Your mindmaps on setting in OMAM

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What mark would you give the following practice essay on setting?

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, setting plays a crucial role in the advancement of the plot. It helps the reader get a feel for the mood and tone. Steinbeck use of words describes setting in a way never before seen, it is complex and yet easy to understand. The novel Of Mice and Men shows Steinbeck's use of words brilliantly, the novel has four  major settings the clearing by the pond, the bunkhouse, Crook's room, and the barn. Each setting has its own very important addition to the books vividness. Setting is one of the most significant and critical elements in the book.

The setting the reader first encounters in the novel is the clearing by the pond. This is one of the most important locations in the entire novel. "I want you to come right here and hide in the brush" (15). The quote shows how important the clearing it, it will be the place where they meet when one is in trouble. "The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun." (99). This sets a somber mood to the last chapter, it gives us a feel of quietness, sadness. Setting plays the main mood setter, it gets us ready for the death of Lennie.

The bunkhouse is where all the men live, where they sleep, where they entertain themselves. "And these selves were loaded with talcum powder, razors and those Western magazines ranch men love to read and scoff at and secretly believe." (17). This quote shows the reader that the men who work at the ranch are all lonely they need magazines to get comfort in. "Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted." (17). This reveals the plainness of the lives of the workers at the ranch, they live in plain white walls and floors. Setting shows us the life of the characters it provides a view of what they have to live with.

Crook's room is the part where we learn the inner lives of Crooks, Lennie, Curley' Wife, Candy. "There were battered magazines and a few dirty books on the special self over his bunk. A pair of large gold-rimmed spectacles hung from a nail on the wall above his bed." (67). The setting in this part of the novel sheds light on the life of Crooks, it shows that he is a man of learning with the magazines and books in his room. "And scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about..." (66). This quote that describes his room is more then that, it tells us that Crooks is a lonely he has to live alone. This gives us more insight on the life of Crooks.

Setting plays the main role as the tone and mood setter all novels, but it can be felt strongly in the novel Of Mice and Men. The four major settings of the novel gets the reader into the novel, the reader can imagine how everything is how the characters must feel. Without the vivid descriptions Steinbeck provides the book wouldn't be as great as it is. Setting plays the main critical element in fussing the plot together.