Comparing The Natural World In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

Nature changes people’s moods: if it is raining then people are sad and if it is sunny, people are happy. In Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses the natural world to help the readers feel the emotion that is happening in the book. Of Mice and Men is about two men, George and Lennie, who has a dream of owning their own farm. To do that they work at a ranch to earn enough money for the dream, but while they are earning money, Lennie makes some bad choices: he kills a puppy and a person; everyone was then on a hunt for him and to put Lennie out of his misery, George kills him while telling him about their dream. Steinbeck predicts and supports emotions in the novel by using the natural world. In the beginning, the animal and natural world are

After Carlson complained about Candy’s dog suffering and asked for the dog to die, “The sunshine lay in a thin line under the window. After a moment the ancient dog walked lamely in through the open door. He gazed about with mild, half-blind eyes” (37). The dog represents Lennie, the blindness of the dog is the same as the mental capacity of Lennie; the sunshine stands for the short amount of time they both have to live because they both suffer and cause problems. Before Slim and George talk about George and Lennie walking around together, they sit in darkness, “Although there was evening brightness showing through the window of the bunk house, inside it was dusk… Slim and George came into the darkening bunk house together” (38). The darkness with a little bit of light in the bunk house represents the journey that Lennie and George go through; from Lennie making huge mistakes to no more mistakes being created because Lennie is not there to create them. Before Lennie kills the puppy, the horses are in their stalls making noise, “The resting horses nibbled the remaining wisps of hay, and they stamped their feet and they bit the wood of the mangers and rattled the halter chains. The afternoon sun sliced in through the cracks of the barn walls and lay in bright lines on the hay. There was the buzz of flies in the air, the lazy afternoon humming” (84). The animals and light

When the men ran off to find Lennie, “The sound of the men grew fainter. The barn was darkening gradually and, in their stalls, the horses shifted their feet and rattled the halter chains” (98). The darkness and horses represent the danger that happens before Lennie's death, the horses are warning the reader that there is danger ahead and the darkness sets the mood. When Lennie went back to the place they slept before going to the ranch, “The light climbed on out of the valley, and as it went, the tops of the mountains seemed to blaze with increasing brightness” (100). This brilliant brightness represents the innocence and happiness that is Lennie; the brightness shows his happiness and innocence to make the reader feel closer to his character before he dies. Before George killed Lennie, “The little evening breeze blew over the clearing and the leaves rustled and the wind waves flowed up the green pool. And the shouts of men sounded again, this time much closer than before… Lennie turned his head and looked off across the pool and up the darkening slopes of the Gabilans” (104-105). The scene shows the sad moment before Lennie dies, nature represents the last sweet moments of his life to make the reader feel the sorrow that George feels after he kills Lennie. The nature, in the end, stands for the time spent preparing the reader for Lennie’s