Steinbeck shows the contrast between the two characters superbly, he does this by showing George is the one who has to look after Lenny and has to find a way of them to both earn money and survive and this shows that George is the independent one and Lenny feeds off this, so the difference between the two characters is substantial.
Even though George may come over as a strong man, sometimes horrible man, you can tell he has a kind heart and is the only one who has ever bothered looking after Lenny.
Lenny does not understand his own strengths sometimes and this does not help the two of them to find a place to work and to ever settle down, George finds this hard because he knows if he was on his own he could lead a normal life.
These characters have two very different attitudes and minds, and Steinbeck shows this by emphasising George’s speech and making Lenny’s wording not have so much of an impact.
This is very similar to an adult speaking to a child, the child will normally always be outspoken and told what do, and this is how Steinbeck has outlined the differences between the two characters.
Part two:
Comment on the literary devices Steinbeck uses to describe the countryside.
Quote 1:
- ‘a water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless Heron that stood in the shadows’.
In this quote it uses a simile when it says ‘periscope’ this is describing the snakes head from a completely different view, it emphasises the language and this makes it more interesting.
The words ‘side to side’ are alliteration.
It uses imagery because we can imagine the moves that the snake is making
from the strong use of language.
‘A motionless heron that stood in the shadows’ is also alliteration and by saying
a motionless heron this is making the snakes movements sound even more real
because nothing else is moving other than the snake.
Quote 2:
- ‘the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green’.
This quote uses imagery, you can imagine the scene because of the use of strong words like ‘deep and green’ if it was to say for example: the river was near some hills, this would not create the picture of what the place looked like and would not make the readers interested in reading the book.
In ‘deep and green’ assonance is used as the same vowels (EE) are repeated.
Quote 3:
- ‘On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gablian mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees- willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them.
This quote uses lots of adjectives to describe each individual word or item that appears in the scene.
It uses imagery to make you feel that you are among all these wonderful things and an example of this would be: ‘and there are sycamores with mottled white recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool’ this makes you feel like you are standing among sycamore trees by a pool.
The words ‘lower leaf’ is alliteration. Also the part where it says ‘the leaves lie so deep and crisp that you can hear lizards skittering among them’ you could say this is a type of metaphor because you could say that the leaves are skittering around but then you can also refer to that as a way a lizard moves so it could be two different word meanings.
Quote 4:
- A far rush of wind sounded and a gust drove through the top of the trees like a wave. The sycamore leaves turned up their silver sides, the brown, dry leaves on the ground scudded a few feet, and row on row of tiny wind leaves flowed up the pool’s green surface.
The part of the quote where it says ‘drove through the trees like a wave’ is a simile because it is comparing the trees movements and how this sounds to a wave crashing against the sand and making a noise.
The words ‘Silver sides’ and ‘Few Feet’ is alliteration.
The part of the quote where it says ‘row on row’ is repetition.
Words like flowed are used to tone down the words like gust and this creates a contrast and between certain parts of the quote as different words are used in different sentences.
Conclusion
My opinion on the Mice of Men book is that without the superb language used by John Steinbeck it would not be as realistic as it sounds, with the strong use of words in this book you can imagine all these events are happening around you.
You can imagine how different the two characters are because Steinbeck has showed the contrast between the two characters so well.
This book is so well written and worded that it makes the storyline so much more interesting and exciting.
In this assignment I have showed how John Steinbeck uses words to create realisation.
I have also showed how he makes the characters profiles sound so different from each other.
