Foreshadowing In Of Mice And Men

After Lennie has inadvertently murdered Curley’s wife, Curley’s lynch mob go out in search of Lennie. George’s decision is almost inevitable to spare Lennie’s life, rather than let Curley and his gang destroy the bit of life Lennie has.

Though their deaths caused somewhat different impacts, the circumstances of Lennie and Bob's death are fairly similar. Lennie is a character in Of Mice and Men who is mentally disabled and when he gets scared tends to grab onto things. Near the end of chapter five, Lennie gets frightened about losing his and George’s dream and breaks the neck of the Curley’s, wife. After Lennie kills Curley’s wife, George realizes who truly dangerous Lennie is. “I should of knew,” George said hopelessly. “I guess maybe way back in my head I did” (page 94). After this realization George shoots Lennie in the head but, only after making sure Lennie is happy. Slim The God like character on the ranch tells George “you hadda, George. I swear you hadda…” (page 107).

Two hours after George killed Lennie, George was at the bar with Curley and Slim to get a drink, and the three began talking about Lennie, making George start to think if he had done the right thing by shooting Lennie in the head. After the three left the bar, George walked out onto the street and saw Curley's wife walking down the street. George decided to shrug it off and told himself that it was all part of his imagination, and George returned to his house. Three years later, George had built the house by the lake that Lennie had wanted, and George had buried Lennie's body in the backyard. Later, George had decided to go to the bar to get a drink, when he got to the bar he saw Slim and Carley, and Curley's wife all talking with each other. When the group saw George, he was in awe "I thought that Lennie killed you..." he said to Curley's wife, Curley replied excitedly "Nope, i'm not sure how but she is alive!" George was still confused, then Slim said "Stop asking so many questions and come have a drink" George had then began thinking about how the only reason he killed Lennie was because Lennie went too far to save by killing Curley's wife. After that, George had began disconnecting himself with the rest of the group because he had become depressed after he had learned that Lennie wasn't a murderer. Just as George was thinking about how he shouldn't have killed Lennie, he heard a knock on his door, and he went to see who it was, Curley's wife was at the door with Slim, and both were looking sad. George had opened the door for them, and said "What happened?" Curley's wife looked back at him, and informed him that Curley had been murdered. George beckoned the two inside is house, and said "Come in, do either of you want anything to drink?" Curley's wife shook her head Slim walked her inside. The three sat down at a table in George's house "Tell me what happened" George said nervously, Curley's wife replied, "I was having an argument with Curley and he had gotten angry and stormed off, later, when i went looking for him, I found him in the ranch, with an axe wound in his head." Curley's wife started crying and Slim looked at George, "She came to me and told me the story, then asked

No matter how hard we try, or what we do to avoid it, tragedy is often inevitable, and we must accept the fact that not all our stories have a happy ending. This is most likely the message that author John Steinbeck wanted to get across to his readers in his novel, Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck uses foreshadowing to prepare readers for the story’s tragic but unavoidable outcome. This ending was hinted at multiple times, along with the events that led up to it. These include the murder of Curley’s wife, the euthanasia of Lennie, and the eventual loss of George and Lennie’s dream ranch.

The way in which Lennie died is considered to be euthanasia. George mercifully puts the ignorant fool to sleep while he and Lennie, for the last time, fantasize about the soon-to-come dream. George is encouraging to Lennie and reassures him that they are ?gonna do it soon? (106). What George means by this is that Lennie can escape and reach the dream through death. Lennie visualizes himself reaching the American dream and there is no pain or suffering in his death as he ?jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering? (106). George selflessly experiences pain and agony from the execution of his only companion as he knows Lennie is now in a better place.

In the novella Of Mice and Men both Lennie and Candy’s dog dies. The dog was killed by Carlson with a bullet in the back of his head with Carlson’s Luger pistol. Carlson convinced Candy to kill him because the dog was useless to itself and he wouldn’t hurt it while killing it as he said on page 72, “The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feel nothing.” Lennie was killed by George by the Salinas River. George killed Lennie because Curly was going to kill Lennie for killing his wife and I guess thought he should do it. Both Candy’s dog and Lennie was killed by a shot

When Lennie is left unattended, he accidentally takes the life of a friend and the plans of the men go awry. George is forced to kill his best friend in order to protect him from the road that lies ahead. George’s action was for the better because Lennie would have been tortured, he is a danger to society, and he is a burden to George. To begin with, George’s reaction is best for Lennie because Curley and his crew would torture him or he will be locked up forever. After finding out about the murder of his wife, Curley

