OF MICE AND MEN

JOHN STEINBECK

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 Something about John Steinbeck

Complete name: John Ernst Steinbeck

Date and place of birth: 27 February 1902, Salinas, California

Date and place of death: 20 December 1968, New York

Nationality: American

Literary career: Writer

Significant works: The grapes of wrath , Of mice and men , East of

Eden.

Style: Realistic novels, short stories

Prizes: Prizes: Pulitzer (for the novel "The grapes of wrath"), Nobel prize for
Literature in 1962.

Events that influenced his life and work:

- during his study period, Steinbeck worked as a farm worker, as a fruit

picker, as a painter, as a site worker, experience which reflected in his
works, especially in "Of mice of men".

- in 1942 he was a war coresponden for the New York Herald Tribune, he
went with the commando trupes during the raids and he collaborated with
the Stratgic Services Bureau (future CIA). A part of the informations
gathered by Steinbeck during this period was included in the documentary
"Once there was a ware " (1968). Plus, these experiences during the war
inspired him in writing the novel "The moon is down" (1942), which was
screened later.
 Setting
This book is set during the Great Depression of the 1930s in two places. It
starts beside a stream, close to the Salinas River, a few miles south of Soledad,
California. It then moves to a ranch, where the major part of the story is set. At
the end of the novel, the setting comes back to where it started.

George and Lennie are introduced by the stream. They are on their way to a
near-by ranch. The surrounding land is thick in vegetation and has its own wild
life. Men frequent it, as there are ash piles made by many fires and the limbs of
the sycamore tree have been smoothed by the many men who have sat on it.

The ranch, where the major part of the story takes place, appears isolated
and lonely. It includes a ranch house, a bunkhouse where the ranch workers live,
a barn, and a harness-room off the barn.

Two migrant field workers in California on their plantation during the Great
DepressionGeorge Milton, an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie
Small, a bulky, strong man but mentally disabledare in Soledad on their way to
another part of California. They hope to one day attain the dream of settling
down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream is merely to tend and
pet rabbits on the farm, as he loves touching soft animals, although he always kills
them. This dream is one of Lennie's favorite stories, which George constantly
retells. They had fled from Weed after Lennie touched a young woman's dress
and wouldn't let go, leading to an accusation of rape. It soon becomes clear that
the two are close and George is Lennie's protector, despite his antics.

After being hired at a farm, the pair are confronted by CurleyThe Boss's
small, aggressive son with a Napoleon complex who dislikes larger men, and starts
to target Lennie. Curley's flirtatious and provocative wife, to whom Lennie is
instantly attracted, poses a problem as well. In contrast, the pair also meets
Candy, an elderly ranch handyman with one hand and a loyal dog, and Slim, an
intelligent and gentle jerkline-skinner whose dog has recently had a litter of
puppies. Slim gives a puppy to Lennie and Candy, whose loyal, accomplished
sheep dog was put down by fellow ranch-hand Carlson.

In spite of problems, their dream leaps towards reality when Candy offers
to pitch in $350 with George and Lennie so that they can buy a farm at the end of
the month, in return for permission to live with them. The trio are ecstatic, but
their joy is overshadowed when Curley attacks Lennie, who defends himself by
easily crushing Curley's fist while urged on by George.

Nevertheless, George feels more relaxed, to the extent that he even leaves
Lennie behind on the ranch while he goes into town with the other ranch hands.
Lennie wanders into the stable, and chats with Crooks, the bitter, yet educated
stable buck, who is isolated from the other workers racially. Candy finds them and
they discuss their plans for the farm with Crooks, who cannot resist asking them if
he can hoe a garden patch on the farm albeit scorning its possibility. Curley's wife
makes another appearance and flirts with the men, especially Lennie. However,
her spiteful side is shown when she belittles them and threatens Crooks to have
him lynched.

The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while stroking it. Curley's
wife enters the barn and tries to speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and
how her dreams of becoming a movie star are crushed, revealing her personality.
After finding out about Lennie's habit, she offers to let him stroke her hair, but
panics and begins to scream when she feels his strength. Lennie becomes
frightened, and unintentionally breaks her neck thereafter and runs away. When
the other ranch hands find the corpse, George realizes that their dream is at an
end. George hurries to find Lennie, hoping he will be at the meeting place they
designated in case he got into trouble.

