Of Mice and Men excerpt

In the excerpt, Steinbeck uses many rhetorical devices to
create a peaceful, somber mood that is transferred briefly to a fearful atmosphere.
Steinbeck begins the excerpt with a tranquil scene. The author uses an anaphora, or deliberate repetition to amplify how calm the ranch has become. He writes that it is “very quiet in the barn” and “even the voices of the men in the game [seem] to grow more quiet.” In the opening sentences, the author has already given the reader a glimpse of the sedateness of the barn. The constant use of the word quiet reveals how, despite the men’s noise the ranch is still silent because of the hamartia that has just taken place: the murder of Curley’s wife. In addition, in the following lines, Steinbeck uses the word “dusky” as a symbol of waning life. This not only applies to the homicide of Curley’s wife, but also to Lenny’s foreshadowed death. The use of this symbol adds to the gloomy to...