Poveromo 1 Andrew Poveromo Miss Guarrasi Honors English 11 October 8, 2011 Seeing the Future is Easier Than You

Think: Foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men Dj vu is the feeling of having already experienced the present situation. Someone might have been involved in a car accident and then see one that was very similar to theirs. The reader gets a feeling of dj vu in Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, because of the foreshadowing that it used. Foreshadowing is used throughout the novel, but there are a few particular things that can give away what will happen later on in the novel. The foreshadowing that is used in Of Mice and Men detracts from the novel because the reader can easily figure out what is going to happen. The reader knows that George is going to be the one that has to shoot Lennie because Candy said that he should have shot his own dog. After Candy's dog is shot, he tells George that he would have felt better if he had shot the dog himself. I ought to have shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog (61). The quote is clear evidence that Candy feels it would have been better if he shot his own dog. When the dog is shot, Candy has no real reaction. He just lays motionless in his bed. If he had shot the dog himself, his reaction would probably have been different. This is foreshadowing of the scene when George shoots Lennie. It foreshadows that George will be the one to shoot Lennie so that he doesn't feel the same way that Candy did. This use of foreshadowing detracts from the novel because the reader knows that George will be the one to shoot Lennie. Once the reader realizes that Lennie is not going to jail and that he will be shot, the reader knows it will be George that will kill him. George knows that he has to kill Lennie and not let someone else do it. I gotta. We gotta (106). George says this after Lennie says that they should get their farm soon. George says, I gotta by accident because he was thinking to himself that he had to shoot Lennie

Poveromo 2 himself. He catches himself and says, We gotta to reassure Lennie that they will get their land soon. George killed Lennie so he didn't end up depressed like Candy. It is obvious to the reader that Lennie, George, and Candy's dream will not come true when Lennie has his conversation with Crooks. Crooks tells Lennie all about the men he has seen that have the same dream as the three men. Crooks tells Lennie, Jesus, I seen it happen too many times. I seen too many guys with land in their head. They never get none under their hand (76). Crooks says that he has seen people like Lennie and George that have a dream of owning their own land. Crooks said that he has yet to see any man follow through on his dream of owning his own land. He said that they blow it all on whorehouses and nights on the town. This alerts the reader that Lennie, George, and Candy will not get their own land. This takes away from the novel because it answers one of the biggest questions in the novel and that is whether or not Lennie, George, and Candy will ever get their land. It came as no surprise when the men did not get their land. George even admits that he really did not think that they would get the land. -I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would (94). George knew all along that he did not believe in the dream. He also knew that the dream would never come true. The reader could have easily predicted this because of the use of the foreshadowing, which makes the novel less exciting. Lennie killing Curley's wife is foreshadowed by all of the animals that he kills throughout the novel. One thing that continued to happen in the novel was that Lennie killed animals. In the first chapter, George says, An' she stopped givin' 'em to ya. You always killed 'em (9). The reader learns that Lennie has always killed animals. Also, there is a scene in the novel where Lennie kills a puppy. This foreshadowed that Lennie was going to kill someone or something that was a major part of the novel. That someone ended up being Curley's wife. This use of foreshadowing detracts from the novel because the reader was waiting for Lennie to kill someone so it wasn't surprising when it happened.

Poveromo 3 The reader had expected this to happen. The reader knew it was going to be Curley's wife that got killed when she let Lennie feel her hair. Her hair was soft like the mouse and the puppy. Lennie had killed both of those animals. Curley's wife freaked out Lennie by yelling at him. You stop it now, you'll mess it up (91). Since the reader knows that Lennie holds on to things when he is freaked out, the reader knows Lennie will hold on to Curley's wife's hair. This whole scene was easy to predict because of the foreshadowing. Clearly, the foreshadowing that was used in Of Mice and Men detracts from the novel because the reader can easily figure out what is going to happen. Reading the ending parts of the novel seems like an instant replay of the first part. Not many things are as good the second time than as they are the first time.

Poveromo 4 Works Cited Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York:The Penguin Group, 1993. Print