The Personification Of Silence In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

The death of Lennie Small was made an emotive yet inevitable end to the novel through foreshadowing. Just before Lennie, a vulnerable yet dangerous human being was murdered; he was discussing how he and his fellow companion, George were going to live the ‘American Dream’ (owning a vast amount of land to farm and cultivate animals and to bring in income). Lennie is portrayed as a fair-minded character, who literally put his life in George’s caring hands. Justifiably George ended Lennie’s life by placing a bullet through his skull. This death was justified as an act of selfless desperation, and to protect Lennie from further evils from the cruel Curley.

Lennie’s use of vocabulary isn’t very broad, he manipulates words so it’s easier for him …show more content…
It demonstrates the core speech that’s missing in the novel; it amplifies the suspense/silence and how much the characters are on edge and waiting for something or someone to erupt. ‘Came out of the night and invaded the room’ ‘fell on the room again’ the blunt quotes that describe how tense the current room/characters are and make the smaller sounds seem louder than normal due to the lack of noise. Steinbeck portrays the characters to have no trust with any of the fellow workers. Particularly at the end of the novel, during Lennie’s death, the silence is very poignant and meaningful. In the quote ‘suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves,’ Steinbeck uses the juxtaposition of ‘creeping’ against ‘bear’ to show the contrast of this scene to the opening of the novel, where Lennie behaves with more typically animalistic behaviour. Although these two passages highlight the cyclical nature of the novel, it is clear how much things have changed. The continuance of zoomorphism by comparing Lennie to a bear reminds the reader of his …show more content…
George comforts Lennie through words such as, ‘ an’ we’ll maybe have a pig an’ chickens…’ This shows the comfort George provides Lennie with, and how the American Dream was what Lennie thrived on. Despite this, the American Dream seems to end for George in the death of Lennie. Out of all the times he has caused trouble for himself and George he is always more worried about him not tending the rabbits, the significance in this is that after he killed a mouse, girl and a dog he is not thinking about how much trouble he is going to get into with the fellow ranchers, he is more bothered about him “tending the rabbits” Steinbeck is portraying Lennie to have a child’s mind and a adult’s