sense of mystery and also to hook the reader in. Firstly he describes their appearance and the opposites between them. There is sort of a comparison as the two characters become obviously different,
‘The first man was small and quick, dark of face’ this immediately gives him an edge of uncertainty and mystery and the first image of him in the readers head is a small skulking man. It continues describing him as slender, strong and well defined. This creates a persona of a sort of hard, tough man which a suspicious and possibly cruel nature.
The description of the second man is completely opposing,
‘A huge man, shapeless of face’ this makes him sound like a giant lummox plodding along. Where as the first man is very quick and sharp the second man is very animal like, ‘dragging his feet, the way a bear drags his paws’
I think Steinbeck may have used this description because as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly obvious that the first man is in control and is the leader and the second man is like his dog, following his every move. Although this persona is given that one controls the other, Steinbeck describes there clothes to be exactly the same, this could be because the second man wants to dress like his master or the more likely factor is that he is trying to show that although one may seem to be in...