Question

The novel begins with a rich description of the physical setting. Cite three examples of descriptive language. Explain the effect on the mood by beginning the narrative with this description. What is Steinbeck trying to suggest about the area by the Salinas River?

Answer 1

Answer:

Examples of descriptive language:

• "The water is warm too, for it has slipped  twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool."
• "Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of ‘coons, and with the spreadpads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark."
• "There is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten  hard by boys coming down from the ranches to swim in the deep pool, and  beaten hard by tramps who come wearily down from the highway in the evening  to jungle-up near water."

Explanation:

This question refers to the story "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck .

Descriptive language consists of the actual verbal representation of an object, person, landscape, animal, emotion, and practically everything that can be put into words.

This type of text intends for the reader to obtain an exact image of the reality that we are transmitting in words, a kind of “verbal painting”.

The mood that the beginning of this story transmits to us is that of a peaceful place, with warm water and abundant nature.

The author uses this technique so that we as readers can get fully into the story, imagining each thing as the author really wants, and that we have a vivid image of what we are reading.