Poem Symbolism

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Recommended: Of mice and men story symbolism and message

Yash Patel
Mrs. Cohen
English 1 Honors
12 March 2014
OMM Symbolism Essay
John Steinbeck created a novella about two people trying to fulfill their American Dream "An' live off the fatta the lan'"(Steinbeck 14). In the allegory, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck the characters, places, and animals John Steinbeck used all symbolize something. By using Symbolism it gave the book a deeper meaning.
Characters are a big role of the symbolism in this book. One of the characters, Lennie Small symbolizes innocent, mentally impairment, and physical strength. Lennie is a character who has mental disability, is tall, and strong. "Tired and tired [...] but it didn't do no good"(Steinbeck 4). This quote shows that he is not that smart. He keeps trying to remember something that George tells him but it turns out he can never remember it. "Curley's fist was swinging when reached for it [....] Curley sat down on the floor, looking in wonder at his crushed hand"(Steinbeck 63-64). This quote is from where Curley mauled Lennie. So George told Lennie to attack back. So Lennie took one of Curley's fist and started to squeeze it. As an aftermath, Curley's hand was bleeding and broken. This show how strong Lennie is because he was able to broke his fist is less than a minute with one hand. Lennie character really symbolizes everything Steinbeck wanted to.
The next character is George Milton. Steinbeck made George symbolize friendship, brothership, and fidelity. "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family[....] With us it ain't like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us"(Steinbeck 13-14). This is where George tells Lennie how other peo...

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... little house an' a room to ourself. Little iron stove, an' in the winter we'd keep a fire goin' in it. [...] We wouldn't have to buck no barley eleven hours a day. An' when we put in a crop, why, we'd be there to take the crop up. "(Steinbeck 57-58).
This quote is when George tells Lennie about a ranch to could buy to fulfill their american dream which was to live off the fatta of the land. Their ranch nicely symolizes the american dream during the great depression.
John Steinbeck wanted his novella be an allegory. He has fully accomplished that by making every character, place, animal in the book represent something. Since Steinbeck added a lot of symbolism it gave the reader a deeper understanding and connection to the book. The other characters, animals, and places in the novella symbolized something.

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