Tension And Suspense Are Created In Of Mice and Men Essay

In the beginning extract of the novel 'Of Mice and Men' tension and suspense are creating in many ways,at the start of the text an anxious scene is created as Candy the swampers dog is killed to put his out of his pain. 'Lets get it over with...Lets get it over with..we cant sleep with him stinking around here' says Carlson as he puts the Luger Pistol in his hip pocket. This line creates suspense as to whether Candy is going to say yes or no to killing the dog. Candy then looks to Slim for 'reversal' but 'Slim gave him none.' Is also building up suspense to the answer. Finally the suspense is relieved when Candy says 'Soft and hopelessly, 'awright- take 'im.' They description hopelessly and softly shows that Candy is upset about killing the dog, the next line 'He did not look down at the dog' also shows this. Suspense is quickly built back up as Carlson goes to take the dog away, 'Come, boy. Come on, boy.' he said gently' sends a feel of sadness and tension to the moment leading up to the shooting, another quote which also gives you the feel of sadness and tension is 'Slim said 'Carlson,' 'Yeah?' 'You know what to do?' 'What ya mean, Slim?' 'Take a shovel' said slim shortly.'

'Slim said loudly,'One of my lead mules got a bad hoof. Got to get some tar on it.' Slim is attempting to change the feel of the room less awkward. Steinbeck then uses 'His voice trailed off.' to show that this has failed.There is another awkward silence after 'Carlsons footsteps trailed away'. Steinbeck used personification to show this 'The silence came into the room. And the silence lasted'. This being in the beginning of the novel already gives us a sense of alarm due to the strong tension and uneasiness.

George then tries to break the silence by laughing and talking about Lennie, but this only make the silence worse after Slim offers Candy one of his pups and he does not answer.

Further on when Whit and George are talking, George is trying to break the silence by talking, when Whits tension breaks out and he exclaims 'What the hell's taking him so long? Lay out some card why dont you? We aint get no euchre played this way.' Steinbeck uses imagery to show how tense the feeling in the room really is.

In this extract very little is spoken by the characters, as the silence has over taken and became like a extra character in this part of the novel. You can tell that Candy is very reluctant to hand his dog over to be killed as he has a strong connection with it.

As the silence falls in the room again, ' A shot sounded in the distance. The men look quickly at the old man. Every head turned towards him.' this ends the tension a little bit as the main part is over but still the silent and the awkward feel remains.

In conclusion this tense extract makes the reader intrigued and fill with suspense to make them want to read on to see if this tension and foreboding feeling will continue in the novel.