Like Candy, Candy’s dog is faced with the ultimate punishment for his age and disability. Candy’s dog is old and said to smell bad and isn’t worth anything, the dog is shot because of its disabilities. This event foreshadows Lennie’s fate at the hand of George. Both of these characters’ euthanasia is rationalized to put them out of their misery and to prevent future suffering from happening due to their disabilities. Which is almost a mirror image of George and Lennie’s relationship where George has known Lennie for a considerable amount of time and George knows that he is completely responsible of Lennie’s well-being and when that well-being is in jeopardy George feels a moral obligation just like Candy did when he gave permission to Carlson to shoot his dog. The euthanizing of Candy’s dog is a “foreshadowing of what will happen with Lennie and George” (Thomas Scarseth) because both Candy and George’s relationship to those dependent to them end with them killing them in order to save them from suffering.

It “was silent outside. Carlson’s footsteps died away. The silence came into the room. The silence lasted” (Steinbeck 48). The use of the repetition of silence and an abundance of short choppy sentences to slow down the pace of the story. This emphasizes the awkwardness of the silence and the loneliness that Candy feels. Candy raised his dog from a pup and had herded sheep with him. His dog was essentially the last companion he truly had. When Carlson puts the dog down, he essentially puts down Candy’s whole demeanor in this moment, as Candy now has no one. In the same way Steinbeck uses narrative pacing in the instance with Candy’s dog, he also uses it when George has to put down Lennie. When Lennie is on the run from Curley, he clumsily returns to the spot where George had told him to head to in case he got in trouble. When George found him at the creek, he talked and talked with Lennie, until, finally, he, “raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger” (Steinbeck 106). Steinbeck slows down the pace

Candy and his dog’s relationship is very similar to George and Lennie’s one. His dog’s death is in Chapter 3 allows readers to guess what is going to happen to George and Lennie in the last chapter, if they could realize this symbol. His dog gives hint to readers that Lennie would die in the same way with Candy’s dog because they are both powerless, vulnerable and weak. The foreshadowing effect engaged readers’ interest and develop expectations. They could have predicted the ending of the novella.

When George finds out that Lennie killed Curley’s wife, he knows that Curley will insist to go after Lennie. Curley says, “I’ll kill the big son-of-a bitch myself. I’ll shoot ‘im in the guts“ (96). George is aware that the way Curley plans to kill Lennie would be much harsher than the bullet that George would use to kill Lennie. Curley wants to intentionally make Lennie suffer for killing his wife.

George saved Lennie by shooting him with a gun in the back of the head. It was fast and painless, but Curley had other plans for Lennie, “We oughtta let ‘im get away. You don’t know that Curley. Curley gont’ta wanta get him lynched. Curley’ll get ‘im killed”( Steinbeck 94). Candy knows that Curely will lynch Lennie if he finds him. George knew he had to find Lennie before Curley. George decided to shoot Lennie because he knew Lennie would have either been locked up in jail his entire life, or have been beaten up and lynched by Curley. After George shoots Lennie, Slim reassures George that he did the right thing, “You hadda, George. I swear you hadda”(Steinbeck 107). George needed Slim to let him know that it was the right thing to do. Slim gave George closure, because George was in awe. George realized he did the right thing after he followed Slim out of the

Lennie and Candy’s dog are parallel. Candy’s dog is old, stinky, it cant take care of itself and he’s useless. Lennie cant take care of himself of others, and when he gets scared he holds on to whatever hes got. Candy’s dog had to be put down, just like Lennie. They were also killed the same way. “If you want me to, I’ll put the old devil out of his misery right now and get it over with. Ain’t nothing left for him. Can’t eat, can’t see, can’t even walk without hurtin’” (48). In this scene Carlson took Candy’s dog out and shot him. Though Candy did not want his dog to be dead, he still went through with it. This is just like when George went to kill Lennie, he didn’t want too but it had to be

At the beginning of the novel when the reader is first introduced to George and Lennie, they are first described as in “The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”(Steinbeck 2). Together they sat at a bank and drank some water from the not moving green pool. For a long while together they walked four miles from where there bus dropped them off. Lennie's aunt Clara passed away and since he wasn’t smart enough to live in the world they lived in George said “Your Aunt Clara wouldn’t want you running off by yourself, even if she is dead”(Steinbeck 13). When candy got his dog put down he regretted not doing it himself. After Lennie killed Curley’s wife and ran off, George knew that moment, when he saw her dead, that he was going to kill Lennie himself because he was his best friend. George came quickly out of a bush to find

In the beginning of the novella, Lennie is portrayed as innocent and dependent on George. When Lennie had a mouse and George asked for it, Steinbeck describes Lennie’s reaction