Of Mice And Men

5 Pages 1183 Words

In the early chapters of the novel Of Mice and Men written by John Steinbeck, there are
many examples of foreshadowing. Upon the ending of the book, the examples of
foreshadowing show why the “American Dream” was not fulfilled by the main characters
Lennie and George.
In the first chapter, Lennie and George are traveling from the weed to the ranch in
which they will be working. An example of foreshadowing starts out from why they were
leaving the weed. Lennie, a man of great strength, is quite slow and is unaware of what he
is doing. George later explains “Well, he seen this girl in a red dress. Dumb bastard like
he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he likes. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel
this red dress an’ the girls lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he
hold on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do...so I comes running, an’ by that
time Lennie’s so scared all he can think to do is jus’ hold on...He was so scairt he couldn’t
let go of that dress. And he’s so God damn strong, you know” (pg. 41). The incident in
the weed shows that Lennie causes a lot of trouble because he is not aware of how strong
he is and the damage he can and later will do.
Lennie is not a mischievous man. Although he is large, deep down he is a simple,
clumsy man. He is mentally slow and possesses child-like qualities. He is very forgetful
and imitates George because he looks up to him. Another example of foreshadowing is
how Lennie is infatuated with petting soft things. He used to have a mouse but from
petting it for so long and hard, he would kill them by breaking their necks, only to become
quite angry with it. “They was so little,” he said apologetically. “I’d pet ‘em, and pretty
soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they were dead-
because they was so little.” (Pg. 10). This foreshadowing shows that Le...