Of Mice and Men'

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'Of Mice and Men', a rather interesting novel, written by John Steinbeck in 1937, was derived from a poem 'To a Mouse' by Robert Burns. The novel is mostly set on a ranch, portraying the life of the two protagonists, George and Lennie, and the shattering of their so-called 'American dream' - a hope to have their own small holding. George and Lennie are said to be an unlikely pair. George is seen as the leader between the two. He is "small and quick, dark of face, with restless, eyes and sharp, strong features". He had "small, strong hands, slender arms, and a thin bony nose"1. Lennie, on the other hand, had a lot of his choices made for him. He was the total opposite of George. He was "a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders"2. Lennie is a dreamer. He has a dream, which he is deeply devoted to. As one of the most powerful characters in the novel, Lennie was capable to kill, and therefore destroy George's dream.

The novel is narrated by a third person omniscient, but Steinbeck tends to make use of dialogues between George and Lennie, and thus help the reader develop his or her opinion about each of the character as the story develops. The novel mainly concentrates on the landscape of Salinas. In his style, Steinbeck also tends to use a lot of imagery, especially in the first and the last chapters of the novel. It is very interesting how he uses his technique of dramatically affective parallelism, making it almost similar to a musical composition, repeating the language and the setting of both chapters.
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Both, the opening and the final chapter, introduce the reader to the setting of the sight-the Salinas river. With the intensive use of imagery, Steinbeck again, in the last chapter, makes use of specific details, such as the sycamore trees, the lizard, the raccoon and the deer, but most importantly, the snake. In the opening chapter of the novel, the snake is seen as the symbol of peace, as it slowly swims, with its head sticking up, but in the last chapter, "the water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; ...

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