The theme of conflict looms over the entire plot of Of Mice and Men, starting from the first scene and persisting until the end. The conflict ranges from the endearing way Steinbeck makes the man fight with his inner animalistic behavior to the ever-looming conflict between George and Lennie with their drastically different personalities, appearances, and understanding of their ideal, the American Dream. The Great Depression forms the backbone of Steinbeck's tale, with events from the stock market crash to the recovery from World War I, allowing him to maintain the realism of the contrasting events but still leaving room for the intriguing and deeper side of each. . the characters. Steinbeck manages to disguise the conflict within the story by not simply stating it, but by using language and literary techniques to subtly imply it. The beginning of the first part gives the reader the feeling of a perfect backdrop, yet conflict is present throughout. An example of this hidden conflict is the pool of water which without much description at first gives the image of a turquoise pool flowing with fresh water but just as George and Lennie emerge, the reader is told "by the green pool" showing that the pool is stagnant and dirty. The first part opens with the 'idyllic' setting of Soledad with sibilants throughout the first sentence “south of Soledad, the Salinas River” creating the initial silence and tranquility; the assonance develops towards the relaxed and sleepy feeling of the setting with “deep and green” and “reclining limbs”. A single 7-line sentence runs through the first paragraph, giving you the feeling of the perfect moment in time and entirely captured in a snapshot that lasts for eternity. As you progress through… middle of the paper… there is a big breakthrough for George to realize that he is responsible for Lennie and that he must do what is best not only for himself but for both of them. This understanding leads George to end Lennie's life not out of the motivation of keeping him from causing further chaos, but to keep Lennie out of danger. Steinbeck manages to create a novella composed primarily of conflict, but uses it on numerous levels to allow not only the characters but their stories to develop as a whole. All of the characters have suffered from conflict in one way or another, both internal and external, but all caused by the conflicted time period, the Great Depression. Steinbeck's wide variety of literary techniques and effective use of the conflicting time period in a short story manage to create an almost domino effect of conflict, transferring from one to the other..