Spicing up of Mice and Men In of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck uses many figurative language to engage the readers in the story. Of Mice and Men is a story about two migrant workers, trying to find a job. The main characters in the story are George and Lennie. George who is the “small and quick and dark of face” ; Lennie on the other hand is a man of tremendous size and has the mind of a young child. With hope and dreams, these two men cling onto each other to achieve them. To give the story a more interesting flow, Steinbeck uses many figurative languages. Steinbeck uses simile, personification, and metaphor to appeal to the emotions of the readers. Similes in the story was used to engaged and invoke emotions in the reader. An example , “snorting into the water like a horse” (Steinbeck 3). In this simile the author is saying that the way Lennie drinks is similar to how a horse drinks. Lennie and a horse are similar in the way their mind works: if its thirsty it drinks, if its hungry it eats, if its tired it sleeps. They do this without any real thought about what's going to happen when they become hungry or thirsty. This simile makes the reader imagine Lennie as an actual horse. Another example is , “Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages” (Steinbeck 31). the authors is saying the in this simile its comparing Curley’s wife's hair to sausages. Also the simile is effective because Steinbeck is comparing her to meat, which is symbolic for the way she is treated by the others, as a piece of property or meat. The simile makes readers imagine little rolled sausages on her head. Along with simile, Steinbeck uses another type of figurative language which is personification. The use of personification in the story grabs the readers attention , making them more involved. For example, “The shade climbs up the hills towards the top.” (Steinbeck 2) This is an example of personification because shade cannot literally climb up a hill. Steinbeck is trying to portray a more human quality in the shade. Its making the readers imagine the shades having legs like human , climbing up towards the hills. Another example, “A little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn” (Steinbeck 65)
Steinbeck described where the shed is located in comparison to the barn. He could’ve said the shed was next to the barn but instead he defined the shed as being lazy in its posture just leaning on the barn. This personification forms a
