Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men
	Recent paperback cover
Author	John Steinbeck
Language	English
Genre	Novella
Publisher	Heinemann
Publication date	1937
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	107
ISBN	0-14-017739-6

Of Mice and Men is a novella by John Steinbeck, first published in 1937, which tells the tragic story of George and Lennie, two displaced Anglo migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression (1929-1939). The story is set on a ranch a few miles from Soledad in the Salinas Valley.

Plot summary

Template:Spoilers Lennie is a large, physically strong man with the mind of a child, and George is a smaller man with quick wit. The men are wandering ranch workers who travel together in search of any available opportunities to earn money. Lennie depends on George as does George on Lennie for all different times in their travels. The ideal objective of most ranch workers is to amass a sizeable fortune and eventually purchase a small farm, and "live offa the fatta the lan'." Lennie is driven to reach this objective by the prospect of "tending the rabbits". However, this goal appears to be nothing more than a distant dream until Candy, another worker on the farm, offers to contribute his savings for a place on the future farm.

While subjected to the loneliness and mediocrity of the life they presently lead, George and Lennie's prospect of their own farm attracts yet another hopeful, Crooks, the African American stable buck, and Candy, the ranch's swamper. Despite their best efforts, however, the dream begins to collapse, completely falling apart when Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife by breaking her neck after he refuses to stop petting her hair, which he says feels like rabbits. He says to himself, "I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing." It was foreshadowed in the beginning of the book, as in the last ranch they worked at, Lennie began to touch a woman's dress, and they were going to be lynched until George hid with Lennie, and later on escaped. After Curley's wife, who is a promiscuous woman with a wandering eye, dies in his arms, Lennie escapes to the river where the story had begun, the place where George advised him to hide should he ever get into trouble (Note the circular ending: it suggests that the workers are trapped in the cycle forever).

To spare Lennie from Curley's revenge, which would entail much pain on Lennie's part, George quickly kills Lennie with a Luger pistol which he had stolen from Carlson earlier. He does this by coaxing Lennie with a description of the dream of their own farm, which captivates his attention and allows George to press the pistol to the back of Lennie's unsuspecting head and shoot him. Slim then takes George for a drink to settle his nerves. The last line of the book is delivered by Carlson, the ranch worker who kills Candy's old dog in a fashion similar to Lennie's killing (foreshadowing his death). He says to Curley, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" reflecting the fact that both characters never learned the value of compassion.

Characters in Of Mice and Men

George Milton – Dark haired, cynical ranch hand. He looks after Lennie and dreams of a better life. George's last name, Milton, is a reference to "Paradise Lost" scribe John Milton. The epic poem's themes and title tie into the themes of "Of Mice And Men"-- man's lost hopes and dreams.
Lennie Small – Travels with George. He is a giant of a man who is unaware of his own strength. His mental deficiency manifests in an obsession to stroke 'soft' materials: this can be understood to represent his need for human contact, which is shown in his obsession with rabbits. George and Lennie are the only characters with both first and last names. There is irony in his last name, as it is "Small" while he is a very big man physically. Lennie is killed by George with a gun in order to be spared Curley's revenge, Lennie having recently killed Curley's wife by accident.
Candy – Is the swamper. He lost a hand while working on the ranch. He owns a very old dog who was shot at the hand of Carlson. He comes at the defense of Crooks when Curley's wife would frame him which would result in Crooks being hanged.
Candy's Dog – He's an very old sheepdog who's very hard to care for because of his age. People complain about him because of the way he smells, and recommended Candy to kill him. People prompted him dead until Candy and Slim agreed upon this, then Carlson shot him (it was painful to both him and his owner, though).
Smitty – He's a skinner who's good at fighting with his feet, just like Curley. The only time he lost a fight was while fighting Crooks during Christmas, due to the no-feet rule that applied due to Crook's "crooked" back.
Curley – An unpleasant curly-haired character. The boss's son. He often picks fights and detests large people; mainly Lennie. During the book he picks a fight with Lennie for no reason. Lennie initially does not defend himself and takes the beating but finally grabs and crushes Curley's hand.
Curley's Wife – A young, pretty woman; sometimes called a "tart" (slut) by the men. She doesn't have a name and is the only woman mentioned on the male-oriented ranch. She often flirts with the ranch men as a cry for attention and secretly hates her husband as he sees her as his trophy. Like George and Lennie she had dreams that were eventually crushed. She is accidentally killed by Lennie.
Slim – The moral yardstick at the ranch. All the other characters respect him, as he has an omniscient and omnipotent presence. Curley suspects he is having an affair with his wife. He helps Lennie from getting fired after the fight with Curley. He is the prince of the ranch. Slim is a jerkline skinner, and can lead mules with little or no effort.
Crooks – The only black person on the ranch. He is discriminated against and has to sleep alone behind the stables. He is possibly the most intelligent man on the ranch. But later we see some of the discrimination wiped away as he plays horseshoes with the other ranch workers (even though he has a crooked back). Crooks judges people his loneliness before he gets to know them.
Carlson – A large and insensitive man. He shoots Candy's dog and doesn't understand emotions such as compassion.
Whit – A young man; enthusiastic about life on the ranch, and is a regular visitor to the brothel.
The Boss – Only appears once. He is Curley's father and runs the ranch.
Aunt Clara – Lennie's previous guardian. Although she never directly appears, she plays a key role (especially after Lennie kills Curley's Wife as a way to deal with the guilt and consequences of his actions). She is the only positive female character in the story.

Chelsea: the girl who knows everything. i would say definitly the best character in this book. Have a good read!

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Film versions

The novel has been made into five films:

A 1939 film, Of Mice and Men starring Lon Chaney Jr. (Lennie) and Burgess Meredith (George), directed by Lewis Milestone

A 1970 TV movie

A Turkish 1975 TV movie

A 1981 TV movie, Of Mice and Men starring Randy Quaid (Lennie) and Robert Blake (George), Ted Neeley (Curley), directed by Reza Badiyi

A 1992 film, Of Mice and Men, starring John Malkovich (Lennie) and Gary Sinise (George), directed by Gary Sinise.

Opera

Carlisle Floyd wrote an opera based on this novel in 1970. The opera features The Ballad Singer, a character who is not found in the book.

Plays

Stage adaptations have also been produced.

The original production was produced by Sam H. Harris, and it opened on November 23rd, 1937, in the Music Box Theatre on Broadway. It ran for 207 performances, and starred Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as Lennie. Also of note, the role of Crooks was performed by Leigh Whipper, the first African-American member of the Actors' Equity Association. Whipper repeated his role in the 1939 film version. It was chosen as Best Play of the 1937-38 season by the New York Drama Critics' Circle. (source: Critics' Prize Plays, World Publishing Company, 1945)

The play was famously revived in a 1974 Broadway production staring Kevin Conway as George and James Earl Jones as Lennie. Noted stage actress Pamela Blair played Curley's Wife in this production.

In the early 1990s, the Steppenwolf Theatre Company mounted a production with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich playing the roles of George and Lennie respectively.

Allusions/references from other works

"Of Mice and Men" is an allusion to the poem "To a Mouse" by Scottish poet, Robert Burns. The poem tells of the regret the narrator feels for having destroyed the home of a mouse who had stolen an ear of corn from his farm. In essence, it tells of how no plan is fool-proof and how one can never truly be prepared for the future, for even the best of plans can go wrong.

Characters similar to George and Lennie have been popular since the publication of Of Mice and Men. Theatrical cartoon shorts of the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons released by Warner Bros., are particularly awash with Of Mice and Men parodies. The Of Mice and Men reference most often in the form of one character asking another, a la, Lennie, "which way did he go, George; which way did he go?" Tex Avery, who worked as a director on Warner-released cartoons during the 1930s and early 1940s, started the trend with Of Fox and Hounds (1940). The formula was so successful that it was utilized again and again in subsequent shorts, notably Robert McKimson's Cat-Tails for Two (1953) and Chuck Jones' The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961). Even Avery himself used it again when he went on to direct several cartoons starring the George and Lennie dopplegangers George and Junior for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the late 1940s. There is at least one Roger Ramjet episode which features a George/Lennie-based duo, the latter with lines like "tell me about the rabbits". The later Warner Bros. cartoon duo Pinky and the Brain are also somewhat similar to Lennie and George, respectively. Pinky and the brain are also mice, an animal Lennie frequently kills.

Another reference appears in the film Gremlins 2. Although it did not arise in the film two of the original mogwai that appear are called Lennie and George by the creators of the film, as they both were designed to physically resemble them.

The title "Of Mice and Men" is popular in scientific journals whenever discrepancies between animal models and human subjects arise. It rarely refers to the contents of Steinbeck's novel.

The-work in-progress names of the Transformers: Cybertron characters Crumplezone and Ransack were Lennie and George, which left an impact on the Japanese naming for the two - Landbullet and Gasket.

In 2006, Something Awful put up a Homestar Runner parody as part of their Flash Tub. In it, Strong Mad's character played the role of Lennie, killing a mouse (played by a miniature The Cheat), then a lady resembling Marzipan. Strong Bad's character, called "Dong Dad," holds up a gun and tells "Stongy" to close his eyes while he tells him about the rabbits.[1]

The title "Of Mice and Women" has also become popular for a variety of topics, from cure for breast cancer (developed with the help of experiments on mice) to female aggression.

In the 5th season of The Shield there is an episode entitled "Of Mice and Lem" foreshadowing events similar to those in the book. in the conclusion of the episode, the main character is dinkholed (hoodwinked) and is robbed.

On the Criterion Collection commentary track for Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy", he makes an allusion to Ben Affleck as being similar to Lennie.

In the Stephen King serial novel The Green Mile, John Coffey (Played by Michael Clarke Duncan in the 1999 film) is similar to Lennie in that he is large, unintelligent and innocent at heart. In both stories, mice fall into their care at some point.

In yet another Stephen King novel The Talisman, George and Lennie's relationship seems to be paralleled by Jack and Wolf's relationship. Wolf also crushes the hand of another character.

Megadeth has a song titled Of Mice and Men in The System Has Failed.

In one episode of the popular sitcom Friends, Joey is playing with a little chicken. Chandler alludes to Of Mice and Men by saying "Easy Lennie" to Joey.

In the Bonus Section of the DVD of March of the Penguins, the section describing the filming is titled Of Penguins and Men.

In an episode of Power Rangers In Space, Cassie is fast-talked into a date with a big guy named Lennie, with help from his smaller, smarter friend George.

In an episode of Lost (TV series), in a flashback, James "Sawyer" Ford is reading the book in a prison. While on the island, Sawyer quotes the book to Ben, an Other. Later, Ben quotes a different passage to Sawyer. After the references, the character who quoted it asked "don't you read?" - as the other character is staring at them, in confusion and disbelief, respectively.

The 2006 show, My Name is Earl, Jason Lee and Ethan Suplee star as brothers, Suplee is a dumb-witted gentle giant and Lee is the small yet wiser one who makes all of the decisions and watches after his brother.

In the 1994 movie In the Army Now starring Pauly Shore (Bones), Jack pleads to Bones just before he thinks he is about to die, "Tell me about the store again," an obvious parallel in both character and phrase to Steinbeck's "Tell me about the rabbits again, George."

In the SpongeBob episode, "Sleepy Time," a book is briefly shown labled "Of Snails and Men," a reference to this book.

In an episode of CSI:NY,of which Gary Sinise stars, a primary suspect is auditioning for the part of George in the play adaptaion of Of Mice and Men.

In the mini Tenacious D movies located on the 'Tenacious D Masterworks' DVD (Episode 3 - Death of A Dream) Jack Black is about to break his guitar but before doing so he faces it towards the mountains and says "Now im going to tell you about the rabbits" in reference to the last scene of 'Of Mice And Men'

In the animated film, Shark Tale, there is a large, absentminded shark named Lennie, who must be watched after by his brother, making some reference to George and Lennie's relationship in "Of Mice and Men"

Controversy

The novel was banned from various American school libraries or curricula in 1993 and 1994 for "promoting euthanasia" but remains required reading in many other American high school and middle school English courses. Also, many students are studying the novel for GCSE English Literature in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, Standard Grade in Scotland and the Leaving Certificate in Ireland. It is also studied in several high schools in Victoria, Australia as part of the leadup to the completion of a VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education). It is a prescribed English text for the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and is studied by Maltese students taking their English A Level or Intermediate Level exams for their Matriculation Certificate.

Because of the novel's content it has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-2000 at number six. [2]

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Trivia

Steinbeck wrote this book, along with The Grapes of Wrath, in what is now Monte Sereno, California, in his home at 16250 Greenwood Lane.

Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's first attempt at writing his form of novel called the play-novelette. He wanted to write a novel that could be played from its lines or a play that could be read like a novel. He considered this work a failure in the sense that it did not accomplish this.

Steinbeck's dog ate an early manuscript of the novel. Apparently it was very different.[3].

The title is taken from the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse".

The original title of the book was Something That Happened.

External links

Of Mice and Men Summary- Free wiki summary of chapters and characters with discussion and essay questions.

www.sparknotes.com a very well writin summary of Of Mice And Men.