John Steinbeck, an author who has won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962, wrote the short novel in 1937. Of Mice and Men has become one of the American classics. Plays and films have been made based on this novel. I became interested in reading Of Mice and Men after I watched the 1992 film directed by Gary Sinise. In his books, Steinbeck used to describe how it was like during the Great Depression in the 1930s. His stories normally told about the poor working class. Another well-known novel written by him is The Grapes of Wrath, which was published in 1939.
Of Mice and Men locates in California during the 1930s. The novella is a realistic description of migrant workers, who didn’t have homes and worked in ranches to earn money. Of Mice and Men deals with important themes such as friendship, trust, and loneliness. A big theme in the book is mental retardation and being different from others. The book also describes how people’s behavior changes depending on which people are around.
The two protagonists are named George and Lennie. George is a smart guy who doesn’t have big expectations for future. His goal is to have a regular job and a place to sleep. George takes care of mentally retarded Lennie. Together they move from a ranch to another looking for work. Lennie acts like a small child and his favorite thing in the whole world is touching soft things. Physically Lennie is stronger than average which makes him a good worker. However, he has problems with controlling his powers. Of Mice and Men tells how these men start working at a new ranch and what happens there.
The story is told by an omniscient narrator. Once in a while the language of the book was a bit challenging. I had to read out loud some of the men’s replies to understand what they meant. The men swore a lot and used some not-so-beautiful expressions for example about an African-American man, Croocks, who worked in the horse stable. However, these things made the story more realistic in my eyes. I think you can read some things between the lines when you’re focusing on the language of the book. ”George, how long’s it gonna be till we get that little place an’ live fatta the lan’ –an’ rabbits?” said on page 56 is a good example of Lennie’s replies. Personally, I most enjoyed Lennie’s childish way to speak.
Of Mice and Men shows how it is to be lonely and different. Lennie gets misunderstood and discriminated by other men because of things he isn’t able to chance. The same thing happens with Croocks. These two men seem to have many things in common. The only woman in the book also gets mocked quite often. She doesn’t get viewed as a person, but more as an annoying and good-looking wife of the boss’ son.
Another theme is friendship. The story tells about being a friend and how hard it can be. Steinbeck realistically pictures the friendship of the protagonists. George probably didn’t choose to start taking care of Lennie. He just knows that he can’t leave Lennie because he wouldn’t survive alone. Still, I’m not saying that George was always a good friend to Lennie. He often lost his patience and made Lennie feel bad about himself. Not to mention what happened at the end of the story. Of Mice and Men successfully tells the situation from Lennie’s point of view too. He truly wants to do the right thing but when he fails, he becomes scared of George being mad at him.
I haven’t read many English books, so this was a nice experience. For me, Of Mice and Men was an unusually short book. I am used to reading novels with more complicated plots and that’s why I didn’t get the idea of this one at first. After I had read more, I realized that maybe the plots of John Steinbeck’s books aren’t the reason why he is so appreciated. Steinbeck was extremely good at writing about those unfair and embarrassing things which belonged to peoples’ normal life.
What I liked was that Steinbeck didn’t create any unimportant characters or plot twists. Of Mice and Men may be a short story but it still manages to say all the necessary things. In this story the plot is not as important as the message. The book has a lot to say.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Men, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck,