Nature

• A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

  Sets a calm, natural setting — a place of safety before the harshness of the world intrudes. Symbolises the fragile peace of George and Lennie’s life.
• A huge man...and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws
• A snake glided smoothly up the pool.
• And sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool." - contrasts to harshness of human life at the time.