Colegiul National “Sfantul Sava”

Ministerul Educatiei, Cercetarii, Tineretului si Sportului

Lucrare de atestat

“Of mice and men” by John Steinbeck - Analysis

Profesor coordonator: Stegarescu Alina

Elev: Damoc Elena

Index

I. Introduction……………………………………………………….2

II. Main Body………………………………………………………..2

1)Author’s Biography………………………………………………2

2)About the novel……………………………………………………4

3)Summary and Chapter Analysis…………………………………..5

4)Characters…………………………………………………………21

5)Major Themes……………………………………………………..24

6)Quotations…………………………………………………………31

III. Conclusion……………………………………………………….35

IV. Bibliography……………………………………………………..36

1

I. Introduction

Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's first attempt at writing in the form of novel-

play, termed a "play-novelette" by one critic. Structured in three acts of two chapters

each, it is intended to be both a novella and a script for a play. He wanted to write a novel

that could be played from its lines, or a play that could be read like a novel.

Steinbeck originally titled it ”Something That Happened” (referring to the events

of the book as "something that happened" because nobody can be really blamed for the

tragedy that unfolds in the story), however, he changed the title after reading Robert

Burns's poem To a Mouse.Burns's poem tells of the regret the narrator feels for having

destroyed the home of a mouse while plowing his field.

The novel deals with the issues dear to Steinbeck’s heart - poverty, homelessness,

the exploitation of itinerant workers, the failure of the American Dream, America’s

general moral decline.

II. Main Body

1)Author’s biography

John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in Salinas, California, a region that became the

setting for much of his fiction, including Of Mice and Men. As a teenager, he spent his

summers working as a hired hand on neighboring ranches, where his experiences of rural

California and its people impressed him deeply. In 1919, he enrolled at Stanford

University, where he studied intermittently for the next six years before finally leaving

without having earned a degree. For the next five years, he worked as a reporter and then

as caretaker for a Lake Tahoe estate while he completed his first novel, an adventure

story called Cup of Gold, which was published in 1929. Critical and commercial success

2

did not come for another six years, when Tortilla Flat was published in 1935, at which

point Steinbeck was finally able to support himself entirely with his writing.

Steinbeck’s best-known works deal intimately with the plight of desperately poor

California wanderers, who, despite the cruelty of their circumstances, often triumph

spiritually. Always politically involved, Steinbeck followed Tortilla Flat with three

novels about the plight of the California laboring class, beginning with In Dubious Battle

in 1936.

Of Mice and Men followed in 1937, and The Grapes of Wrath won the 1940

Pulitzer Prize and became Steinbeck’s most famous novel. Steinbeck sets Of Mice and

Men against the backdrop of Depression-era America. The economic conditions of the

time victimized workers like George and Lennie, whose quest for land was thwarted by

cruel and powerful forces beyond their control, but whose tragedy was marked,

ultimately, by steadfast compassion and love.

Critical opinions of Steinbeck’s work have always been mixed. Both stylistically

and in his emphasis on manhood and male relationships, which figure heavily in Of Mice

and Men, Steinbeck was strongly influenced by his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway.

Even though Steinbeck was hailed as a great author in the 1930s and 1940s, and won the

Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, many critics have faulted his works for being

superficial, sentimental, and overly moralistic. Though Of Mice and Men is regarded by

some as his greatest achievement, many critics argue that it suffers from one-dimensional

characters and an excessively deterministic plot, which renders the lesson of the novella

more important than the people in it.

Steinbeck continued writing throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He went to Europe

during World War II, then worked in Hollywood both as a filmmaker and a scriptwriter

for such movies as Viva Zapata! (1950). His important later works include East of Eden

(1952), a sprawling family saga set in California, and Travels with Charley (1962), a

journalistic account of his tour of America. He died in New York City in 1968.

Steinbeck's reputation is dependent primarily on the naturalistic, proletarian-themed

novels that he wrote during the Depression. It is in these works that Steinbeck is most

effective at building rich, symbolic structures and conveying the archetypal qualities of

his characters. Steinbeck received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962.

3

In his acceptance speech for the 1962 Nobel Prize in literature, Steinbeck said:

“ . . . the writer is delegated to declare and to celebrate man’s proven capacity for

greatness of heart and spirit—for gallantry in defeat, for courage, compassion and love.

In the endless war against weakness and despair, these are the bright rally flags of hope

and of emulation. I hold that a writer who does not passionately believe in the

perfectibility of man has no dedication nor any membership in literature.”

2) About the novel

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, published in 1937, is one of the author's most

widely read novels, largely due to its ubiquitous presence in the high school curriculum.

As a result, this mythic story of two opposites - the clever, wiry George Milton and the

lumbering, powerful Lennie Small - has assumed an important place in the American

literary canon. The novel is deceptively simple - it is short and straight-forwardly written.

But beneath this approachable surface Steinbeck explores mysterious and haunting

themes, largely pivoting on the search for comfort, decency and companionship in a

lonely, cruel world.

Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's seventh novel. Though he had achieved

critical and popular success with his two preceding novels, Tortilla Flat (1935) and In

Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men was an instant success on another level

altogether. The book was chosen as a Book-of-the-Month club selection and garnered

Steinbeck the financial stability and creative confidence necessary for his embarkation on

his subsequent novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which continues to be viewed as the

best work of his career.

Steinbeck drew his inspiration for the work from his experience living and

working as a "bindlestiff" - or itinerant farmhand - during the 1920s. In a 1937 interview

in The New York Times, Steinbeck said that the character of Lennie was based on a

mentally impaired man he met in his travels who was prone to episodes of uncontrollable

rage. The central question of where or how such a man might fit into society drives the

action of Of Mice and Men, and the rest of the characters in the book are developed

largely in terms of their relationships to this enigmatic central figure.

4

Steinbeck's novel is not, in the strictest sense, a novel; it's better described as a

novelized play. The work is easily divisible into three acts of two scenes each, with each

chapter comprising a scene. These chapters all take place in fixed locations. Chapter One

occurs, aside from a brief stroll at the very opening, at a clearing by the Salinas River;

Chapters Two and Three occur in the bunk house at the ranch where Lennie and George

have found work; Chapter Four occurs in the quarters of Crooks, the black stable buck;

Chapter Five takes place in the barn; and Chapter Six brings us back to the clearing by

the river. In all cases, the introduction and description of characters largely occurs in

dialogue rather than in expository prose. With rare exceptions, Steinbeck's narrator is

quite unobtrusive. He writes in a combination of stage-directions and dialogue - in other

words, Of Mice and Men is very much like a play. The Steinbeck critic Susan Shillinglaw

describes the work as an experimental "play-novelette, intended to be both a novella and

a script for a play."

This play-like structure allowed the work to be quickly adapted to the stage, with

the first production mounted on Broadway in 1937, the year of the novel's publication.

This production was quite successful, and was directed by the famous playwright George

S. Kaufman. The play was revived in 1974 with James Earl Jones in the role of Lennie.

Of Mice and Men has also been frequently adapted into cinema - first in 1939, in a

production directed by Lewis Milestone (who regularly and skillfully directed adaptations

of literary works, including All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)), with Lon Chaney, Jr.

and Lennie and Burgess Merideth as George. Most recently the novel was adapted in

1992, with Gary Sinise playing George and John Malkovich in the role of Lennie. This

version was well-received by critics and regularly supplements high school English class

units on the novel.

3) Summary and Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1

a)Summary

5

The story debuts with the image of two men walking along a riverbed in rural

California, a stunning, wooded region, at the base of “golden foothill slopes”. One of

them, whose name is George, is small, lean, with sharp features and intelligent eyes,

whereas his friend, Lennie, stands out with his large build and awkwardness. Both of

them wear farmhand attires.

As Lennie stops by the river to drink, his companion warns him to be careful,

otherwise he will get sick again from the water.George is concerned for his friend’s well-

being, as the bigger man has a slight intellectual disability.

Since the bus driver dropped them off far from the ranch on which the two had been hired

to work, George is irritated and snaps at Lennie when he sees him holding a dead mouse

in his hand. Although Lennie claims that he just wanted to pet the mouse, that its death

isn’t his fault, George throws it in the river, warning his friend to watch his behavior on

their upcoming meeting with their new boss.He does not want to face the same problems

as in the previous place they had worked.

