Steinbeck’s Language and Imagery
Introduction
Since “Of Mice and Men” is a novel, most examinations will not require close analysis of the text. Instead of exploring the writer’s use of language in as much detail compared to a poetry test, you would focus more on character, setting and plot.
However, examiners will reward marks for methods so it is important to have good knowledge of Steinbeck’s use of imagery and rhetorical devices. This page contains lots of examples. You should analyse each of the following quotations and explain how the method helps support the writer’s intentions.
Worked Example
Steinbeck’s depiction of George and Lennie’s life on the ranch suggests they have no more control over their circumstances than what the reader would consider a pest. This idea is clear from book’s title “Of Mice and Men”. The alliteration of /m/ connects the two words and suggests we are just as insignificant as the small, defenseless creatures.
Simile
- Lennie is “snorting the water like a horse”
- When George tells Lennie to give him the dead mouse, Lennie approaches “slowly, like a terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master”
- George says Lennie “jes” like a kid”
- “Flies shot like rushing stars”
- “Godlike eyes fastened on him”
- “A water snake slipped along the pool, its head held up like a little periscope”
- “You’re yella as a frog belly”
- “Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the brush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves”
- “… flopped like a fish”
Metaphor
- “… she’s a rat trap if I ever seen one”
- The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted”
- George complains “You keep me in hot water all the time”
- “Lennie covered his face with huge paws and bleated with terror”
- “live off the fatta the lan”“
- Slim was the “prince of the ranch”
- “She’s a jailbait all set on the trigger”
- Curley’s Wife says goodbye to Lennie: “O.K. Machine. I’ll talk to you later. I like machines”
Personification
- “As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment”
- “The sycamore trees whispered in the wind”
- “The sun had already left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains”
Repetition
- The path is “beaten hard”
- Curley’s Wife says “Baloney. Caught in a machine. Baloney”
Triple
- “It was silent outside. The silence came into the room… And the silence lasted”
Anaphora
- “S’pose you didn’t have nobody. S’pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy “cause you was black. How’d you like that? S’pose you had to sit out here an” read books”
Polysyndeton
- “And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face”
Alliteration
- “came the clang” and “chorus of cries”
- “Lennie squirmed under the look and shifted his feet nervously”
- He looked across the fire at Lennie’s anguished face, and then he ashamedly at the flames”
Epithet
- “old man”
Onomatopoeia
- “There was the buzz of flies in the air”
- “The sound of the approaching grain teams was louder, thud of big hooves on hard ground, drag of brakes and the jingle of trace chains.”
- Through the open door came the thuds and occasional clangs of a horseshoe game”
Oxymoron
- She looked up at Lennie, and she made a small grand gesture with her arm and hand to show that she could act.”