Animal Imagery In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

‘Of Mice and Men’ is a novel that was published by John Steinbeck in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The Great Depression brought many rural, poor and migrant workers to the Great Plains states, such as California, which is where Steinbeck sets the whole novel. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 forced banks to foreclose on mortgages and collect debts. Unable to pay their debts many farmers lost their property and were forced to find other work. Steinbeck uses animal imagery on migrant characters like George and Lennie to illustrate how grueling and challenging the life of migrant workers were.

Steinbeck uses animal imagery to create a sense of reality for the reader; he uses it to describe characters such as Lennie Small to establish a picture in the reader’s imagination. Using animal imagery shows that accuracy in the description of his characters was important to him. Steinbeck compares Lennie’s hand being like the paws of a bear ‘He pawed up the
During the fight scene, ‘Curley stepped over to Lennie like a terrier.' Terriers are a small and very energetic dog just like Curley. This also shows the size difference between the two characters Curley is very quick-tempered and also the attacker in this fight scene. Terriers are traditionally bred as dogs to hunt small animals and will go to great lengths to catch them. This trait is also shown in Curley as he will go to great lengths to make sure that he will put Lennie in his place even if Lennie hurts Curley's pride. Terriers are also very fast and agile just like Curley.

To conclude, Steinbeck uses animal imagery to describe characters in a way to make the reader understand each of the characters more deeply. This shows how important the characterization and the description of each of the characters are. Steinbeck wants to convey the right message to the reader without making it to