As they stop to spend the night in the clearing, and George prepares their supper,

Lennie recovers the dead mouse from the river, only to be found out by the other man,

who takes it again from him. Lennie doesn’t know his own strength, and in his genuine

affection for small pets, he ends up hurting or killing them by accident. George scolds

Lennie for his lack of cautiousness, and tells him that his life would be better if he didn’t

have to look after Lennie. The reason for them being chased out of Weed is revealed.

Lennie had been accused of assaulting a girl, when he had just wanted to feel the soft

fabric of her dress.

Feeling guilty after shouting at his friend, George feels ashamed of his outburst

and, at Lennie’s request, talks about how happy they will be when they have their own

farm, with a vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch, which will be tended by Lennie. Before

falling asleep, George tells Lennie that if he runs into problems in the future, he should

return to their camping place, hide and wait for George to find him.

b)Analysis

Steinbeck starts the opening pages of his novella with the descriptive scene of a

clearing whose beauty and tranquillity paint a heavenly picture, creating the perfect

background for the friendship between George and Lennie and their shared idyllic dream

6

of owning a farm. The relationship between the two men is emphasized from the

beginning of the dialogue.Their social background is that of uneducated manual laborers,

highlighted by their language, which lacks sophistication and finesse, but is rich in

emotion and sometimes even musical.

From the beginning of the novella, the two men’s behaviour is rather static,

making the reader assume that the characters are not notably dynamic.

Although George constantly complains about the burden of always having to take care of

Lennie - “Life would be so easy without Lennie” – his words are unconvincing and not

really sincere, resembling the hollow threats that parents sometimes say to children in

order to make them behave. Even the way he talks to Lennie about how ”things are going

to be” at the farm they plan to own reminds us of a parent telling a bedtime story to his

child. Lennie’s similarity to a child is emphasized by the fact that he also likes to hear he

same story – about “the rabbits”, as he calls it – countless times, even if he already knows

it by heart. Though George isn’t Lonnie’s parent, he is the closest to a father figure to the

big, childlike man.

In order to respect the traits of a tragedy, the author’s description of the farm is

beautifully written and George and Lennie’s brotherly bond is portrayed as being very

strong, so that the characters’ fall in the end will be greater. The doom that seems to be

awaiting the two men is foreshadowed from the very first pages of the novella. The

clearing’s heavenly appearance is deceiving, being, in reality, a place full of hidden

dangers.

An example would be the image of the rabbits, resembling “gray, sculptured

stones”, that run to their hiding, when they hear footsteps approaching, highlighting the

predatory, cruel world that will eventually shatter the protagonists’ dream. Lennie’s dead

mouse stands as a powerful symbol of the tragic end that feeble, unsuspicious beings

usually have. After all, Lennie’s mental disability makes him as gullible and as powerless

as a mouse, in spite of his impressive physical force. The mouse’s death creates a

convincing image of the imminent doom.

When also taking into consideration Lennie’s unintentionally bothersome

conduct, which led to them being chased out of Woods, and the fact that George appears

7

to anticipate that his friend will eventually encounter troubles at the ranch, the tragic

course of the events seems inevitable.

Chapter 2

a)Summary

As Lennie and George arrive the following day at the ranch bunkhouse – an

austere place where all the hired hands sleep - they are welcomed by Candy, an old

handyman with a missing arm. When George asks about the boss, Candy informs them

that despite him being angry for their late arrival, he is a “pretty nice fela”.

The boss’s appearance is followed by questions about the couple’s delay and

George blaming the bus driver. In order to avoid Lennie’s mental condition being

revealed when the boss asks te bigger man for details about their last employment,

George speaks in his name. Lennie’s lack of intelligence becomes evident, though, when

he inteferes in the dialogue.The boss is surprised of George’s protectiveness towards a

man who can’t take care of himself, and finds it suspicious, but George reassures him by

saying Lennie is his cousin, and that he had been his guardian since he was hit in the head

by a horse, when he was younger. The two are given the task of working with the grain

teams, supervised by a man called Slim.

Once they are left alone, George scolds Lennie for interfering, but as he expresses

his relief about them not being related, Candy overhears him. George warns the older

man not to stick his nose in their business, and Candy assures him that their affairs do not

interest him at all. The handyman then shows them his half-blind sheepdog, which has

accompanied him since it was a puppy.

Soon, they are joined by the boss’s son, Curley, a violent and mean ex-boxer,

wearing a distinguishing outfit, who demands that “the big guy talk”, referring to Lennie.

After the small young man leaves, Candy relates that Curley enjoys making fun of big

men, probably having a height complex, and that he often loses his temper, especially

since his marriage to a flirting “tart”.

8

As Connie leaves, George warns Lennie to avoid Curley, since doing otherwise

might put their jobs in danger, and Lennie agrees, obediently. With the pretence of

looking for her husband, Curley’s wife makes an appearance and starts flirting with the

two new employees. When, after that, Lennie expresses his admiration for the woman’s

prettiness, his friend shows anger and orders him to stay away from her, but then speaks

more gently as Lennie looks frightened of George’s outburst.

The two men meet Slim as he enters the bunkhouse, standing out from the other

workers, having a “gravity in his maner”.The man is impressed by Lennie and George’s

strong bond and the way they take care of each other. As the men prepare to leave for

dinner, Curley comes again, looking for his wife, and then angrily strides out of the

bunkhouse, finding out where she was. George fears that his dislike for Curley will lead

to troubles.

b)Analysis

George and Lennie’s stay at the bunkhouse has very few comforts. The struggles

of the men’s life is evident when taking into consideration the rough fabric of the

sleeping mattresses, the apple boxes fixed on the walls, where they put their belongings,

or George’s fear of a lice infestation.

For those who live at the ranch the well-being of the weak, feeble ones doesn’t

represent a priority. It is a society in which only the strongest survive, the debilitated

lives’ aren’t considered worthy of protection. A powerful example of the cruel nature of

the world in the novella is set by Slim, who intentionally drowns four out of the nine

puppies that his dog has given birth to, because not all of them would have survived on

the long term, but also by Carson, one of the hired hands, who suggests that Candy’s old

dog be replaced with one of the new-born ones.

Although being father and son usually implies a character resemblance, this is not

true in the boss and Curley’s case. The boss’s fair-mindedness is acknowledged by

Candy himself, who describes him as being “a pretty nice fella”, who had given his men

whiskey for Christmas, and is contrastive with Curley’s bad temper and maliciousness.

Through the portrayal of Curley’s character, Steinbeck depicts the wrong way social

power expreses itself. Curley’s violent and embittered outbursts are caused by self-doubts

9

and jealousy, and are often directed at big men, as we find out from Candy: “kind of like

he’s mad at ’em because he ain’t a big guy.”

Though Curley holds most of the power at the ranch, due to his social position

and ability to dominate the weaker ones, Slim also represents an authority figure, as he is

self-composed and is often sought for advice by the men.

As George and Lennie realize that the boss’s son might cause them problems,

they make a promise of being careful and staying close to each other. Steinbeck

promotes throughout the novella the romanticized friendship between men, a bond so

strong that it seems to strive through any difficulties. The author deliberately features

men rather than women, as the only two significant feminine characters are the Curley’

wife, a meddlesome “tramp”, as Candy describes her, and Lennie’s Aunt Clara, who is

only mentioned. The narrator’s opinion of women doesn’t seem to be very favorable,

since Curley’s wife is never given a name, always being identified in reference to her

husband, and the other characters’ attitude toward her is hardly kind. Her behavior, which

was not considered proper for a married woman, is somehow justified by Curley’s

loathsome attitude towards her, his exaggerated jealousy.

Despite Steinbeck’s concern for depicting the dignity with which those situated

on a low social level strive through live, women in the novel are deliberately assigned

with the lowliest roles: caretakers of men and sex objects. Women’s sexuality is

considered a trap which enslaves and destroys men.

This may be one of the reasons why women are not a part of George and Lennie’s

future plans, as they imagine themselves alone, without the complication a female

presence would bring to their dream of owning a farm. Steinbeck seems to draw a parallel

to the man’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, symbolizing the man’s fall from

perfection, in which the temptation presented by the woman is considered to have played

a great part.

Chapter 3

a) Summary

As Slim and George come back to the bunkhouse at a workday’s end, George

expresses his gratitude towards Slim for having accepted to give one of the newborn pups

10

to Lennie, assuring the older man that despite his dumbness, his friend is a good man.

George and Lennie’s friendship is acknowledged and appreciated by Slim, who

considers it a rare thing in a world where no one “seems to give a damn about nobody”.

As George tells Slim his and Lennie’s story, we find out that after aunt Clara’s death

George became the one in charge of the bigger man. George confesses, a little bit

ashamed, that in the beginning he had made fun of Lennie’s lack of intelligence, but after

daring Lennie, who didn’t know how to swim, to jump in a river and afterwards barely

managing to save him from drowning, he began caring for him, always keeping him out f

trouble. He also confides to Slim why they were had been from Weeds.

As Lennie appears in the room, hiding the puppy in his coat, George scolds him

for separating it of its mother, and asks him to take it back. Afterwards, Carlson and

Candy enter the bunkhouse, arguing about Candy’s dog, which, in Carlson’d opinion,

stinks and “ain’t no good to himself ”and should be shot. Candy says that the dog has

been his companion for too many years to kill it, but Slim persuades him to put the

creature out of its sufferance, offering him a newborn puppy in exchange. After

unwillingly agreeing to let Carlson kill the dog, Candy hears the death bringing shot in

the distance and overwhelmed, turns himself to the wall.

As Slim leaves, his assistance being required by a stable-hand, the man talk about

Curley’s wife while playing cards, George stating his first impression of her: “She’s a

jailbait all set on the trigger”. George refuses Whit’s offer of accompanying them to the

local whorehouse, saying that him and Lennie need to keep their money for the “stake”

they’re trying to put together. The scene continues with Carlson’s return, avoiding

Candy’s eyes, and Curley’s entrance, searching his wandering wife again. Blinded by

jealousy, Curley strides angry towards the barn when he finds out about Slim being there.

Left alone with Lennie and Candy, George warns his friend of the danger Curley’s wife

might represent to them.

At Lennie’s request, George tells him again about the farm, leading to questions

from Candy about such a wonderful place, and his hopeful request of contributing with

his lifetime savings to help them buy it, if they allow him in exchange to live there, too.

Though guarded at first, George agrees, hoping that a month of working at the ranch will

provide the necessary amount of money for them to buy the house, and tells them not to

11

speak to others about it. Candy expresses his regret about having let his dog dye at the

hands of a stranger, and wishes he had done it himself.

After Curley and the hands return, he apologizes to Slim for his false accusations.

When the others make fun of him, Curley is enraged, but since he knows he can’t beat

Slim in a fight, he directs his anger towards Lennie, and attacks the big, unassuming man.

After Curley ignores Lennie’s pleas of being left alone, and bloodies his face and hits him

in the gut, George can’t stand seeing his friend suffer anymore, and encourages Lennie to

fight back. At the hearing of George’s voice, Lennie easily breaks Curley’ hand. As Slim

takes the boss’s son to a doctor, he warns him that if he fires George or Lennie, he will be

the object of ridicule of the entire ranch, and receives Curley’s unwilling consentment to

let them keep their jobs.

Back in the barn, Lennie is afraid that what has happened will lead to him not

being allowed to take care of the rabbits at the farm anymore, but George consoles him,

promising that he will.

b) Analysis

The origins of George and Lennie’s friendship are revealed to the reader during

the first one’s confession to Slim, who thinks that few childhood relationships, like theirs,

develop into a sincere, rare adult friendship. It took Lennie’s nearly drowning for George

to realize, after mocking and taking advantage of the big, gentle man in the beginning,

that it is wrong to cause the sufferance of those weaker than you with the only purpose of

having fun. But George’s moral beliefs seem to contrast with the predatory nature of the

world of the ranch-hands, in which the weak are hunt down by the strong. Candy’s dog’s

death is an illustrative example of the merciless way the powerless are attacked and

eliminated. Although having become useless for guarding sheep, the dog has a great

emotional value for Candy. Despite his attachment to the pet, the cruel life on the ranch

leaves no other option but a quick, as painless as possible death, which Carlson offers to

carry through. Slim’s agreement is another proof that in their world, the feeble have little

hope of survival.

Weakness appears to define, in a way or another, almost all the characters in the

novella. Most of the personages seem to find themselves outside the standard social

constructions, being marked either by a physical or mental handicap, age, class, race, or

12

gender, a fact that leads to each one of their sufferance. Life at the ranch follows with no

exception strict, rigid rules, that despite being unwritten, have the value of laws. The fact

that aged men are cast away from the ranch, or that black worker’s access in the

bunkhouse is not allowed is only an example among many others.

George and Lennie’s idyllic vision of the farm seems to be the only serene aspect

of their lives, and has the power of easing, even if for a little time, the hurt. In the

beginning of the book, the story of the farm appeases George and Lennie after their

expulsion from Weeds, and in the present chapter it soothes Candy’s pain at the loss of

his dog, and tranquilizes Lennie after the violent confrontation with Curley. Throughout

the novel, their dream will turn out not to be a cure, but a temporary flee from the

problems.

The narrative thread progresses toward the tragic end, as some events in this

chapter foretell. George’s story of Lennie’s comportment in Weeds and his reactions in

the run-in with Curley reveal that, when in a state of confusion or fright, Lennie

manifests great physical strength, which will prove to be fatal not just to mice in the

following chapters. The quick, painless way in which Carlson shoots Candy’s dog in

the back of the head mirrors Lennie’s death in the end of the book. Candy’s expressed

wish that he had shot the dog himself, instead of letting a stranger do it foretells George’s

painfully taken decision to kill his best friend himself.

Chapter 4

a) Summary

The chapter opens with Crooks – a “proud, aloof” black ranch-hand in charge

with the stables, whose by-name comes from having a crooked back – sitting in the tackle

room. Lennie enters the room, looking for some companionship. Being a black man,

Crooks’s acces in the bunkhouse is forbidden, which he resents, so he tells Lennie that

white men are not welcome in his quarters, either. Lennie doesn’t catch the meaning of

his words, and explains that since the others have gone into town, he thought that they

could keep each other company. Then Lennie flashes an innocent “disarming smile”,

which persuades Crooks to let him in.

13

In his cheerful babble, Lennie forgets his promise to George concerning the farm,

and tells the stable-hand about their plan, but Crooks only regards the fantasy as a result

of Lennie’s childlike intellect. It is his turn then to tell Lennie about his previous days of

working on a chicken farm. Though white children enjoyed his presence, loneliness was

his best companion, even back then. As a child, belonging to the only black family in the

area, his father always reminded him about not befriending white people, an advice that

he had not understood at that time, but which had proved itself to be useful in the years to

come. Now, as the only black man on the ranch, he resents the unfair social norms that

require him to sleep alone in the stable. Feeling weak and vulnerable himself, Crooks

cruelly suggests that George might never return from town.

He enjoys torturing Lennie, until Lennie becomes angry and threatens Crooks,

demanding to know “Who hurt George?” Crooks hastily backs down, promising that

George will come back, and begins to talk about his childhood again, which returns

Lennie to his dreams of owning the farm. Crooks bitterly says that every ranch-hand has

the same dream. He adds that he has seen countless men go on about the same piece of

land, but nothing ever comes of it. A little piece of land, Crooks claims, is as hard to find

as heaven.

Candy eventually joins them, entering Crooks’s room for the first time in all of

the years they have worked together. Both men are uncomfortable at first but Candy is

respectful and Crooks pleased to have more company. Candy talks to Lennie about

raising rabbits on the farm. He has been busy calculating numbers and thinks he knows

how the farm can make some money with rabbits. Crooks continues to belittle their

dream until Candy insists that they already have the land picked out and nearly all the

money they’ll need to buy it. This news piques the black man’s interest. Shyly, Crooks

suggests that maybe they could take him along with them. But Curley’s wife appears and

interrupts the men’s daydreaming.

