Of mice and men by John Stienbeck?

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Emmie

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Throughout the fight with Curley, and the book as a whole, John Steinbeck creates an extended metaphor by comparing Lennie to something. To what is he comparing Lennie and why is it an appropriate metaphor?

I read chapters 3-4 over 3 times and even listened to it on tape to find the place where that metaphor is. PLEASE HELP ME!!
 
An extended metaphor is not going to be necessarily easy to spot, because there might not be any individual metaphors or similes that encompass the entirety of the LARGER metaphor. Try to pay attention to the language with which Lennie is described. If there is repeated description of Lennie in, say, animal terms, or machine terms, Steinbeck is comparing him to those things (though those are just arbitrary examples...I haven't read the book in a decade). Also of note would be Lennie's actions in relation to other characters whose symbolic role is more clear (another arbitrary example, maybe some defiance of a character who is symbolic of trust).
 
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