Books - Of Mice and Men

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	Books - Of Mice and Men

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 (1929-1939). 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").

Lennie is a large, strong man with the mind of a child, and George is a smaller man with quick wit who cares for Lennie. Lennie's love of touching soft things results in an accusation of rape by a woman whose dress he felt in the town of Weed. A mob from the town vows to lynch Lennie, which forces George and Lennie to leave their current town and find new work at a ranch near Soledad, California. George and Lennie hope to escape the repetitive, wandering fate of most ranch workers by saving up enough money to buy a small farm of their own. Lennie is driven to this goal by the prospect of "tending the rabbits". However, this goal is only a dream until Candy, another worker on the farm, offers to contribute his savings for a place on the farm. While subjected to the loneliness and mediocrity of the life they presently lead, George and Lennie's prospect of their own farm attracts yet another hopeful, Crooks, the "Negro" stable buck. Despite their best efforts, however, the dream begins to collapse, completely falling apart when Lennie accidentally kills the wife of Curley, a worker and son of the ranch boss. After killing Curley's wife, Lennie escapes to the river where the story had begun, the place where George told him to go should he ever got into trouble. To spare Lennie from Curley's revenge, which would entail much pain on Lennie's part, George quickly kills Lennie with a Luger. Slim and George then go for a drink to settle George's nerves. The last line of the book is Carlson, the ranch worker who kills Candy's old dog in a fashion similar to Lennie's killing (which forshadows his death) is talking to Curley saying, "Now what the hell do you suppose is eatin' them two guys" showing that both characters never learned the value of compassion and friendship.

Characters

The principal characters in the novel are George, a shrewd and tough farmhand, and Lennie, who is intellectually disabled 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," he repeatedly asserts. However, the impression is given 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 appears to be a manipulative woman but actually suffers a great deal under her husband, who she married to spite her mother. She is the only female on the ranch, and her interaction with the male ranch-hands causes her to be labelled a 'tart', albeit she seeks what many of the others lack, friendship. She clings to impossible dreams of becoming an actress due to her naivety and tells of her lost opportunities to Lennie. However, her intense unhappiness manifests itself in her cruel treatment of the men underneath her, shown in her threat to Crooks: "I could get you hung up on a tree so easy it ain't even funny." The character remains nameless throughout the story, further adding to the fact that she is treated like Curley's property.

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 farm, as Candy can pay for about half the cost. It is also assumed he is only kept on the farm due to his disability; the ranch is responsible for his uselessness. He also owns a dog, which is shot and killed by Carlson to foreshadow another character's death.

Crooks is an isolated, Negro ranch-hand who is mistreated and excluded by the other men on the farm. In turn, he excludes himself from the other ranch-hands and isolates himself. He is very skillful, and constantly wins the horseshoe game that is played on the ranch, causing more negative comments to head his way.

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

Minor characters include Slim, Carlson, and the other farmhands, and Lennie's Aunt Clara, who appears in Lennie's illusion. The other illusion features a rabbit which berates Lennie on his actions, exposing his deepest fear - that he will not be able to tend the rabbits.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Of Mice and Men ]

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Books - Of Mice and Men

Synopsis

Characters

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