Curley’s wife asks about her husband, then says she knows that the men went to a

brothel, cruelly observing that “they left all the weak ones here.” Crooks and Candy tell

her to go away, but instead she starts talking about her loneliness and her unhappy

marriage. Candy insists that she leave and says proudly that even if she got them fired,

they could go off and buy their own place to live. Curley’s wife laughs at him, then

14

bitterly complains about her life with Curley. She sums up her situation, admitting that

she feels pathetic to want company so desperately that she is willing to talk to the likes of

Crooks, Candy, and Lennie. She asks what happened to her husband’s hand, and does not

believe the men when they insist that he got it caught in a machine. She teases Lennie

about the bruises on his face, deducing that he got injured in the scuffle with Curley.

Fed up, Crooks insists that she leave before he tells the boss about her wicked

ways, and she responds by asking if he knows what she can do to him if he says anything.

The implication is clear that she could easily have him lynched, and he cowers. Candy

says that he hears the men coming back, which finally makes her leave, but not before

she tells Lennie that she is glad he beat her husband. George appears, and criticizes

Candy for talking about their farm in front of other people. As the white men leave

Crooks, he changes his mind about going to the farm with them, calling out, “I wouldn’

want to go no place like that.”

b) Analysis

This section introduces the character of Crooks, who has previously only made a

brief appearance. Like the other men in the novella, Crooks is a lonely figure. Like

Candy, a physical disability sets him apart from the other workers, and makes him worry

that he will soon wear out his usefulness on the ranch. Crooks’s isolation is compounded

by the fact that, as a black man, he is relegated to sleep in a room in the stables; he is not

allowed in the white ranch-hands’ quarters and not invited to play cards or visit brothels

with them. He feels this isolation keenly and has an understandably bitter reaction to it.

The character of Crooks is an authorial achievement on several levels. First,

Crooks broadens the social significance of the story by offering race as another context

by which to understand Steinbeck’s central thesis. The reader has already witnessed how

the world conspires to crush men who are debilitated by physical or mental infirmities.

With Crooks, the same unjust, predatory rules hold true for people based on the color of

their skin. Crooks’s race is the only weapon Curley’s wife needs to render him

completely powerless. When she suggests that she could have him lynched, he can mount

no defense. The second point to note about Crooks’s character is that he is less of an

easily categorized type than the characters that surround him. Lennie might be a bit too

15

innocent and Curley a bit too antagonistic for the reader to believe in them as real,

complex human beings.

Crooks, on the other hand, exhibits an ambivalence that makes him one of the

more complicated and believably human characters in the novella. He is able to condemn

Lennie’s talk of the farm as foolishness, but becomes seduced by it nonetheless.

Furthermore, bitter as he is about his exclusion from the other men, Crooks feels grateful

for Lennie’s company. When Candy, too, enters Crooks’s room, it is “difficult for Crooks

to conceal his pleasure with anger.” Yet, as much as he craves companionship, he cannot

help himself from lashing out at Lennie with unkind suggestions that George has been

hurt and will not return.

Crooks’s behavior serves to further the reader’s understanding of the predatory

nature of the ranch-hands’ world. Not only will the strong attack the weak but the weak

will attack the weaker. In a better world, Crooks, Lennie, and even Curley’s wife might

have formed an alliance, wherein the various attributes for which society punishes them

—being black, being mentally disabled, and being female, respectively—would bring

them together. On the ranch, however, they are pitted against one another. Crooks berates

Lennie until Lennie threatens to do him physical harm; Crooks accuses Curley’s wife of

being a tramp; and she, in turn, threatens to have him lynched. As she stands in the

doorway to Crooks’s room looking over at the men, she draws attention to their

weaknesses.

Deriding them as “a nigger an’ a dum-dum and a lousy ol’ sheep,” she viciously

but accurately lays bare the perceptions by which they are ostracized by society. Like

Crooks, Curley’s wife displays a heartbreaking vulnerability in this scene, readily and

shamelessly confessing her loneliness and her unhappy marriage. But because she is as

pathetic as the men who sit before her, she seeks out the sources of their weakness and

attacks them.

Chapter 5

a) Summary

During a Sunday afternoon, as Lennie stands alone in the barn, mourning the

death of his puppy, wondering why it died, since it “ain’t so little as mice”. Worrying that

16

George will be angry and will not let him raise the rabbits on their farm, he starts to bury

it in the hay. He decides to tell George that he found it dead but then realizes that George

will see through this lie. Frustrated, he curses the dog for dying and hurls it across the

room. Soon, though, Lennie retrieves the puppy, strokes it again, and reasons that perhaps

George won’t care, since the puppy meant nothing to George.

As he talks to himself, Curley’s wife enters and sits beside him. He hastily hides

the puppy and tells her that George ordered him not to speak to her. She reassures him

that it is safe for him to talk to her, pointing out that the other men are occupied with a

horseshoe tournament outside and will not interrupt them. She discovers the puppy and

consoles him about its death, declaring that “the whole country is fulla mutts.” She then

complains about her loneliness and the cold treatment she gets from the ranch-hands. She

tells Lennie about her dreams of living a different life. She reveals that her mother denied

her the opportunity to join a traveling show when she was fifteen and then, years later, a

talent scout spotted her and promised to take her to Hollywood to become a movie star.

When nothing came of it, she decided to marry Curley, whom she dislikes.

Lennie continues to talk about his rabbits, and she asks him why he likes animals

so much. Lennie replies that he likes to touch soft things with his fingers. She admits that

she likes the same thing, and offers to let him stroke her hair. She warns him not to “muss

it,” but he quickly becomes excited and holds on too tight, frightening her. When she

cries out, Lennie panics and clamps his strong hands over her mouth to silence her. The

more she struggles, the tighter his grip becomes, and he shakes her until her body goes

limp. Lennie has broken her neck.

The barn goes still as Lennie realizes what he has done. He tries to bury Curley’s

wife in the hay, worrying chiefly that George will be angry with him. Taking the puppy’s

body with him, he flees toward the meeting place that George designates at the book’s

opening—the clearing in the woods. Candy comes looking for Lennie and finds the body.

He calls George, who realizes immediately what has happened. George expresses the

hope that maybe Lennie will just be locked up and still be treated well, but Candy tells

him that Curley is sure to have Lennie lynched. Candy asks George if the two of them

can still buy the farm, but sees from George’s face that the idea is now impossible.

17

George says quietly that he thinks he knew all along that it would never happen, but

because Lennie liked the idea so much, he had started to believe it himself.

George worries that the other men will think that he had something to do with the death

of Curley’s wife, so he instructs Candy how to inform them. George will pretend that he

has not seen the body and act surprised when Candy delivers the news. George exits, and

Candy curses Curley’s wife for destroying their dream of a farm. After a few moments,

his eyes full of tears, he goes to alert the rest of the ranch. A crowd soon gathers. George

comes in last, with his coat buttoned up. Curley demands that they find Lennie and kill

him. Carlson reports that his gun is missing, and assumes that Lennie must have taken it.

Curley orders them to fetch Crooks’s shotgun, and the mob sets off after Lennie.

b) Analysis

The scene in the barn begins ominously, with Lennie holding his puppy, now

dead, and stroking it in the same way he stroked the dead mouse at the beginning of the

work. All sense of optimism for the farm or the freedom the men would have on it

dissolves now that Lennie’s unwittingly dangerous nature has reasserted itself. When

Curley’s wife appears and insists on talking with Lennie, the reader senses that something

tragic is about to ensue.

Perhaps the most significant development in this chapter is Steinbeck’s depiction

of Curley’s wife. Before this episode, the reader might dismiss her as easily as George

does. She shows herself to be a flirt, a conscious temptress, and a manipulator. However,

in the final moments before her death, Steinbeck presents his sole female character

sympathetically. Her loneliness becomes the focus of this scene, as she admits that she

too has an idea of paradise that circumstances have denied her. Her dream of being a

movie star is not unlike George’s fantasy of the farm; both are desperately held views of

the way life should be, which have long persisted despite their conflict with reality.10

Curley’s wife seems to sense, like Crooks (who notes earlier that Lennie is a good

man to talk to), that because Lennie doesn’t understand things, a person can say almost

anything to him. She confesses her unhappiness in her marriage, her lonely life, and her

broken dreams in “a passion of communication.” Unfortunately, she fails to see the

danger in Lennie, and her attempt to console him for the loss of his puppy by letting him

18

stroke her hair leads to her tragic death. One might take issue with Steinbeck’s

description of her corpse, for only in her death does he grant her any semblance of virtue.

