Examples Of Foreshadowing In Of Mice And Men

Foreshadowing plays a large part in the novel “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck. He sets the scene at the beginning of the chapter with a specific amount of light and dark, and coming from either the natural light of the sun or some type of electric light source. This setting foreshadows the entire chapter in saying whether what happens will turn out positively or negatively. Not only that, but at many different points in the book, the characters foreshadow the end of the book through their actions. Foreshadowing occurs throughout the novel, both for each chapter by itself and for the end, when Lennie ends up dead. The end of “Of Mice and Men” gets foreshadowed frequently throughout the entire novel. In the end, Lennie gets shot and killed …show more content…
Lennie saw the dress and liked the fabric, so he reached out to feel it. The girl squawked when he grabbed the material, and that got Lennie frightened and confused, so he held on for dear life rather than letting go. George, a little ways off, heard the girl yelling, so he came running over to see Lennie clinging to the girl’s dress. George had to hit Lennie over the head with a fence picket before he would let go, because he grew scared thanks to the girl’s screaming. She ran off and told the law someone had raped her, and a party got together to get Lennie lynched. Lennie obviously would rather have run away than have gotten lynched, so the two of them fled. This event foreshadows the end of the novel because it shows the beginnings of Lennie’s increasing violence throughout the …show more content…
They talk for a while until finally she asks what makes him like rabbits so much. He tells her that he likes to pet nice things, soft things. This leads Curley’s wife to tell him she understands what he means, because sometimes she just sits and strokes her hair because of its softness. She invites Lennie to pet her head, which Lennie enjoys the softness of and does not want to stop touching. Eventually she has had enough and jerks her head away from Lennie, who grabs some of her hair and won’t let go. Curley’s wife tries to scream multiple times until finally Lennie turns from frightened to angry and begins shaking her around by the hair he holds. The strength of Lennie’s fist rattling Curley’s wife around snaps her neck, and she dies instantly. Lennie immediately knows he’s never done anything this bad before and has to run, so he goes to the brush where George told him to go. This foreshadows the end of the novel because Lennie has now killed someone, so it only makes sense for someone to have to kill him now, if they catch