What use does Steinbeck make of animals and animal imagery in ‘Of Mice and Men’?

‘Of Mice and Men’ is well know for the usage of Animals within the books and without the animals, the book would no nearly be as descriptive as it is, but also it would not have the underlying meaning within the book which is so hard to put into books. Nothing within the book is just ‘ a filler’- everything in the book is there for a reason and links up with other points within the story, all leading up to the one main point at the end of the book. Which, one has to fully understand the book to finally see all of the signs and warnings that Steinbeck gives the reader using animals. Firstly, Steinbeck uses Animal Imagery to convey Lennie’s Character by using them in similes and metaphors, always in comparison to Lennie. The usage of animal simile is a subtle way of Steinbeck portraying Lennie as he is portrayed, with out telling the reader directly that Lennie is this or that. Within the first chapter, where Lennie and George are introduced, Steinbeck uses similes a lot to depict Lennie: dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws, and, Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water... this is extremely elusive to a reader as you have to analyze it further to understand it further. It a person is to be killed by a bear, it is not likely to have been mauled by its teeth, but rather its paws, as that is where the bear can channel all its weight and strength. This is rather like Lennie, and implies that Lennie is extremely strong. The next description of Lennie is a comparison to a horse, and showing that he acts instinctively, like a horse: drank with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse. Lennie and a horse are similar in the way their mind works: if its thirsty it eats, if its hungry it eats, if its tired it sleeps. They do this without any real thought about what going to happen when they next become hunger, or next become thirsty. Even a simple simile like Strong as a bull, implicate that Lennie is extremely strong, but not much else. Even