Once she lies lifeless on the hay, Steinbeck writes that all the marks of an unhappy life

have disappeared from her face, leaving her looking “pretty and simple . . . sweet and

young.” The story has spent considerable time maligning women, and much has

been made of their troublesome and seductive natures. It is disturbing, then, that

Steinbeck seems to subtly imply that the only way for a woman to overcome that nature

and restore her lost innocence is through death.

Lennie’s flight from the barn shifts the focus of the narrative to George. As

George realizes what Lennie has done, the painful mission that he must undertake

becomes clear to him. Here, as in the earlier scene with Candy’s dog, Slim becomes the

voice of reason, pointing out that the best option for Lennie now is for him to be killed.

George understands that he has a choice: either he can watch his friend be murdered by

Curley’s lynch mob or he can do the deed himself. With this realization, the idea of the

farm and the good life it represents disappears. Candy clings to that idealized hope,

asking George if they can still buy the farm, but George’s response is among the most

insightful and realistic responses in the novella. There is no room for dreaming in such a

difficult and inhospitable world.

Chapter 6

a) Summary

In the same riverbed where the story began, it is a beautiful, serene late afternoon.

A heron stands in a shaded green pool, eating water snakes that glide between its legs.

Lennie comes stealing through the undergrowth and kneels by the water to drink. He is

proud of himself for remembering to come here to wait for George, but soon has two

unpleasant visions. His Aunt Clara appears “from out of Lennie’s head” and berates him,

speaking in Lennie’s own voice, for not listening to George, for getting himself into

trouble, and for causing so many problems for his only friend. Then a gigantic rabbit

appears to him, also speaking in Lennie’s own voice, and tells him that George will

probably beat him and abandon him. Just then, George appears. He is uncommonly quiet

and listless. He does not berate Lennie. Even when Lennie himself insists on it, George’s

19

tirade is unconvincing and scripted. He repeats his usual words of reproach without

emotion. Lennie makes his usual offer to go away and live in a cave, and George tells

him to stay, making Lennie feel comforted and hopeful.

Lennie asks him to tell the story of their farm, and George begins, talking about

how most men drift along, without any companions, but he and Lennie have one another.

The noises of men in the woods come closer, and George tells Lennie to take off his hat

and look across the river while he describes their farm. He tells Lennie about the rabbits,

and promises that nobody will ever be mean to him again. “Le’s do it now,” Lennie says.

“Le’s get that place now.” George agrees. He raises Carlson’s gun, which he has removed

from his jacket, and shoots Lennie in the back of the head. As Lennie falls to the ground

and becomes still, George tosses the gun away and sits down on the riverbank.

The sound of the shot brings the lynch party running to the clearing. Carlson

questions George, who lets them believe that he wrestled the gun from Lennie and shot

him with it. Only Slim understands what really happened: “You hadda, George. I swear

you hadda,” he tells him. Slim leads George, who is numb with grief, away from the

scene, while Carlson and Curley watch incredulously, wondering what is “eatin’ them

two guys.”

b) Analysis

The scene begins with an idyllic description of a splendid twilight in the forest’s

clearing, by the river. The author creates the impression of repeating the details used in

the descriptive paragraphs from the beginning of the novella, but it is only an illusion, as

the place’s beauty is now shadowed by the characters’ suffering. In order to illustrate the

cruel, predator world, and the tragic end of those that let their guard down, the author

gives the example of an unsuspecting snake, snatched out of the river by a large heron.

Death does not give second chances to those unaware; this seems to be Steinbeck’s

message. The snake’s death, which is followed by Lennie’s arrival at the clearing, seems

to foretell the character’s unforgiving fate.

George and Lennie’s final scene is filled with sorrow, in spite of Lennie’s

unassuming ignorance, which lasts until the very end. As a last act of friendship, George

coaxes a scared, stricken by guilt Lennie into believing that things will go back to their

normal course, and forces himself to participate one more time into their ritual of

20

chastisement and forgiveness. George pretends to be angry, only to create the context of

“forgiving” his friend and telling him, afterwards, the story of their farm. This one last

image of the farm they have hoped to own one day represents a surrender of George’s

illusions. The dream begins to crumble in George’s mind as soon as he realizes that all

the plans he has believed in will lead to nothing. He bitterly realizes that he is just one

more migrant laborer among many others, who, like him, will never gain enough to

afford more than the expense of a drink, or of a paid woman, now and then. George’s

hope of a different life perishes along with Lennie, the one that had given his life a

purpose and conferred him distinction among the crowd of ordinary men. The depressed

tone in which the novella ends insinuates that a world full of ruthlessness and unfairness

leaves no place for dreams.

To the men arriving later at the riverbank, Lennie’s death is seen as an act of

justice upon a lunatic who had murdered a defenseless woman. Slim is the only one that

is able to comprehend George’s pain and tries to provide some comfort, guiding him

away from the scene, under the bewildered expressions of Curley and Carlson, whose

ignorance impedes them from understanding the mourning of a friendship as unique and

as strong as George and Lennie’s.

4) Characters

George: George is the story's main protagonist, a small, quick man with well-

defined features. A migrant ranch worker, George dreams of one day saving enough

money to buy his own place and be his own boss, living off of the land. The hindrance to

his objective is his mentally handicapped companion, Lennie, with whom he has traveled

and worked since Lennie's Aunt Clara, whom George knew, died. The majority of

George's energy is devoted to looking after Lennie, whose blunders prevent George from

working toward his dream, or even living the life of a normal rancher. Thus, George's

conflict arises in Lennie, to whom he has the ties of long-time companionship that he so

often yearns to break in order to live the life of which he dreams. This tension strains

George into demonstrating various emotions, ranging from anger to patience to sadness

to pride and to hope.

21

Lennie: George's companion, the source of the novel's conflict. Lennie,

enormous, ungainly, and mentally slow, is George's polar opposite both mentally and

physically. Lennie's ignorance and innocence and helplessness, his childish actions, such

as his desire to pet soft things, contrast his physical bulk, making him likeable to readers.

Although devoid of cruel intentions, Lennie's stupidity and carelessness cause him to

unwittingly harm animals and people, which creates trouble for both him and George.

Lennie is tirelessly devoted to George and delights in hearing him tell of the dream of

having a farm, but he does not desire the dream of the American worker in the same way

that George does. His understanding of George's dream is more childish and he grows

excited at the possibility of tending the future rabbits, most likely because it will afford

him a chance to pet their soft hides as much as he wishes. Nevertheless, a dream is a

dream, different for everyone, and George and Lennie share the similar attribute of

desiring what they haven't got. Lennie, however, is helpless to attain his dream, and

remains a static character throughout, relying on George to fuel is hope and save him

from trouble.

Candy: The old, one-handed swamper who is the first to befriend George and

Lennie at Soledad. Humble and weary, Candy seems to be at the end of his line after

Carlson shoots his last possession and companion, his old, blind dog. "When they can me

here I wisht somebody'd shoot me", Candy confesses to George and Lennie, hoping for a

similar fate as his dog. But when he overhears the two talking of their little place, Candy

offers all his money and his meager services to be in on the dream. His substantial sum of

money and the fact that he knows of a place make it impossible for George to refuse him.

Candy clings to this hope of a future as a drowning man would to a piece of driftwood. It

rekindles life within him, but it also becomes an obsession, and in his excitement and

indignation, he lets the secret slip to both Crooks and Curley's wife. And when Lennie

kills Curley's wife and shatters the reality of the dream, Candy becomes hopeless and full

of anguish, the broken shell of a man.

Curley: The boxer, the son of the boss, the angry and hot-headed obstacle to

George's attempt to keep Lennie out of trouble at Soledad. Insecure of his size and over-

22

protective of his wife, Curley is eager to fight anyone he perceives as a threat to his self-

image. From the outset, Lennie unwittingly incurs Curley's antagonism simply because of

his size, and the reader immediately braces for future confrontation. Curley remains

undeveloped, forever little and forever mean, poking his head in at various points in the

novel, either to look for his wife or to stir up trouble on account of her.

