Of Mice And Men Foreshadowing Essay

Of Mice and Men is set outside the town of Soledad, California during The Great Depression, where two childhood friends make their way from the town of Weed to find work. Everywhere jobs are scarce and these men face many hardships on their journey. Throughout the story, Steinbeck hints that all will not end well; this creates a gloomy mood that winds its way to a dismal conclusion. In Of Mice and Men nearly every scene serves as foreshadowing for the inevitable tragic ending. In the first scene the reader learns that Lennie likes soft animals, but often kills them accidentally; this indicates that he may later kill again. When Lennie was little, he loved to pet mice, but was always killing them. Lennie’s obsession doesn’t stop with mice. Unaware of his own strength, he did this again later in the novel. Slim, the Jerkline Skinner, has a litter of pups and Lennie wants nothing more than one of them. Lennie begs George to ask Slim for a pup. Slim then lets Lennie go in the barn and play with the pups; Lennie even tries to sneak one in the living quarters. But like the mice, his compulsion of soft things took over and he killed the pup. The author repeats all the actions of Lennie killing things to foresee that Lennie will cause more trouble later because of his obsession. In Weed, Lennie’s unfortunate …show more content…
When Lennie’s obsession with soft things gets him killed, that dream is vanished. Lennie was a burden to George. Lennie followed him around everywhere and George cared for Lennie. Now that that weight is lifted from George, he is free to do anything. The break of Curley’s Wife’s neck, Lennie’s panic when she screams and Lennie petting her hair is all related to Lennie’s usual behavior and it led to Curley’s wife’s death and Lennie’s death with tragic ending of the