Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

File:Miceandmen.gif
Author	John Steinbeck
Publication date	1937

Of Mice and Men is a novel by John Steinbeck, first published in 1937, which tells the tragic story of George and Lennie, two displaced Anglo migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression. The story is set on a farm a few miles from Soledad (Soledad is Spanish for Solitude) in the Salinas Valley.

Synopsis

An extended annotated version of the novella can be found at Wikibooks:Of Mice and Men.

The title of the story refers to a line in the Scots poem To a Mouse by the national poet of Scotland Robert Burns: "The best-laid schemes o mice an men, Gang aft agley" (Eng: "Often go awry"). Template:Spoiler

Lennie is a large strong man with the mind of a child, and George is a small man with a quick wit who cares for him. Lennie loves to pet soft things and one day, he accidentally pulls on a girl's dress, forcing them to go on the run. George and Lennie hope to save up enough money to buy a small farm of their own (Lennie is obsessed with the prospect of caring for rabbits), but this goal always remains out of reach. Despite George's best efforts, Lennie loses control and (accidentally) kills the wife of Curley, a resident of the farm where they were working. After killing Curley's wife, Lennie runs off into a brush. To spare the residents' reaction (lynching, presumably), George kills Lennie.

Steinbeck originally intended the story to be a play, and it has been produced as one. In many ways, the story is structured as a play, with several long, stationary scenes, stage direction-like descriptions, and large amounts of dialogue. Steinbeck wrote this book, along with The Grapes of Wrath, in what is now Monte Sereno, California, in his home at 16250 Greenwood Lane.

The novel was banned from various American school libraries or curricula in 1993 and 1994 for "promoting euthanasia" but remains required reading in many other American high school and middle school English courses. Also, it now appears as one of the possible books that can be studied for GCSE English in England and Wales, Standard Grade in Scotland and the Leaving Certificate in Ireland. It is also studied in several high schools in Victoria, Australia as part of the leadup to the completion of a VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education).

Characters

The principal characters in Of Mice and Men are George, a shrewd and tough farmhand and Lennie, who is mentally retarded but incredibly strong. George is a man who takes care of Lennie, and constantly bemoans this fact. "If it wasn't for you, I could live so easily" However, we get the impression that their relationship is more symbiotic than that as the book moves on. The two dream of getting a place of their own. This dream includes a hutch full of rabbits, which Lennie will get to tend. The rabbits are extremely important to Lennie.

Curley's Wife is a manipulative women who suffers a great deal under her husband, who she married to spite her mother. She clings to impossible dreams of becoming an actress and tells of lost oppurtunities to Lennie. However, her intense unhappiness manifests itself in her cruel treatment of the men underneath her, threatening Crooks: "I could get you hung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." She does not have a name in the book (this supports the theory that Steinbeck was quite chauvinistic in his works.)

Candy is an old, crippled swamper who comes to share in George and Lennie's dream. He is a vulnerable character. Candy lost his hand in a machine, and for this received a $250 bonus. This and additional savings earn him a place in George and Lennie's dream home, as Candy can pay for about half the cost. He also owns a dog, who has a symbolic position in the book.

Crooks is an isolated coloured ranch-hand, who is maltreated and excluded by the other men on the farm.

Curley is the violent son of the Boss who enjoys threatening Lenny but is very insecure about his wife, constantly accusing her of flirting. Curley is also a boxer.

The minor characters are the farmhands Slim and Carlson and Lennie's Aunt Clara, who appears as Lennie's illusion. Another illusion is a rabbit which berates Lennie on his actions.

Films

The novel was made into five films:

A 1939 film, Of Mice and Men starring Lon Chaney Jr. (Lennie) and Burgess Meredith (George), directed by Lewis Milestone

A 1970 TV movie

A Turkish 1975 TV movie

A 1981 TV movie, Of Mice and Men starring Randy Quaid (Lennie) and Robert Blake (George), Ted Neeley (Curley), directed by Reza Badiyi

A 1992 film, Of Mice and Men, starring John Malkovich (Lennie) and Gary Sinise (George), directed by Gary Sinise.

Opera

Carlisle Floyd wrote an opera based on this novel in 1970. The opera features The Narrator, a character who is not found in the book.

External links

• BookRags Study Guide and Summary for "Of Mice and Men" at BookRags.com

Other references

The title "of mice and men" is popular in scientific journals whenever discrepancies between animal models and human subjects arise. It rarely refers to the contents of Steinbeck's novel. Pinky and the Brain are also somewhat similar to Lennie and George, respectively. In a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bugs encounters a simple-minded giant who grabs hims saying "What a cute little bunny rabbit. I'm gonna love him and squeeze him and call him George". The voice work by Mel Blanc sounds like the voice of Lon Chaney Jr. in the 1939 film, Of Mice and Men.

ISBN numbers

• ISBN 0822208385 (perfect, 1950)
• ISBN 0812034317 (paperback, 1984)
• ISBN 1556516770 (paperback, 1988)
• ISBN 0606002006 (prebound, 1992)
• ISBN 0453007902 (hardcover, 1992)
• ISBN 0140177396 (hardcover and paperback, 1993)
• ISBN 0140186425 (hardcover, 1994)
• ISBN 0783813589 (library binding, 1995, Large Type Edition)
• ISBN 0140188290 (paperback, 1997)
• ISBN 0764108204 (paperback, 1999)
• ISBN 0142000671 (paperback, 2002)