Curley's Wife: Nameless and flirtatious, Curley's wife is perceived by Candy to

be the cause of all that goes wrong at Soledad: "Ever'body knowed you'd mess things up.

You wasn't no good", he says to her dead body in his grief. The workers, George

included, see her as having "the eye" for every guy on the ranch, and they cite this as the

reason for Curley's insecurity and hot-headed temperament. But Curley's wife adds

complexity to her own characterization, confessing to Lennie that she dislikes Curley

because he is angry all the time and saying that she comes around because she is lonely

and just wants someone with whom to talk. Like George and Lennie, she once had a

dream of becoming an actress and living in Hollywood, but it went unrealized, leaving

her full of self-pity, married to an angry man, living on a ranch without friends, and

viewed as a trouble-maker by everyone.

Crooks: Called such because of a crooked spine, Steinbeck does not develop

Crooks, the Negro stable buck, until the fourth chapter, describing him as a "proud, aloof

man. He kept his distance and demanded that other people keep theirs". Crooks is bitter,

indignant, angry, and ultimately frustrated by his helplessness as a black man in a racist

culture. Wise and observant, Crooks listens to Lennie's talk of the dream of the farm with

cynicism. Although tempted by Candy, Lennie, and George's plan to buy their own place,

Crooks is constantly reminded (in this case by Curley's wife) that he is inferior to whites

and, out of pride, he refuses to take part in their future farm.

Slim: The tall, jerkline skinner whom Steinbeck describes as something of a

living legend: "he moved with a majesty only achieved by royalty and master craftsmen.

He was a jerkline skinner, the prince of the ranch, capable of driving ten, sixteen, even

twenty mules with a single line to the leaders. He was capable of killing a fly on the

23

wheeler's butt with a bull whip without touching the mule. There was gravity in his

manner and a quiet so profound that all talk stopped when he spoke. . . His hatchet face

was ageless. He might have been thirty-fice or fifty. HIs ear heard more than was said to

him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond

thought". Slim lingers in the shadow of his overwhelming description throughout the

novel. He serves as the fearless, decision-maker when conflicts arise among the workers

and wins the confidence of George, offering advice, comfort, and quiet words of wisdom.

5) Major themes

Loneliness of the itinerant worker

If one theme can be thought of as defining the plot and symbolism of Of Mice and

Men, that theme is loneliness. In many ways, from the outspoken to the subtle (such as

Steinbeck's decision to set the novel near Soledad, California, a town name that means

"solitude" in Spanish), the presence of loneliness defines the actions of the diverse

characters in the book.

The itinerant farm worker of the Great Depression found it nearly impossible to

establish a fixed home. These men were forced to wander from ranch to ranch seeking

temporary employment, to live in bunk houses with strangers, and to suffer the abuses of

arbitrary bosses. George sums up the misery of this situation at several points during his

monologues to Lennie - "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the

world. They got no family. They don't belong no place".

Of course, as George's monologue puts it, "With [George and Lennie] it ain't like

that." He and Lennie have found companionship; they watch out for one another. And

beyond that, they have a dream of finding a fixed place they could call home, a farm of

their own. They are doing what they can to resist sinking into miserable loneliness, which

seems to be the lot of so many other itinerant workers.

This dream, of course, does not come to fruition, and indeed Steinbeck seems to

have designed his bleak world to preclude the possibility of escape from the cycles of

24

loneliness and hollow companionship (whether found in drink, in prostitutes, in

gambling) that come with financial hardship and dislocation.

Loneliness at home

And it's not just the workers - most of the characters in Of Mice and Men exhibit

signs of desperate isolation, including those who can be said to have settled into a

permanent situation.

Candy, the only other character (aside from Lennie and George) who has an

unconditional love for a fellow creature (in Candy's case, his old and feeble dog), is left

utterly bereft when Carlson takes his dog out back and shoots it. Candy's immediate

attachment to George and Lennie's plan to settle on a farm of their own can be seen as a

natural emotional progression following his loss - he looks for new companionship, now

that he has lost his poor dog.

Of the other characters, Crooks and Curley's wife also show signs of desperate

loneliness, though they respond quite differently. Each is isolated because of special

mistreatment. Because Crooks is black, he is shunned by the other men; as we see at the

beginning of Chapter Four, he spends his time in his room, alone and bitter. Curley's wife

also spends her days hounded by her mean-spirited husband; her attempts to reach out to

the other men backfire and win her the (not undeserved) reputation of a flirt.

Both characters, despite their hard and bitter shells, reveal a desire to overcome their

loneliness and win friends. Their efforts hinge on Lennie, whose feeble-mindedness

renders him unaware of the social stigmas attached to the two. Of course both episodes -

Lennie's visit with Crooks in Chapter Four and his talk with Curley's wife in Chapter Five

- end (respectively) in bitterness and tragedy. Thus Steinbeck further reinforces the

bleakness of life in his fictional world. The one man who could serve as a nonjudgmental

companion cannot coexist safely with others.

25

Alienation from nature

One of the driving forces of discontent in Of Mice and Men, and of Lennie and

George's dream of securing a farm, is the alienation of the working man from the land.

Itinerant workers only fulfill one step in the long chain of tasks leading from planting to

harvest - they seed the earth, or they haul in the crop, and then they move on, never

establishing a connection with the cycles of the natural world.

George and Lennie's dream of "a few acres" addresses this alienation. They speak

of their dream in terms of planting and gardening - they are eager to perform the tasks

necessary to live off the land. Their talk about raising cows and drinking their milk, about

planting and tending a vegetable garden, contrasts starkly with their actual diet - cans of

beans with (if they're lucky) ketchup.

The concept of alienation from nature owes much to the writings of Karl Marx,

Friedrich Engels and other communist thinkers. They argued that the rise of industrial

economy corresponds to a loss of contact with the natural processes of life. Where a

human being was once connected, like the animal he is, to the whole of life (the

production of food, shelter, clothing, etc.), in an industrialized world he is reduced to a

simple role (lift this hay, sew this hem, rivet this bolt a thousand times) in a larger,

bureaucratically-managed workforce. This state of alienation, according to Marx, can fuel

a discontent among the workers that leads to revolution. Steinbeck allows us to glimpse

at a general malaise that might lead to a "soft revolution" of sorts in Chapter Four, when

the outcasts of the ranch fantasize about starting their ranch together. As with most things

in this tragic novel, their dreaming comes to naught.

"The Rabbits"

During the novel's opening and closing chapters, Steinbeck describes the activity

of the natural world. These passages are rich and interpretable in many directions: it's

worth singling out the first of the novel's many allusions to rabbits. Steinbeck writes that

the rabbits happily "sit on the sand," and are then disturbed by the arrival of George and

Lennie - they "hurr[y] noiselessly for cover". Not until later does this little detail take on

a richer significance - rabbits, we learn, represent for Lennie (and George, to a lesser

extent) the dream of obtaining a farm of their own and living "off the fatta the lan'".

26

The scattering of the rabbits at the beginning suggests already that this dream will prove

elusive.

Because Lennie thinks in concrete terms of his own pleasure, he equates the

tending of rabbits - whose soft fur he wishes to pet - with the attainment of utter

happiness. Thus he has developed a shorthand for referring to the plan George and he

share to start a farm of their own - "I remember about the rabbits". Lennie takes deep

pride in the notion that he would be entrusted to raise the rabbits, to protect them, to feed

them out of their alfalfa patch. He places the entirety of his future happiness on this one

image of caring for rabbits.

This dream of the rabbits becomes literally a dream at the end of the novel, when

Lennie hallucinates a giant rabbit who tells him that he will never be allowed to tend

rabbits. This highlights the extent to which Lennie bases his entire life around the goal of

tending rabbits. Indeed, his only thought after doing something "bad" - whether killing a

puppy or killing Curley's wife, all "bad things" seem roughly equivalent in Lennie's mind

- is that George will not allow him to tend the rabbits. The manner in which he fails to see

his actions in terms of good and evil, and instead views them as good or bad insofar as

they are conducive to his ability to pet rabbits, reveals definitively how unfit Lennie is for

society.

Women

Of Mice and Men depicts very few women - which shouldn't be surprising

considering the characters with whom the novel is concerned. These itinerant laborers

don't have an opportunity to settle down with women in mutually respectful relationships,

it seems. Instead, they seek the company of prostitutes for "a flop" on the weekends and

make due otherwise.

However their attitudes toward women may be tied to their dissatisfying life, the

views expressed on the subject have every reason to give the modern reader pause.

George expresses respect for only two sorts of women in the novel - on the one hand, the

maternal figure represented by Aunt Clara, whose charge to take care of Lennie he has

taken on as a responsibility; on the other hand, George respects prostitutes. He says,

27

"Give me a good whore house every time". George likes how straight-forward the

arrangement at a house of prostitution is.

The one major female character in the novel, who is not even given a name of her

own, does not fit neatly into either category. She is a domestic figure - after all, she is

married to Curley and spends most of her time at home - and, at the same time, a

flirtatious, highly sexualized figure. Her status, between domesticity and prostitution,

makes her extremely problematic in the novel, a source of anxiety and unrest. She leads

to trouble, as George immediately observes she will.

A reader might raise an eyebrow at Steinbeck's simple willingness to pin the role

of trouble-maker on one unnamed woman. Curley's wife is regularly used as a scapegoat

in the novel. She is blamed for the lustful feelings she inspires. Even after she has been

tragically killed, Candy shouts misogynist insults at her corpse. Curley's wife's life,

clearly, is miserable, yet we are not encouraged to see things from her perspective. Even

when she expresses her miserable loneliness, these episodes are followed by instances of

manipulation, of threatening. Her death is hardly poignant - and indeed, her corpse is

praised more in death than she was in life. The reader has every reason to question

Steinbeck's motives in giving us such an unsympathetic view of this woman - and, by

association, women in general.

"Handiness" in violence and sex

One of the ways that Steinbeck creates such depth in his novels is that he

associates certain images with multiple interpretive dimensions. For instance, "the

rabbits" captures Lennie's innocent love of tactile stimulation, his participation in

George's dream of establishing a farm of their own, and the threat of his daunting

strength. Every cuddly thing he's touched, after all, has died - just as the dream of the

rabbits dies.

Another such image, though perhaps less obvious, is that of hands. Steinbeck

speaks of hands regularly in Of Mice and Men, most often associating them with the

common dualism of sex and violence. The image hinges on the character of Curley - a

man both outspokenly pugnacious and lecherous. In the description immediately

following Curley's first entrance, he is described as "handy". The term, in this first

28

context, makes reference to his eagerness and ability to fight. He is handy with his fists,

so to speak. Later in the same conversation we hear of a second association with Curley's

hands. Candy says that he wears one glove "fulla vaseline" and adds, "Curley says he's

keepin' that hand soft for his wife". Thus Curley's hands are tied to sex as well as

violence. He fights with the one hand and keeps the other hand soft.

Thus, with this association in place, it's clear why Curley is so humiliated

following his fight with Lennie. Lennie crushes his hand, which thus symbolizes not only

his loss in terms of fighting ability, but also in terms of sexual power. Lennie proves the

better man in both senses. The defeat is thus a symbolic castration of sorts. This

symbolism is reinforced when Curley's wife appears to find the big man's defeat of her

husband alluring - "I like machines". Of course, Lennie has no idea that he is causing

such problems in the realms of sex and violence - he cannot understand these concepts

himself. But this only reinforces the sense that such a dangerous, potent, unreflective man

cannot continue to operate in the company of others.

Meanness

In the action and language of the novel, Steinbeck explores some of the multiple

meanings embedded in the idea of "meanness." First, the word captures the most obvious

definition of the term - a "mean" person is, like Curley, petulant, nasty, bullying. Both

George and Lennie express their distaste for this sort of man. George says that he "don't

like mean little guys". Curley's relish for violence and his constant urge to pick fights

contrasts directly with Lennie's comparatively "innocent" violence. After Lennie

accidentally kills Curley's wife and buries her in the hay, George notes that Lennie "never

done it in meanness". Lennie kills out of cuddling, or blind panic. He loves things to

death.

A second resonance in the concept of meanness has to do with Lennie and

Curley's respective sizes - Curley is a "mean little guy." The word "mean" can also refer

to the average, the petty, the small. Curley, in other words, is small not in size alone, but

also in his petty actions. He is of average size and terribly anxious about that. Thus he,

the mean one, takes out his frustrations on Lennie, who is anything but average.

29

Finally, the word captures a related third meaning - that of intentionality. Curley

(and others) act with meaning. When Curley gets into a fight, he means to get into a fight.

His violence is premeditated and calculating. In contrast, Lennie does not really know

how to mean to do anything. He is, in this sense, a character without personal meaning.

He cannot think ahead, nor can he learn from his past actions - he is stuck in a constant

present (with the childish exception of the dream of the rabbits), petting pretty things as

he finds them and obeying orders as he receives them. This third resonance is captured

when George tells Lennie not to play with his puppy too much. Lennie replies, "I didn't

mean no harm, George. Honest I didn't. I jus' wanted to pet'um a little". Lennie never

means to be mean - he never means much at all. This, however, renders him all the more

dangerous, given his crushing strength.

Social fitness

One concept that Steinbeck clearly borrows from biology is that of environmental

fitness. His characters can be described as fit or unfit for their social roles on the basis of

their physical and intellectual abilities.

Candy, for instance, is an aged and hunchbacked man who is thus relegated to a

low place in the social hierarchy - he is a swamper. (In contrast, Slim, the most respected

and impressive worker on the ranch, is described as "ageless.") Similarly to Candy,

Crooks - named for his crooked back - works menial tasks. The relegation of these men

to such unrewarding jobs may be cruel, Steinbeck suggests, but so is life. As long as they

remain isolated and individualized (rather than collective, where they could find power in

numbers), these "sub-par" people are treated disrespectfully.

The same rule applies just as mercilessly to other characters in the novel, animal

and human alike. Candy's old dog, for instance, is judged offensive by the more fit

members of the bunk house society - Slim and Carlson - and so the dog is killed. Candy

can do nothing to stop this; he is weak, and in this world the strong survive. The dog

himself is a symbol of the cruel fate that awaits the feeble. His crime is smelling bad, and

though there are other solutions to this problem - a bath, a new place to sleep - Carlson

insists upon killing him.

30

Lennie, clearly, is not fit to live in society as it exists in Of Mice and Men. His

intellectual weakness parallels Candy's physical weakness. He lacks a basic sense of right

and wrong, fails to control his dangerous physical power, and cannot look after himself.

When, in the end, he is effectively euthanized by George, we see that even his friend and

companion has accepted that Lennie, like Candy's dog, is better off dead. Steinbeck

invites the reader to have a complex emotional response to this bitter truth. After all,

Lennie is quite likable and, when around George, controllable. But this doesn't stop the

inevitable, bleak truth of Steinbeck's Darwinian social world - in which the unfit attract

scorn, rather than sympathy, for their impairments.

6) Quotations

1.” Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no

family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got

somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room

blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail

they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us.”

Toward the end of Chapter 1, before George and Lennie reach the ranch, they

camp for the night in a beautiful clearing and George assures Lennie of their special

relationship. In this passage, George explains their friendship, which forms the heart of

the work. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck idealizes male friendships, suggesting that they

are the most dignified and satisfying way to overcome the loneliness that pervades the

world.

As a self-declared “watchdog” of society, Steinbeck set out to expose and

chronicle the circumstances that cause human suffering. Here, George relates that

loneliness is responsible for much of that suffering, a theory supported by many of the

secondary characters. Later in the narrative, Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife all give

moving speeches about their loneliness and disappointments in life. Human beings, the

book suggests, are at their best when they have someone else to look to for guidance and

protection. George reminds Lennie that they are extremely lucky to have each other since

31

most men do not enjoy this comfort, especially men like George and Lennie, who exist

on the margins of society. Their bond is made to seem especially rare and precious since

the majority of the world does not understand or appreciate it.

At the end, when Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife, Candy does not register

the tragedy of Lennie’s impending death. Instead, he asks if he and George can still

purchase the farm without Lennie. In this environment, in which human life is utterly

disposable, only Slim recognizes that the loss of such a beautiful and powerful friendship

should be mourned.

2. “S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn

thing.” Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. “We’d just go to her,” George

said. “We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘We’ll go to her,’ an’ we would.

Jus’ milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an’ go to her.”

In the middle of Chapter 3, George describes their vision of the farm to Candy. At

first, when Candy overhears George and Lennie discussing the farm they intend to buy,

George is guarded, telling the old man to mind his own business. However, as soon as

Candy offers up his life savings for a down payment on the property, George’s vision of

the farm becomes even more real.

Described in rustic but lyrical language, the farm is the fuel that keeps the men going.

Life is hard for the men on the ranch and yields few rewards, but George, Lennie,

and now Candy go on because they believe that one day they will own their own place.

The appeal of this dream rests in the freedom it symbolizes, its escape from the

backbreaking work and spirit-breaking will of others. It provides comfort from

psychological and even physical turmoil, most obviously for Lennie. For instance, after

Curley beats him, Lennie returns to the idea of tending his rabbits to soothe his pain.

Under their current circumstances, the men must toil to satisfy the boss or his son,

Curley, but they dream of a time when their work will be easy and determined by

themselves only. George’s words describe a timeless, typically American dream of

liberty, self-reliance, and the ability to pursue happiness.

32

3. “A guy sets alone out here at night, maybe readin’ books or thinkin’ or stuff like that.

Sometimes he gets thinkin’, an’ he got nothing to tell him what’s so an’ what ain’t so.

Maybe if he sees somethin’, he don’t know whether it’s right or not. He can’t turn to

some other guy and ast him if he sees it too. He can’t tell. He got nothing to measure by. I

seen things out here. I wasn’t drunk. I don’t know if I was asleep. If some guy was with

me, he could tell me I was asleep, an’ then it would be all right. But I jus’ don’t know.”

Crooks speaks these words to Lennie in Chapter 4, on the night that Lennie visits

Crooks in his room. The old stable-hand admits to the very loneliness that George

describes in the opening pages of the novella. As a black man with a physical handicap,

Crooks is forced to live on the periphery of ranch life. He is not even allowed to enter the

white men’s bunkhouse, or join them in a game of cards. His resentment typically comes

out through his bitter, caustic wit, but in this passage he displays a sad, touching

vulnerability. Crooks’s desire for a friend by whom to “measure” things echoes George’s

earlier description of the life of a migrant worker. Because these men feel such

loneliness, it is not surprising that the promise of a farm of their own and a life filled with

strong, brotherly bonds holds such allure.

4.” I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on

their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a

little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like

heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody

never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.”

In this passage from Chapter 4, after Lennie shares with Crooks his plan to buy a

farm with George and raise rabbits, Crooks tries to deflate Lennie’s hopes. He relates that

“hundreds” of men have passed through the ranch, all of them with dreams similar to

Lennie’s. Not one of them, he emphasizes with bitterness, ever manages to make that

dream come true. Crooks injects the scene with a sense of reality, reminding the reader, if

not the childlike Lennie, that the dream of a farm is, after all, only a dream. This moment

33

establishes Crooks’s character, showing how a lifetime of loneliness and oppression can

manifest as cruelty. It also furthers Steinbeck’s disturbing observation that those who

have strength and power in the world are not the only ones responsible for oppression. As

Crooks shows, even those who are oppressed seek out and attack those who are even

weaker than they.

5.” A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to

side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that

stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head,

and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically.”

The rich imagery with which Steinbeck begins Chapter 6, the powerful

conclusion, evokes the novella’s dominant themes. After killing Curley’s wife, Lennie

returns to the clearing that he and George designate, at the beginning of the book, as a

meeting place should they be separated or run into trouble. Here Steinbeck describes

much of the natural splendor as revealed in the opening pages of the work. The images of

the valley and mountains, the climbing sun, and the shaded pool suggest a natural

paradise, like the Garden of Eden. The reader’s sense of return to a paradise of security

and comfort is furthered by the knowledge that George and Lennie have claimed this

space as a safe haven, a place to which they can return in times of trouble.

This paradise, however, is lost. The snake sliding through the water recalls the

conclusion of the story of Eden, in which the forces of evil appeared as a snake and

caused humanity’s fall from grace. Steinbeck is a master at symbolism, and here he

skillfully employs both the snake and heron to emphasize the predatory nature of the

world and to foreshadow Lennie’s imminent death. The snake that glides through the

waters without harm at the beginning of the story is now unsuspectingly snatched from

the world of the living. Soon, Lennie’s life will be taken from him, and he will be just as

unsuspecting as the snake when the final blow is delivered.

34

III. Conclusion

“Of Mice and Men” is a tale of friendship that triumphs over the odds. But, the

novel is also extremely telling about the society in which it is set. Without becoming

dogmatic or formulaic, the novel examines many of the prejudices at the time: racism,

sexism and prejudice towards those with disabilities. The power of John Steinbeck's

writing is that he treats these issues in purely human terms. He sees society's prejudices

in terms of individual tragedies, and his characters attempts to escape from those

prejudices.

The literary power of “Of Mice and Men” rests firmly on the relationship

between the two central characters, their friendship and their shared dream. These two

men are so very different, but they come together, stay together, and support each other in

a world full of people who are destitute and alone. Their brotherhood and fellowship is an

achievement of enormous humanity.

They sincerely believe in their dream. All they want is a small piece of land that

they can call their own. They want to grow their own crops, and they want to breed

rabbits. That dream cements their relationship and strikes a chord so convincingly for the

reader. George and Lennie's dream is the American dream. Their desires are both very

particular to the 1930's but also universal.

In a way, “Of Mice and Men” is an extremely despondent novel. The novel shows

the dreams of a small group of people and then contrasts these dreams with a reality that

is unreachable, which they cannot achieve. Even though the dream never becomes reality,

Steinbeck does leave us with an optimistic message. George and Lennie do not achieve

their dream, but their friendship stands out as a shining example of how people can live

and love even in a word of alienation and disconnectedness.

35

“Of Mice and Men” is more than a little book about a certain time and place; it

covers friendship and sacrifice, not to mention a healthy dose of the bittersweet futility of

holding onto dreams. Even as Steinbeck was reworking the text as a play script, he was

developing its broader themes and context for his masterwork Grapes of Wrath. “Of Mice

and Men” can be thought of as a sketch for that great painting, though it still stands alone.

For its stark and unflinching observations, this is one of Steinbeck’s best-loved pieces –

and a significant contribution to his Nobel Prize in literature.

IV. Bibliography

Bloom, Harold. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. New York: Chelsea House

Publishers, 1999.

George, Stephen K. The Moral Philosophy of John Steinbeck. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow

Press, Inc., 2005.

Hadella, Charlotte. Of Mice and Men: A Kinship of Powerlessness. New York: Twayne

Publishers, 1995.

Harmon, Robert B. Steinbeck Bibliographies: An Annotated Guide. Metuchen, NJ:

Scarecrow Press, 1987.

Hayashi, Tetsumaro, ed. John Steinbeck: The Years of Greatness, 1936–1939.

Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1993.

Meyer, Michael J. The Betrayal of Brotherhood in the Work of John Steinbeck.

Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.

Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck: A Biography. London: Heinemann, 1994.

St. Pierre, Brian. John Steinbeck, The California Years. San Francisco: Chronicle Books,

1983.

Schultz, Jeffrey. Critical Companion to John Steinbeck: A Literary Reference to His Life

and Work. New York: Checkmark Books, 2005.

Simmonds, Roy S. A Biographical and Critical Introduction of John Steinbeck. Lewiston,

NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000.

Swisher, Clarice, ed. Readings on John Steinbeck. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Of Mice and Men.” SparkNotes.com.

36

Jackson J. Benson. The Short Novels of John Steinbeck. Durham, N.C.: Duke University

Press, 1990.

Harold Bloom. Of Mice and Men: Bloom's Notes. New York: Chelsea House, 1996.

Charlotte Hadella. Of Mice and Men: A Kinship of Powerlessness. Upper Saddle River,

N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1995.

37