Analyse Steinbeks Methods to Present Lennie
John Steinbeck uses many techniques to present the character Lennie Small within this passage of his novella. The first line of the passage shows aspects of danger with the use of strident noises. For example “clang of horseshoes” and “shouts of men” are both effective as they are describing a form of sense. This suggests that there is danger in the distance that is arising. This helps create the atmosphere that assists in presenting Lennie.
The onomatopoeic sounds suggests that Lennie is about to be in some form of trouble. However in the second line Steinbeck describes the barn as ‘quite which shows that there is no threat within the barn yet. Therefore this presents Lennie as nonthreatening when he is alone or isolated from others. In the first paragraph John Steinbeck repeats the word “and” three times. “quiet and humming and lazy and warn” This triplet of and is effect full as is slows the pace of the reader down.
The elongated influence is has in its leisurely rhythm created a relaxed mood. This implies again that Lennie is not a danger while he is by himself. Within Paragraph three there are the fundamentals that Steinbeck has allowed for us to understand Lennie as a character. We can begin to see that Lennie is simple minded. Lennie asks a very important question “why do you got to go get killed” This gives us a brief insight into what he is thinking.
Lennie genuinely does not understand how or why he killed the puppy.He doesn’t even consider that he killed the puppy at this point. He is confused because he doesn’t understand his own strength. The rhetorical question Steinbeck weaves into this passage is very effective as it voices Lennies thoughts and concerns. This presents Lennie as unsophisticated and a threat to others because of his unfamiliar strength. Lennie does not think about the dog’s death as being bad for the dog.
He doesn’t mention how the dog died as such a young age and how he was sorry for it.He views it as something that happened to him. He sees it as the dog fault for dying because now Lennie might not be able to tend the rabbits. This presents Lennie as selfish as he is only thinking about himself. To conclude John Steinbeck uses a variety of techniques to present the character of Lennie Small in this passage.
The methods he uses within the passage are powerful and complex which helps us get a better understanding of Lennie Small.
