Of Mice And Men Foreshadowing Analysis

John Steinbeck
The Great Depression affected several aspects of American citizens’ mentality, as well as the type of literature being produced at that time. Whilst John Steinbeck worked among many ranch workers and construction staff, he gained he realized that the worker’s state of mind led many to despair and seclusion. John Steinbeck incorporated this attitude into his writing by the strong use of foreshadowing to add depth to his novels and symbolism that may be of personal significance.
Steinbeck grew up in Salinas, California, an area greatly impacted by the Stock market crash. And although his family was not affected as much as others, he had worked the job of a laborer and pitied those forced to this profession of loneliness and
seclusion. This is reflected in Of Mice and Men, when George and Lennie discussed their feelings toward laborers and their place in society:
Guys like us, who work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch.
Another example is evident in his novel, Sweet Thursday, in which he said that men are born with a debt which can never be paid, regardless of their tireless efforts (Gray 50). This statement shows the mentality that many believed, that hardly any undertaking was sufficient. Another incorporation of the Depressions is shown In Novels for Students: Of Mice and Men, when it is claimed that Lennie and George are, “victims of forces beyond their control”. They are depicted as men who have been negatively affected by a world they cannot change (Telgen 241) many of his writings depict such scenarios. Another example is in Contemporary Literary Criticism: John (Ernst) Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men, the writer states that many of Steinbeck’s characters are in harmony with nature until an inevitable force changes the balance (Marowski 368). Although his family was not among those severely crippled by the harsh times, his empathy toward dispossessed laborers of this time period was one of Steinbeck’s most predominant influences in his writing. One of Steinbeck’s most used literary characteristics is the use of foreshadowing to hint major events that will later come to fruition in the story.
In Of Mice and Men, it is foreshadowed many times that Lennie will be shot due to his animalistic traits. These animalistic traits included liking soft things, drinking from the water even though it could make him sick, and having large, paw-like hands. An example of this foreshadowing includes the claim from the novella in which Candy is Foreshadowing that George will have to kill Lennie because George should not make the same mistake Candy makes. Candy tells George that he should have shot the dog himself and not let someone else shoot his best friend. This foreshadowing reveals to the reader that George will not allow Lennie to be killed cruelly or put in an insane asylum. This is backed up by a sentence found in Great American Writers: John Steinbeck, when the writer says that after George realized that Lennie killed Curley’s wife, he realized he had to shoot him or else the angry mob would get Lennie (Shuman 1462). Many of Steinbeck’s works contain the large use of foreshadowing including another quote from Of Mice and Men which talks about Curley’s hatred towards big people that inevitably foreshadows Curley targeting
Lennie:
The swamper considered. . . . "Well, . . . tell you what. Curley's like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He's alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he's mad at 'em because he ain't a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain't you? Always scrappy?
This foreshadows that no matter what happens, Curley disliked and wanted to hurt Lennie due to what seemed to be a Napoleon complex. Steinbeck uncannily infused several examples of foreshadowing throughout many of works. He likely used this literary device not only to give insight to what later happened in his books; he also used it to give the reader a sense of knowledge ahead of time to add tension and suspense for what would happen. Another example of this literary characteristic in his novels is written in his work, East of Eden, which foreshadows that free will is going to be the main purpose of the novel. One of the characters in the book states that freedom of the mind is one of the most important things in the world, and that he would fight to protect it. To reiterate, one of Steinbeck’s most evident literary characteristics is foreshadowing.
John Steinbeck’s other literary characteristic that he depended heavily upon is symbolism. Authors use symbolism to give one word many meanings, to make their books deeper and make the reader try to find the similar characteristics between them. He used symbolism several times in most of his novels and books to create similarities among two people or things to give his writing more depth. Among those things that he used symbolism to represent include making his characters symbolize animal traits and characteristics, making men symbolize journeys, saying that no two journeys are the same, claiming that everyone must make their own path, and many more. In John Steinbeck’s The Chrysanthemums, the chrysanthemums symbolized Elisa and Elisa’s emotions were symbolized by the Salinas Valley to give the reader a comparison for each aspect of Elisa. In these examples, places and things were personified to represent aspects of a character. Among the things that Steinbeck used for symbolization, many of them were important in his life and had to do with his personal background. The Salinas valley, for example, symbolized in The Chrysanthemums, was the place where he lived when he was growing up. His use of symbolization in his writing directly connected Steinbeck to the stories he was writing, thus making them even more significant to him. John Steinbeck incorporated his experiences as a laborer during one of the most difficult economic times in America, the Great Depression, into stories that were endearing to those laboring through such tough times. His most evident literary characteristics of use were his strong use of symbolism to represent things of personal significance, and foreshadowing to create suspense and add tension to the novel. Through foreshadowing, he excited his readers to keep reading to find out what would happen next. His symbolic allusions reminded his readers that even though the workers were thought of like animals and inanimate objects, they were, in fact, still people. Steinbeck’s stories spoke directly to those that felt like victims of a cruel world, and reminded them that even though times were tough, there was hope to be found.