Allusion In Of Mice And Men

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“A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shadows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.”(Steinbeck 99) That line was said in the beginning of the last chapter of the book Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men is a classic story written in 1937 by John Steinbeck about friendship, dreams, and loneliness that everyone knows. It is the story of two friends named George and Lennie who travel around together working to survive during the Great Depression. Lennie is mentally disabled, which causes a lot of problems for both of the men. The book is actually an allusion of the Scottish poem “To a Mouse, on Turning Up Her Nest with the Plow” written in 1785 by Robert Burns. The poem is about a farmer talking to a mouse after he has turned up her nest. When relating the poem with the story, you can tell that George is like the farmer and Lennie is like the mouse. George is like the farmer, not wanted to do what he inevitably has to. Lennie is like the mouse, helpless. This allusion…show more content…
This represents the situation that George and Lennie have to deal with. They had planned on staying on the ranch and working until they had enough to buy their own ranch. They were “beneath the blast”, which could be known as the Great Depression in this situation, because they had a job and a place to stay. The “crash” is when Lennie kills Curley’s wife and everything changes. “Before George answered, Candy dropped his head and looked down at the hay. He knew.”(Steinbeck 94). That was when they both realized everything was ruined, and their dream was
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