how does Steinbeck use setting in the novella of mice and men
Steinbeck uses the beginning of each chapter to paint the image of the room or location in which the chapter takes part. The main locations are the place near the pool, the bunkhouse, the dream farm, Crooks’ room, and the barn. Steinbeck picks items or feature of each place to help evoke the atmosphere of the place and to symbolise the greater ideas of the story. The idealised setting near the pool is where people start waiting to begin working towards the American dream, hoping to live an idealised existence; it acts as a canvas for their dreams to be painted upon.
However, Crooks’ room and the bunkhouse represents the difficulty to reach the ‘American dream’. The barn is somewhere to reminisce about the struggle on the path to the idealised world. Then the last chapter of the novella returns to the place near the pool, this is when they know they have failed. That this is reality and it is clear it is just a dream. This cyclical structure shows the contrast about dream and reality.
As mentioned the first chapter of the novella is set in the place near the pool. The setting resembles paradise. Somewhere you can be at peace. This fools Lennie into believing that he is safe when he is not. The picturesque setting makes people believe that dreams are attainable. There is great peace and tranquillity, as indicated by the fact that ‘deer come to drink in the dark.’ There is no one that can endanger their lives, the dears are not afraid of the predators, just as Lennie is not. But the danger that lurks underneath. This is illustrated in the killing of the snake by the heron ’a silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while it tail waved frantically’.
Lennie’s arrival describe as ‘silent as a creeping bear’. Mirrors the arrival of the snake ‘A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool’ this foreshadows Lennie’s death.
The
However, Crooks’ room and the bunkhouse represents the difficulty to reach the ‘American dream’. The barn is somewhere to reminisce about the struggle on the path to the idealised world. Then the last chapter of the novella returns to the place near the pool, this is when they know they have failed. That this is reality and it is clear it is just a dream. This cyclical structure shows the contrast about dream and reality.
As mentioned the first chapter of the novella is set in the place near the pool. The setting resembles paradise. Somewhere you can be at peace. This fools Lennie into believing that he is safe when he is not. The picturesque setting makes people believe that dreams are attainable. There is great peace and tranquillity, as indicated by the fact that ‘deer come to drink in the dark.’ There is no one that can endanger their lives, the dears are not afraid of the predators, just as Lennie is not. But the danger that lurks underneath. This is illustrated in the killing of the snake by the heron ’a silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while it tail waved frantically’.
Lennie’s arrival describe as ‘silent as a creeping bear’. Mirrors the arrival of the snake ‘A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool’ this foreshadows Lennie’s death.
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