In the story Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses three stylistic elements. This story contains Imagery, Symbolism, and Allegory. Imagery affects the text by describing contents that have a feel on our 5 senses. For example, “You can hear the crunch of the fallen leaves as you walk through the scary forest.” Symbolism adds more depth to the story through phrases or actions that have deeper meanings. An example of symbolism is that black stands for darkness and evil. Allegory affects the text by using symbols that have a different literal meanings. An example would be, “The Hunger Games” and how it’s reality television and shows us how we are literally obsessed with it that it splits us from reality and television.
Steinbeck uses Imagery throughout the story to add depth to the story’s detail. On page 2, it says “And then from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves.” This is an example of imagery because it said, “crisp sycamore leaves” and “the sound of footsteps.” Another example is on page 19, which says “He rubbed his bristly white whiskers with his knuckles.” This describes his whiskers and what he rubbed them with.
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Symbolism is used throughout the story and has a deeper meaning to various things. Candy’s dog is a symbol in the story. The dog was useless due to its age, so Carson insists to kill the dog. Candy doesn’t want to let the dog go since he raised the dog. This example shows that once a living thing has outlived its expectations and become useless, it must die. Carlson said, “The way I’d shoot him, he wouldn’t feel anything.” Even though it may sound ruthless or messed up. It’s how it went in the story, it’s how Carlson looked at things. In the text, it said, “Right back of the head. He wouldn’t even quiver.”
Allegory is implemented throughout the story, there are many concepts of allegory. An example of Allegory is Lennie and his disability. Lennie is an example of discrimination against those that are disabled and shows how others treat those kinds of people just because of their well-being.
Steinbeck uses Imagery, Symbolism, and Allegory to add depth to his story. These 3 elements deeply affect the story’s theme. Imagery uses our 5 senses to expand on detail. Symbolism adds further detail, adding 2 to several meanings for a single phrase. Allegory adds depth by having further detail on something that has a different literal meaning. These 3 stylistic elements affect the text by adding detail.
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