Using figurative language helps give detail and better understanding to things going on in the story. Steinbeck writes, “The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line. . .” this is a simile the helps the reader get the idea that when Lennie grabbed Curley, Curley was wiggling all over the place trying to get free (63). The use of personification is used when detail is being given to the setting because Steinbeck writes, “The shade climbed up the hills toward the top” (2). When Lennie says, “An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” he is using a metaphor because there is not really fat on the land he is just expressing that they will use the land to raise their animals and crops. Steinbeck using figurative language better expanded the detail to his setting and characters and gave his characters more options in their