1. Symbols, Motifs, and Themes
Of Mice and Men
Symbols, Motifs, and Themes

2. Symbol
Objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

3. Candy’s Dog Symbol The fate awaiting anyone
who has outlived his/her purpose.
Representing how the strong will dispose of the weak.
Candy feels a special connection to this instance because he feels that he himself is nearing the age when he will no longer be useful and thus will no longer be welcome at the ranch.

4. Symbol
Lennie’s Puppy
Represents the victory of the strong over the weak.
Lennie kills the puppy because he is unaware of his own strength.
Soon Lennie will meet a similar fate. Like an innocent animal, Lennie is unaware of the predatory forces that surround him.

5. George and Lennie’s Farm
Symbol
George and Lennie’s Farm
This symbol is the most powerful one in the book. Just as the other men at the ranch are seduced by the possibility of a free, idyllic life, so is the reader.
A paradise for men who
want to be in control of their
own world.
Represents the possibility of
freedom, self-reliance, and protection from the cruelties of the world.

6. Motif
Recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes.

7. The Corrupting Power of Women
Motif
The Corrupting Power of Women
The woman in Weed
The men who waste their
money at the whore houses.
Curley’s wife flirting with the men at the ranch
When Lennie kills Curley’s wife, their dream dies.
Women have no place in Steinbeck’s idealized world that gives importance to the brotherly bonds of men.

8. Motif Loneliness and Companionship
Usually migrant works like George and Lennie don’t have companions. They move from job to job on their own.
The characters who don’t have companionship describe their loneliness: Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife.
On the other hand, George and Lennie believe they will always have each other. The story and reassurance George tells Lennie time and time again displays the importance of having someone. However, the end shows companionship to be unattainable. The companionship dies with Lennie and George must move on through life alone.

9. Strength and Weakness Motif
Lennie and the mice/puppy/Curley’s hand/Curley’s wife
George killing Lennie: In the end Lennie is powerless despite his physical
strength, and he is at the mercy
of universal laws.
Heron and water snake p.99

10. Theme
Fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

11. The Impossibility of the American Dream
Theme
The Impossibility of the American Dream
Many of the characters have failed dreams: George, Lennie, and Candy’s farm, Crooks is prevented from even pursuing his dreams because of his race, and Curley’s wife’s dream to become a famous actress.
Throughout the novel, especially at the end, George begins to realize that such dreams cannot be attained in this world, just as Crooks said.