Explore ways that Steinbeck uses and presents setting in the novel `Of Mice and Men

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Explore ways that Steinbeck uses and presents setting in the novel `Of Mice and Men’

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, setting plays an important role as it helps the reader understand the atmosphere Steinbeck creates. The novel has four major settings that are the Salinas River, the bunkhouse, Crook's room, and the barn.

The first and last setting in the novel is by the Salinas River. Steinbeck creates the setting as being idealistic and like the Garden of Eden. The place is described as `fresh’ and `twinkling’ creating a beautiful image. Steinbeck uses different techniques such as a metaphoric transition between the `golden foothill slopes’ and `strong… rocky Gabilan mountains’. Steinbeck uses a metaphoric transition between the `golden’ slopes, giving a smooth and warm feeling, compared to the `rocky’ mountains. The transition represents opposites in nature but this also links with George and Lennie, being very different from one another; Lennie is described as having `bear’ like features such as `big paws’ and `wide, sloping shoulders’. However George is defined as being his `opposite’ with `slender arms’ and being `small and quick’. In the beginning of the book, the two friends shared their feelings, expectations and a combined dream of becoming independent from reality. George also planned an escape route for Lennie as he is expecting trouble ahead. The men are on their way to a ranch looking for work, as they had to run away from the troubles they left behind in Weed, although many more problems will arise through the journey.  The scene is set just outside the town Soledad, which means solitary, suggesting the men’s aloneness with the world, even though George and Lennie are a pair, they have lost and lonely minds filled with empty dreams and aims.

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        But like the Garden of Eden, not everything is as perfect as it seems. In the final scene Lennie returns to the river alone in fear of the consequences following his earlier actions. Steinbeck describes the setting with the sun `climbing up the slopes’ showing the uses of personification, and is running away from the problems Lennie is faced with, just like he has done. A `snake’ swims along the river, representing a symbol of Eden’s evil, and the end of the dream. The snake swims along the pool until it reached a heron, which represents purity and patience, the ...

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