Of Mice and Men
Prompt #10 · Of Mice and Men
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
In the barn scene where Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while petting it too hard, Steinbeck foreshadows the tragic pattern that will repeat. Analyze how this moment develops the motif of Lennie's destructive innocence and builds dramatic tension. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
“And Lennie said softly to the puppy, "Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice. I didn’t bounce you hard."”
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote from the barn scene captures Lennie's inability to comprehend the consequences of his strength, as he blames the puppy for dying rather than recognizing his own role—establishing the pattern of destructive innocence that will escalate to Curley's wife's death moments later in the same scene.
Quote 2
"God damn you," he cried. "Why do you got to get killed? You ain’t so little as mice." He picked up the pup and hurled it from him.
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote from the barn scene reveals Lennie's childlike frustration and violent outburst toward the dead puppy, demonstrating how his emotional volatility combined with physical strength creates danger—foreshadowing the identical pattern of anger and loss of control that will kill Curley's wife.
Quote 3
“They was so little,” he said, apologetically. “I’d pet ’em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead—because they was so little.”
Chapter 1
Argument
This quote from early in the novel establishes the baseline pattern of Lennie's destructive touch with the mice, providing essential context that the puppy scene echoes and amplifies—showing how Steinbeck builds dramatic tension through repetition of the same tragic cycle with progressively larger victims.
Quote 4
“And she continued to struggle, and her eyes were wild with terror. He shook her then, and he was angry with her. "Don’t you go yellin’," he said, and he shook her; and her body flopped like a fish. And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.”
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote from the barn scene immediately following the puppy's death shows the tragic pattern repeating with Curley's wife—Lennie's anger, his shaking, and the victim's body flopping 'like a fish' directly parallel his treatment of the puppy, fulfilling the foreshadowing and demonstrating how Steinbeck escalates the motif of destructive innocence from animal to human victim.
Quote 5
“And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young.”
Chapter 5
Argument
This quote from the barn scene after Curley's wife's death provides dramatic irony—her face becomes 'sweet and young' only in death, contrasting sharply with Lennie's innocent inability to understand what he has done, reinforcing how his destructive innocence transforms living beings into peaceful corpses, the ultimate tragic consequence of the pattern established with the puppy.