How does Steinbeck create a sense of foreboding in 'Of Mice and Men'

Another thing that creates a sense that something bad is going to happen is when Lennie is given a puppy by Slim. From his past we find out that he often kills mice when he is just stroking them. So it could mean that if Lennie gets a puppy he might accidentally kill it when just stroking it: “The big new guys messing with ya pups” is what Crooks tells Slim after he sees him messing with the pups in the barn.

Also another example of foreboding is created when we find out that Carlson has a gun and it is in working order. It is the gun that he uses to shoot Candy’s old dog: “Candy turned over and looked for moment at the gun”. This is foreboding because the gun could come into play towards the end of the book, because they would not just mention the gun for no good reason.

Another example of foreboding Is the tension between George and Curly. There is tension there because both of them do not like each other. George does not like Curly because he is picking on Lennie for no reason. I think that there could be a fight between these two because even George says this himself: “this Curly punk is gonna get hurt if he messes around with Lennie” This shows that if Curly starts on Lennie then either Lennie or George is going to hurt Curly.

Also another example of foreboding is that Lennie acts and is like a kid but is very strong and does not know his own strengths: “He’s just like a kid aint he”. This is a bad thing because if Lennie does not know his own strength then he might accidentally do something bad and not know about it. Just like when he accidentally held onto the girl back in Weed and when he accidentally kills the mice when all he wants to do is just stroke them. Also he is always forgetting important stuff and he might forget something very important and something bad could happen. Lennie also does whatever anybody tells him to do. Once George told him to jump into the river and Lennie nearly died.

So overall in the story “Of Mice and Men” a sense of foreboding is created throughout the book and is leading us up to something bad to happen in the ending. There are a lot of reasons why it is foreboding so almost certainly there is going to be something bad at the end.