Foreshadowing In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

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Use of foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men Midway through the 1930s during the Great Depression, many people were being isolated from society. They were becoming less close to the American Dream. The Great Depression was a time period where many lost their jobs and homes. There was an explosion of poverty throughout the whole United States (Loftis 134). All these events inspired John Steinbeck to write his novella Of Mice and Men. His title was borrowed from Robert Burn’s poem “To a Mouse.” It comes from his second to last lines of the poem “The best laid schemes o’mice an’ men Gang aft a-gley. An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, for promis’d joy!” (Burn 7). In the poem Burn describes how the mouse has uprooted a mouse’s net with his plow (Literary Cavalcade 1) (Allan 1, 2). John Steinbeck’s choice to title his novella Of Mice and Men is reflected through the poem written by Robert Burns “To a Mouse” through animal imagery, the identification of animals with humans, and how both men and animal suffer in the end. Throughout his novella Steinbeck utilized a lot of animal…show more content…
Animal imagery was evident in both Of Mice and Men and “To a Mouse” by relating Lennie to the Mouse. Identification of humans with the animals was also reflected in both pieces of literature by dreams being shattered due to circumstances and the suffrage of men and animal was caused by society. Having seen how the title Of Mice and Men was borrowed from the poem “To a Mouse” Steinbeck skillfully used the characters to paint the connection between men and animal. He used metaphors to describe the characters. Steinbeck’s decision to compare Lennie to being the mouse gives the readers a more clear idea of how both men and animal are
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