Essay: Exploring Foreshadowing and its Impact in Of Mice and Men

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of foreshadowing in John Steinbeck's novella, *Of Mice and Men*. The paper explores how Steinbeck uses foreshadowing as a literary device to hint at future events and build suspense, focusing on significant examples such as George's instructions to Lennie, Carlson's killing of Candy's dog, and the recurring theme of Lennie's affection for soft things leading to tragic consequences, including the death of Curley's wife. The essay examines how these instances foreshadow the novella's tragic conclusion and how they contribute to the understanding of the characters' fates and the broader themes of the story, such as the limitations faced by working-class individuals and the inevitability of certain events. The analysis highlights key plot points and character interactions that are foreshadowed, emphasizing their impact on the narrative's emotional and thematic depth, ultimately illustrating how foreshadowing enhances the reader's comprehension of the novella's tragic events and underlying messages.

Running Head: Essay: Of Mice And Men
ESSAY: OF MICE AND MEN
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

1Essay: Of Mice And Men
Introduction
John Steinbeck wrote the book: Of Mice and Men. This novella narrates the story of two
friends: George and Lennie who accepts the generosity challenges around them. The two friends
agree upon the same dreams they dreamt about. In this novella, Steinbeck uses numerous
foreshadowing to provide the reader a clue or a hint about other incidents in the story.
Foreshadowing is a literary device used in the novella to provide hints to the reader beforehand
only that what events is to come later. This paper throws the light on the foreshadowing
examples in Of Mice and Men and also helps in understanding the critical turning point in the
novella. To make the story more interesting, writers use foreshadowing literary device to give a
clue that what will happen at the end of the story. The tragic conclusion Of Mice and Men is
tremendously foreshadowed from the beginning of the novella.
Discussion
In this novella, the foreshadowing highlights an unavoidable sad destiny of George and
Lennie. This novella also justifies certain circumstances brutally limit the lives of working-class
people. Throughout the book, Steinbeck uses many foreshadowing in the novella some
significant examples of foreshadowing includes the event of Candy’s dog being killed by
Carlsons, Curley’s wife a “rat trap, and other foreshadows found throughout story (Heavilin,
2018). At the beginning of the story, the example of foreshadowing is found when George
suggest Lennie that when he falls in specific trouble, then he should come the place right here
and hide within the bush. George was trying to ensure that whether Lennie understood where to
go if he lands himself into trouble as he had in weed (Vuddamalay, and Meerwijk, 2017).
Through this, the author drops a clue that Lennie is going to fall into some problem at a certain

2Essay: Of Mice And Men
point. Later in the story, it is found that Lennie got into some problem and went hiding in the
bush where he meets George there.
The second foreshadowing can be sensed in the middle of the book, when Carlson kills
Candy’s dog. When Candy tells George that he did wrong by letting a stranger shot his dog when
he owns the dog since he was a puppy; foreshadows that George will be killing Lennie later in
the story (Heavilin, 2018). At the end of the story when both of them were put out of misery,
George shot Lennie by his. George knew that if he would not have killed Lennie, then he might
end up being tortured and killed by other people. George shot Lennie and felt better that it was
the right choice by killing Lennie himself and did not regret as Candy did. The ending was very
surprising for the reader as it was not expected from George that he would kill Lennie. Lennie
was shot at the hiding place suggested by George. Steinbeck uses this foreshadow “I ought to of
shot that dog myself, George. I ought not to let no stranger shoot my dog”. And make the reader
realize that why the ending of the book is tragic. To understand the whole book, this is the
crucial part of the novella.
At times certain books have reoccurring incidents within the whole novella. In Of Mice
and Men novella, there exist several incidents that depict how Lennie enjoy to pet soft things
around him. It also portrays that he eventually ends up killing everything he pets unconsciously.
At the beginning of the story, Lennie ends up unintentionally hurting a mouse in his pocketand
ends up milling the mouse. He accidentally killed the puppy he pets (Vuddamalay, and
Meerwijk, 2017). Both George and Lennie were kicked off the weeds because Lennie wanted to
feel the girls dress and stroked the soft fabric, portraying a wrong impression. These situations
created a sense of the inevitable fate of Lennie, and these clues help to understand the innocence
of Lennie and his love for petting soft thing around him. But this time Lennie realized what he

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did was too late and ended up killing Curley’s wife unintentionally (Basharet.al. 2019). In the
story, foreshadowing that is used by the author in his novel is that Curley’s wife a ‘rat-trap’. This
gives a clue that Lennie will befriend Curley’s wife and end up hurting her accidentally lead to
her death while trying to stroke her soft hair. In the whole novel, multiple incidents were used to
foreshadow, which leads to Lennie’s killing Curley’s wife. When Curley’s wife asked him to
touch and feel her hair, it made the reader understand that something terrific situation is going to
occur and it happened the same as while she yelled at Lennie to stop petting her hair, unaware of
his strength Lennie unconsciously snapped her neck which leads to her death. Multiple incidents
are used to give a hint to the reader, leading Lennie to kill Curley’s wife (Basharet.al. 2019).
This was the turning point of the story.
Finally, after the death of Curley’s wife, it is seen that Curley is harassing Lennie. This
foreshadows that both Lennie and Curley gets into an argument leading the fight between them.
When George was talking on behalf of Lennie, he was not allowed. Since Lennie was bigger and
stronger than Curly, this made him jealous, and they both get into the fight and Lennie crushed
Curley’s hand because the uncontrollable strength he possesses
Conclusion
The above examples Of Mice and Men’s Foreshadowing enhance the reader to
understand the book more easily. George suggests Lennie meet him in the bush when he land
himself into trouble or something bad happens and when Lennie has to meet George there, this
was the foreshadowing to an ending of the story. Also in this story, it is seen that Candy’s inform
George that he repent by not killing his pet dog by himself leading to an end where, George
himself kills Lennie as he do not want to repent like Candy. At last, Lennie kills the thing while
petting it leads to the murder of Curley’s wife. In this novella, Steinbeck leaves the reader

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uncertain many time, but generally restores relating things with other incidents took place in the
story. The ending would make no sense unless examples are put as clued in the story.
Reference
Bashar, K.U., Zeb, A. and Khan, H., 2019. Stereotyping of Curley's Wife in Steinbeck's Of Mice
and Men: From Derridean Perspective.
Heavilin, B.A., 2018. “the wall of background”: Cultural, Political, and Literary Contexts of
Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. The Steinbeck Review, 15(1), pp.1-16.
Vuddamalay, Y. and van Meerwijk, J.P., 2017. CD28− and CD28lowCD8+ regulatory T cells: of
mice and men. Frontiers in immunology, 8, p.31.