Examine in Detail, How Steinbeck Uses Imagery in His Creation of Characters and His Development of Key Themes in the Novel

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Examine in detail, how Steinbeck uses imagery in his creation of characters and his development of key themes in the novel.

Throughout 'Of Mice and Men' the author, John Steinbeck, uses imagery to reflect some of the characters motives and their relationships with one another. Steinbeck uses particular extracts, to relate to the different characters in the book, each of them representing a wide range of people in society at that time. One of the first aspects that Steinbeck uses as a source of symbolism is the title. 'Of Mice and Men' is actually the title of a poem written by the famous Scottish poet and writer of folksongs Robert Burns. The poem is about a mouse whose nest is destroyed by a plough. The best laid schemes 'O Mice an Man gang oft agley,' meaning things often go wrong. The poem and title basically mean that plans don't always go as they were meant to. The title is symbolic to the book, as, certain characters are metaphorically ploughed: Many of the characters in the novel have dreams, in the sense that they have hopes and ambitions. Lennie and George have a dream of living on a farm together, where they would be free. The 'dream farm' represents the ambition and possibility to escape from the itinerant workers' loneliness and poverty. George's ‘American Dream is destroyed by Lennie, as Lennie is always getting himself into trouble, and George has taken on responsibility for Lennie and therefore deals with Lennie's troubles, and his own life and career are destroyed because of it. Curley's wife has a dream of a better, more fulfilling life, but these are based on glossy film magazines. Her dreams are destroyed by Curley's selfishness of making her live on the ranch. The title itself also relates back to Lennie. Lennie has no power in society. He is not treated equal. The mouse, in 'O Mice and Man gang oft agley' also has no power and is not treated

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