Sunday, July 5, 2015

What are some literary terms used in Chapter 5 in Of Mice and Men?Can you give me the literary term and what page it is on?

I think you may be asking about literary devices which can
be found in Chapter 5, as opposed to literary terms; the terms are the words that
describe the devices. There are any number of literary devices used in the chapter, and
I will note here only a few, explaining the terms and pointing to the devices as
examples.


Personification is a
literary device whereby inanimate objects are endowed with human characteristics. Some
examples are,


readability="6">

"The afternoon sun sliced in through the cracks
of the barn
walls...",



and


readability="5">

"...the lazy afternoon
humming."



Both of these
examples can be found in the second paragraph of Chapter 5; "slicing" and "humming" are
things humans can do, but they are attributed to the sun and the afternoon, which cannot
do either of these things.


Imagery
is the formation of mental pictures through words. An example of imagery
occurs in the tenth paragraph of Chapter 5, in the description of Curley's wife. The
author says,


readability="6">

"She wore her bright cotton dress and the mules
with the red ostrich feathers. Her face was made up and the little sausage curls were
all in
place."



Juxtaposition
is a literary term which describes when an author puts two images side by
side to emphasize their likenesses or differences. An example of juxtaposition occurs
about halfway through Chapter 5, when Lennie is talking to Curley's wife. Curley's wife
is explaining about her lost dreams, while Lennie describes the dream he and George hope
to achieve. Curley's wife says,


readability="9">

"...a show come through, an' I met one of the
actors. He says I could go with that show. But my ol' lady wouldn't let me...If I'd
went, I wouldn't be livin' like this, you
bet."



Lennie, lost in his own
thoughts, responds,


readability="5">

"We gonna have a little place - an'
rabbits."



Curley's wife goes
on with her own story, concluding,


readability="6">

"Coulda been in the movies, an' had nice clothes
- all them nice clothes like they
wear."



The juxtaposition of
Lennie's and Curley's wife's dreams, both so similar and filled with longing, allows the
reader to see their likenesses, and foreshadows that Lennie's dream of having a place of
his own with George is as futile and hopeless as Curley's wife's dream of being in the
movies and having a rich and glamorous life.
Foreshadowing, which describes a device in which the
author hints at something that will happen later in the story, is another literary
term. 

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