Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck’s novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ is one of those books which

make you believe everything that takes place between the covers. Books

like these always remain as classics, because of their very

informative and believable stories. John Steinbeck especially excels

in this, and therefore is the reason I have chosen this book to

describe.

‘Of Mice and Men’, the title of the novel, originates from the poem

‘To a Mouse’, by Robert Burns. It means that no matter what you plan

to do in the future, something will always go wrong. It comes from the

line ‘…the best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men, Gang aft agley’. The

title of the book was originally ‘Something that Happened’, as the

story is about what actually happened, not what should or could happen

(at least to John Steinbeck). This is always at the back of the

readers mind.

During 1919 until 1926 (while Steinbeck was at college), he took up a

few manual, and unskilled jobs, one being where he became a farm

labourer on ranches between King City, and Santa Clara in Northern

California. These experiences seem to have helped Steinbeck create the

setting for his novel (‘Of Mice and Men’). He uses two main settings

throughout the story; Curley’s father’s ranch, and rural California.

Most of the story is set in and around the ranch, which allowed

Steinbeck to contain all of the important events in one place.

Steinbeck has written the novel in third-person, which allows him to

tell the reader each characters point of view. He describes the

setting around the characters in such a way that when the characters

are doing or saying something, you can literally picture it in your

head. He has also made all the characters in the novel talk America...

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... the ranch. He wants to be able to enter the bunkhouse, or play cards

with the other men.

In conclusion, I believe that this book provides a very powerful

impact to the reader, the main reason being because it shows how real

life actually was in America at that time. It tells of how coloured

people were treated differently, how women were looked upon as second

class, and also how cruel real life can actually be. If say, the

ending of the story was altered, where Lennie lived, and everyone

lived happily ever after, you would not be able to appreciate it as

much. The reason being, that life doesn’t always have a happy ending.

Things never turn out the way you want them to. No matter how hard you

try, events occur which can alter your hopes and your dreams. This

book shows the message very loud and clear, and certainly provided a

powerful impact to myself.