Literary Analysis: Of Mice and Men

1.     Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two migrant workers, George and Lennie, who travel to the Soledad area during the 1930’s. (Lennie is very child-like and has a mild mental disability and a troublesome past, so he must depend on George for guidance and protection; George is a small, quick-witted man who is devoted to protecting his friend Lennie.) When they arrive in Soledad, George and Lennie begin working on a farm in return for small payment and housing. They meet several men on the farm, and are able to befriend all of them except for Curly, the farm owner’s son. Candy, the farm’s oldest worker, has a dog that gives birth to a group of puppies and dies shortly after. He gives Lennie one of the puppies to keep, because he knows that Lennie likes soft things. One night, Lennie slips out to the barn to visit his puppy. Though he only meant to pet it, Lennie accidently crushed it. He freaked out, and Curly’s wife tries to help him. Lennie tries to keep her quiet and accidently kills her, as well. George finds Lennie and tells him to go hide in the woods where they slept before they got to the farm. When the men find out what’s happened they set off to find Lennie and hang him. George is able to get to Lennie first, and shoots him in the back of the head as a final act of kindness/protection for his friend.

2.     There are two major themes to this novel: the importance of friendship/companionship, and the pursuit of the American dream.

At some point in the novella everyone, with the exception of George and Lennie, harbors a feeling of loneliness. All of the workers travel alone; Candy feels broken and alone when his dog (and best friend) is put down;Crooks admits loneliness; even Curly’s wife feels lonely, as suggested by her constant need for attention and reaching out to Lennie. The only two characters who don’t feel that pain are George and Lennie, who have always had each other. This is also shown by the devotion that these two have to each other (mostly George’s dedication to Lennie) and by the astonishment that everyone shows when they learn that George an Lennie travel together. Also, the story is set in a town called Soledad, which means

The second theme, the pursuit of the American dream, pops up frequently throughout the novella, with the most obvious example being George and Lennie’s dream of one day owning a self-sustain, isolated ranch of their own. Candy indulges this dream with the hopes of owning a couple of acres. Even Crooks gets in on it with the hopes of farming a small garden on Lennie’s property. Another example would be Curly’s wife’s secret ambitions. Although she had given herself up to an unhappy marriage, she always dreamt of living a better life as an actress, as she confessed to Lennie just before dying.

3.     The tone changes throughout the novel, but the most notable change is the one from hopeful to hopeless or denial.

Hopeful:

·         “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.”

·         “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.”

            Hopeless:

·         “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.”

4.     Imagery:

·         “They had walked in single file down the path, and even in the open one stayed behind the other. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black, shapeless hats and both carried tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders. The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.”

            Foreshadowing:

·         “ ‘’Course you did. Well, look. Lennie—if you jus’ happen to get in trouble like you always done before, I want you to come right here an’ hide in the brush.’”

            Dramatic Irony:

·         Well, the quote is too long to post, because it contains the entirety of, like, four pages… so I’ll explain it instead. George finds Lennie in the clearing that he told him to hide in. Lennie asks George to tell him about the happy future that they’re going to live together, and he is overcome with joy. George has Lennie remove his hat and look out across the river and image the ranch as George describes it to him. Lennie smiles and is relieved that George isn’t mad at him for killing the puppy and Curly’s wife. George holds a gun to the back of Lennie’s head and does him in before the other men get to him. This is dramatic irony because Lennie is completely oblivious to what’s happening, and the readers would have never guessed that George would be the one to kill Lennie.