Animal Imagery of Mice and Men

Steinbeck’s Animal Imagery In Of Mice and Men, a novel written by John Steinbeck, the character Lennie is portrayed as sharing the characteristics of various animals such as a bear, a horse, and a bull. Steinbeck compares Lennie as these animals to emphasize his actions. This creates a sense of imagery by allowing you to visualize Lennie and comprehend more about who he is. The animal imagery is also used to help foreshadow what is going to happen later on. His references to the animals provide an interesting aspect to the novel and it continues throughout the whole story. The first example of this that occurs in Of Mice and Men is when Lennie is described the text states, “and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but swung loosely” (Steinbeck 2). This quote describes how Lennie is not very intelligent, he just slugs around following behind George. This shows us that Lennie is a bit mentally inferior compared to George the ‘average’ person, which foreshadows that he may be trouble or a hassle to George. Shortly after the text states, “drank from the surface of the green pool; with long gulps, snorting into the water like a horse” (Steinbeck 3). This is an illustration of how Lennie reacts on impulse such as an animal would rather than using logical thinking. Lennie didn’t even consider using his hands to cup the water and move the green algae out of the way before just going down and rapidly drinking the water down with his mouth straight from the pond. Lennie acting on his urges foretells that he might do things that may cause harm, such as killing the mice, the puppy, and Curley’s wife on accident because he wasn’t thinking, he was just doing. “Strong as a bull” (Steinbeck 24), is how George depicts Lennie to their new boss at the ranch. Lennie isn’t even aware of his own strength. Bulls usually charge if they sense a threat; in Of Mice and Men it’s like the