Literature Analysis: Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

1. The novel begins with two men, George and Lennie, who are migrant workers in California. They travel to many farms trying to find work. George is “small and quick and dark of face” and Lennie is a giant man with the mindset of a child. Although nothing is directly said about him, it is inferred that he has a disability. George and Lennie have a brother-like relationship, and Geroge acts as Lennie's older brother. When George and Lennie get let off a bus miles away from the farm they are supposed to be at they decide to walk and along the way they discuss their plans for the future. Both of the men fantasize about their dream of owning their own farm. When they finally arrive at the ranch, all of their dreaming and fantasizing comes to an end and they are brought back to harsh reality. They meet the boss's rude son, Curley, who just married and is very protective over his wife who tends to be very flirty.. Lennie ends up meeting her later and develops a little crush on Curley's wife. This foreshadows the unfortunate events to come. As the day goes on, George and Lennie meet the other ranch hands. George meets a friend called Slim and and confesses to him that Lennie has gotten them in trouble for being innapropriate to women and he was accused of rape. Curley goes into a frenzy trying to find his missing wife later that night, and decides to take his anger out on Lennie. Lennie is very strong and powerful and he breaks Curley's hand. This symbolizes that Lennie has more power than he is aware of. The next day, Lennie is found very upset because he accidentally killed one of the puppies from the ranch. To help calm him down, Curley's wife offers to let him touch her hair because he likes the feel of soft textures. Lennie, again not realizing what power he possesses, gets flustered when she starts screaming, and he tries to make her quiet down. By doing this he breaks her neck and kills her just like that. The end of this book always makes me cry. George and Lennie escape and George shoots Lennie in the back of the head. You can tell this book was not from this time period because everyone was so ignorant when it came to handicap and disabilities. Lennie was misunderstood and because of people's lack of knowledge, he was killed out of fear.

2. Theme: isolation; ignorance; selfishness

3. Tone: brutal, straightforward, matter of fact

- “I don’t know why I can’t keep it. It ain’t nobody’s mouse. I didn’t steal it. I found it lyin’ right beside the road.”

- “For the first time Lennie became conscious of the outside. He crouched down in the hay and listened. ‘I done a real bad thing,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t of did that. George’ll be mad. An’…he said…an’ hide in the brush till he come. He’s gonna be mad. In the brush till he come. Tha’s what he said.’”

-  “And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering. George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes.”

4.  Literary Techniques/Elements:

Foreshadowing- When George confides in Slim about how they got in trouble at their last farm it foreshadows how they are going to get in trouble at their new ranch too. They set up a “lynch party” when they got in trouble in Weed and when they get in trouble in Soledad.

* “Dumb bastard like he is, he wants to touch ever’thing he like. Just wants to feel it. So he reaches out to feel this red dress an’ the girl lets out a squawk, and that gets Lennie all mixed up, and he holds on ‘cause that’s the only thing he can think to do….”

* “Well that girl rabbits in an’ tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie.”

Symbolism: Lennie's lack of knowledge of how much power he had symbolized power and lack of knowledge. 

Setting- The story, being set in a rural area isolated from a lot of people helps set the stage for isolation.

*“ On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool.”

            

Irony- It is ironic that George ends up killing his best friend, and someone he promised to take care of.

* “George shivered and looked at the gun, and then he threw it from him, back up on the bank, near the pile of old ashes. 

Time Period: This book would not have been able to exist in any other time period because that would never happen in today's society. People have more knowledge about mental disabilities, whereas in this book everyone was scared of him because they didn't know why he was different.