The Effect of Animals on Lennie

When a writer writes a story one of the most powerful tools that an author could use is the use of symbols. The use of symbols in a story helps the reader engage in the story and help the reader to understand and make conclusions about the story. In this book Steinbeck uses symbols of puppies, mice and bunnies to show the reader Lennie’s characteristics and physical traits of Lennie. Lennie is a grown man that doesn’t know his own strength and still acts like a small child. In the book Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses mice, puppies, and bunnies as a symbol to show Lennie’s traits. George and Lennie wanted to own a ranch and tend animals, that is what their dream was when they get enough money. As soon as George agreed to Lennie about their dream, Lennie could only think about that dream just like a kid would if their parents agreed to buy them something. This is relatable to an animal because animals are the same they are selfish and don’t care about anything else until they get what they want even though it can harm others. Lennie loves the rabbits and puppies too much until he became oblivious to his surrounding and does not know about his living condition. While others are working hard to get food and money Lennie would be off into the barn and playing with the animals. Since this took place during the great depression, their living situation was very bad because they had to live on the owners land and work really hard just to get a little. During the great depression only the strong survive and not many can survive.
In Lennie’s case he is very oblivious to the great depression since he ha a disability. Just like a rabbit Lennie only cares about himself and they only worry about getting food and resting, which shows carelessness. When Lennie is asked what he wants to eat he would ask for something that they didn’t have which was really hard on Lennie because he didn’t know why they didn’t have that special type of food that he liked, showing how innocent he is. Another way