George meets Lennie at the place, their camping spot before they came to
the ranch. The two sit together and George retells the beloved story of the
dream, knowing it is something they'll never share. He then shoots Lennie, with
Curley, Slim, and Carlson arriving seconds after. Only Slim realizes what
happened, and consolingly leads him away. Curley and Carlson look on, unable to
comprehend the subdued mood of the two men.
 Characters

The protagonists of the novel are George and Lennie, two workers that
migrate from a farm to another, earning theyr living, especially from working the
land. The incursions into the live story, and in the past of those two are rare and
reserved, but we can find out that they are childhood friends and that Lennie
(named with ironical sent in the novel - SMall) despite his imposing physic, and his
fantastic force that he has in his hands, is obviously intelectual disadvantaged,
probably outnumber at the mental development by a ten year old. The destiny of
those two will change dramatically when they reach at a farm near SOledad
(lonelyness) at south east of Salina (California). They hope that by working
together they will try to reach the money they need for building theyr own farm,
this burning desire of those two being the main reason of the novel, which is
repeated over and over during the whole novel.

George Milton: A quick-witted man who is Lennie's guardian and best

friend. His friendship with Lennie helps sustain his dream of a better future.
He was bound in teasing Lennie since he was young. He is described by
Steinbeck in the novel as "small and quick," every part of him being
"defined," with small strong hands on slender arms. He has a dark face and
"restless eyes" and "sharp, strong features" including a "thin, bony nose."
Lennie Small: A mentally disabled, but physically strong man who travels
with George and is his constant companion.[6] He dreams of "living off the
fatta' the lan'" and being able to tend to rabbits. His love for soft things
conspires against him, mostly because he does not know his own strength,
and eventually becomes his undoing. Steinbeck defines his appearance as
George's "opposite," writing that he is a "huge man, shapeless of face, with
large, pale eyes" and "wide, sloping shoulders." Lennie walks heavily,
dragging his feet a little, "the way a bear drags his paws," adding that his
arms do not swing at his sides, but hang loosely.
 Candy: An aging ranch handyman, Candy lost his hand in an accident and
worries about his future on the ranch. Fearing that his age is making him
useless, he seizes on Georges description of the farm he and Lennie will
have, offering his lifes savings if he can join George and Lennie in owning
the land.
Slim: A "jerkline skinner," the main driver of a mule team and the "prince of
the ranch". Slim is greatly respected by many of the characters and is the
only character whom Curley treats with respect. His insight, intuition,
kindness and natural authority draw the other ranch hands automatically
towards him, and he is significantly the only character to fully understand
the bond between George and Lennie.
Curley: The Boss' son, a young, pugnacious character, once a semi-
professional boxer. He is described by others, with some irony, as "handy",
partly because he likes to keep a glove filled with vaseline on his left hand.
He is very jealous and protective of his wife and immediately develops a
dislike toward Lennie. At one point, Curley loses his temper after he sees
Lennie appear to laugh at him, and ends up with his hand horribly damaged
after Lennie fights back against him.
Curley's wife: A young, pretty woman, who is mistrusted by her husband.
The other characters refer to her only as "Curley's wife". Steinbeck
explained that she is "not a person, she's a symbol. She has no function,
except to be a foil and a danger to Lennie."[6] Curley's wife's
preoccupation with her own beauty eventually helps precipitate her death:
She allows Lennie to stroke her hair as an apparently harmless indulgence,
only for her to upset Lennie when she yells at him to stop him 'mussing it'.
Lennie tries to stop her yelling and eventually, and accidentally, kills her by
breaking her neck.
Crooks: Crooks, the black stable-hand, gets his name from his crooked back.
Proud, bitter, and cynical, he is isolated from the other men because of the
color of his skin. Despite himself, Crooks becomes fond of Lennie, and
though he claims to have seen countless men following empty dreams of
 buying their own land, he asks Lennie if he can go with them and hoe in the
garden.
Candy's dog: A blind dog who is described as "old", "stinky", and "crippled",
and is killed by Carlson.
Carlson: A "thick bodied" ranch hand, he kills Candy's dog with little
sympathy.
The Boss: Curley's father, the superintendent of the ranch. The ranch is
owned by "a big land company" according to Candy.
Whit: A young ranch hand.

