Importance Of Setting In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

John Steinbeck shows through the setting in the novel Of Mice And Men that friendships can change because of greed. In the story George and Lennie are friends who have traveled together all around since they were kids. Together they had dreams of working on their own and owning their own place. Lennie is a very big and strong character but lacks wit, while george is smaller. In the beginning they were trying to find a place to work because of a mistake Lennie made when he was scared and didn’t know what to do and ended up causing them to flee from the workplace. They find a new place and on the way they stop for the night at a pond. “The shade climbed up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, …show more content…
For a moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening by the green pool” (Steinbeck, 2). This setting describes a relatively peaceful scene where George and Lennie are approaching the pool and symbolizes how their friendship is peacefull also. Later George describes to Lennie how this pond will be used as safety if something goes wrong. “Lennie- if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush” (Steinbeck, 15). At this time their friendship is still stable and Steinbeck is using the setting of the brush and the pond to show peace and safety. Later in the book Lennie gets himself back in trouble and this time people want to kill him. George gets greedy and instead of sticking with his friend goes against him for the money of the job and for the satisfaction from his workmates. To show this change, the same setting is described differently. “A water snake glided smoothly up the pool”...”and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved