Comparing 'Of Mice And Men And Robert Burns' To A Mouse

In the world of American Literature, very few works leave a great mark among us. Some written works change the world, by creating a new model, a new way to express ourselves or by the way it changes us, making us reflect and think of the choices and environments; these words are woven in a way it will catch our attention, no matter what. These stories will make us reflect and feel the need of change towards society and life. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Robert Burns’ “To A Mouse” are a few of those life-changing works. Robert Burns’ poem, written in 1785, can be reflected in many works through the years, including in Of Mice and Men and it can be seen as their themes can be compared, even if there are differences in the way they express

Steinbeck uses the main protagonists, Lennie and George, to show the codependency one has with another, and how it destroyed them both. As proven in: ““Well, I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place I’d find a cave.”“Yeah? How’d you eat? You ain’t got sense enough to find nothing to eat.”” (Steinbeck 7), Lennie tries to leave George in peace but the latter knows better. Lennie would be the weak one in the relationship as he depends completely on George, who guides him and defends him in any situation. George makes the calls, and Lennie follows. Similarly, Burns uses the mouse to show how powerless they are not only to the manpower, but to the environment. And that is expressed by the farmer, who reflects on that, only to find out he is also powerless to “the power beyond” in the following lines: “An' forward, tho' I canna see, / I guess an' fear! (lines 47-48)” in which he says he cannot see the future, he can only guess and fear it. However, Steinbeck reflects on the struggles of an American in times of the Depression, and how people were powerless during these times of crisis, and even more as people suffer through their own demons; while Burns reflects on how we don’t notice how powerless we really are, as a plague can destroy us, a war can ruin us, or a bad politician can make us struggle and yet we believe we cannot be

However, Robert Burns goes straight to the outcome of the story. “To a Mouse” is an eulogy to a mouse that lost his home from to a farmer who was doing his job, and as seen in “Your small house, too, in ruin!...And bleak December's winds coming, / Both bitter and piercing!” (lines 19-24), the animal won’t have a place to stay during the cold months and lost its protection, its “dream” is now gone. It’s all in the point of view of the farmer, yet it shifts the tone from the death of the mouse’s “dream” to the powerless feeling from the man in his realization. Robert Burns and John Steinbeck share the same idea and the same theme, and the latter was even inspired by the former, as they have a difference of 152 years in between and the title of Steinbeck’s work: Of Mice and Men, is part of one of the lines of the poem: "The best-laid schemes Of Mice and Men often go awry." (lines 39-40) which means that even George and Lennie’s scheme went bad. They both wrote these stories with a purpose of changing the views of society