Style

Of mice and men is by excelency a realistic novel, a fresco of near-

photographic fidelity to the reality of most american poor rural population, during
the Great Depression of the 1930s, when most of them failed to agonize enough
to live in thei own household, worked as seasonal workers on large farms in the
region. He is not a novel of evolution, but he reports one dramatic episode of the
life of two people, an episode that will forever change the path of their lives - a
way that could easily be anticipated from this event, which is why the author no
longer agrees to the events that followed their existential drama. The manner in
which the novel is written seems to be the voice of the earth itself, without
complicated metaphors, without pretentious subtleties, without philosophical
assumptions - only descriptions of the earth, of the relife, of the steady and
imperturbable nature, unshaken, unshaken and unchanged in the face of the
dramas of man. People and mice really seem to be a novel about people and
people, inspired by their lives and fed from their sufferings, wishes and dreams.
The so lucid realism of the descriptions and situations presented is probably due
both to the undoubted talent of a Nobel laureate and to the personal experience
of being lived among the people of the earth.
 Themes and symbols

"In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to
understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other.
Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There
are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change,
writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base
theme. Try to understand each other."

John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry

Steinbeck emphasizes dreams throughout the book. George aspires to

independence, to be his own boss, to have a homestead, and most importantly to
be "somebody". Lennie aspires to be with George on his independent homestead,
and to quench his fixation on soft objects. Candy aspires to reassert his
responsibility lost with the death of his dog, and for security for his old ageon
George's homestead. Crooks aspires to a small homestead where he can express
self-respect, security, and most of all, acceptance. Curley's wife dreams to be an
actress, to satisfy her desire for fame lost when she married Curley, and an end to
her loneliness.

Loneliness is a significant factor in several characters' lives. Candy is lonely

after his dog is gone. Curley's wife is lonely because her husband is not the friend
she hoped forshe deals with her loneliness by flirting with the men on the
ranch, which causes Curley to increase his abusiveness and jealousy. The
companionship of George and Lennie is the result of loneliness. Crooks states the
theme candidly as "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got anybody. Don't make any
difference who the guy is, long's he's with you." The author further reinforces this
theme through subtle methods by situating the story near the town of Soledad,
which means "solitude" in Spanish.
 Despite the need for companionship, Steinbeck emphasizes how loneliness
is sustained through the barriers established from acting inhuman to one another.
The loneliness of Curley's wife is upheld by Curley's jealousy, which causes all the
ranch hands to avoid her. Crooks's barrier results from being barred from the
bunkhouse by restraining him to the stable; his bitterness is partially broken,
however, through Lennie's ignorance.

Steinbeck's characters are often powerless, due to intellectual, economic,

and social circumstances. Lennie possesses the greatest physical strength of any
character, which should therefore establish a sense of respect as he is employed
as a ranch hand. However, his intellectual handicap undercuts this and results in
his powerlessness. Economic powerlessness is established as many of the ranch
hands are victims of the Great Depression. As George, Candy and Crooks are
positive, action- oriented characters, they wish to purchase a homestead, but
because of the Depression, they are unable to generate enough money. Lennie is
the only one who is basically unable to take care of himself, but the other
characters would do this in the improved circumstances they seek. Since they
cannot do so, the real danger of Lennie's mental handicap comes to the fore.

Regarding human interaction, evil of oppression and abuse is a theme that

is illustrated through Curley and Curley's wife. Curley uses his aggressive nature
and superior position in an attempt to take control of his father's farm. He
constantly reprimands the farm hands and accuses some of fooling around with
his wife. Curley's Napoleon complex is evidenced by his threatening of the farm
hands for minuscule incidents. Curley's wife, on the other hand, is not physically
but verbally manipulative. She uses her sex appeal to gain some attention, flirting
with the farm hands. According to the Penguin Teacher's Guide for Of Mice and
Men, Curley and Curley's wife represent evil in that both oppress and abuse the
migrants in different ways.

Fate is felt most heavily as the characters' aspirations are destroyed when
George is unable to protect Lennie (who is a real danger). Steinbeck presents this
as "something that happened" or as his friend coined for him "non-teleological
thinking" or "is thinking", which postulates a non-judgmental point of view.