Through the entirety of the classic novella ‘Of Mice and Men’, John Steinbeck uses a variety of dramatic techniques and stylistic devices to convey a clear message of: hopes, dreams and reality. Steinbeck’s placement of such techniques allows him to effectively create a causal loop within the narrative, subsequently applying heavy foreshadowing; whether Steinbeck used this consciously or not. The main plot explores the themes of idealism and more prominently- realism, Steinbeck connects a lot of his novella to real life issues currently happening in his time.

Through the course of the narrative, Steinbeck used many literary techniques of which effectively drove the tale to become circular in its events. Steinbeck relied on events that had happened previously- before the narrative had taken place. Through doing so the author creates a vivid sense of ‘déjà-vu’ when a similar event takes place, of which happened quite frequently as the book progresses. …show more content…
While the setting of the novella is extremely depression-esque there are also many other contributing factors which appear to have been drawn from real life. The segregation of the African-American stable worker, Crooks to the rest of the crew. The illiteracy in the way all the men spoke, "It ain't so funny, him an' me goin' aroun' together," {George, chapter 3}, the treatment of Curley’s wife- she doesn’t even get introduced by her own name, the entire book she is simply Curley’s property. Most importantly the amount of people looking for work and how hard it appeared to come across it and actually get paid. It screamed The Great Depression. The novella is extremely realistic and doesn’t have many ‘out there’ ideas which can be easily pinned as fiction. Though it is a work of the mind it could also be mistaken for a real event it draws that many comparisons to that era and events of the