Mice And Men

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uppladdat: 2002-11-28
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Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck:

The novel is about to guys, George Milton and Lennie Small, working towards a dream. The story takes place in the late 1930´s and the early 1940´s. The exact location of where the story takes place is in a place south of Soledad in a ranch in the Salinas Valley which is in California.
At the beginning of the novel they get a job working on a farm together. Lennie is slightly retarded and has great physical strength that isn´t too controllable. Lennie relies on George for guidance and help. Rather than them both wasting their earnings on booze and women like other ranch hands, they save their money in hope of raising enough money for a ranch of their own. While working at the new ranch they meet a guy named Candy who wants to jump on their dream, he helps out with the money he has saved and will get. Now their dream seams to be within reach. Before this dream can come true, Lennie kills the wife of the boss´s son. As the novel concludes George has to kill Lennie for his own good. After the death of his friend he abandons his dream by going in to town and spending his money on booze and women.

Lennie is unnaturally large and has a shapeless face. He is a very kind hearted soul and mentally retarded and needs George´s constant attention and care. He has an obsession with anything soft and furry.. But unfortunate he doesn´t know his own strength and keeps accidentally killing the pets. He kills them without really noticing what he has done, until George tells him that he has done something wrong. After being scolded, Lennie is always very remorseful about what he has done. Once, after being yelled at Lennie said, "I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead, because they were so little." (p.13) This shows that Lennie doesn’t know his own strength.

George is small, intelligent, dark of face and has restless eyes. George has always taken care of Lennie. Even when times were rough, George always made sure that Lennie was all right. Although most of the bad events that had taken place were Lennie´s fault, George protected Lennie from people and things that might have caused him harm.
George tells Lennie that he could have a wonderful time without him. Lennie knows this is true. George could do a lot of things that he cannot do without having to watch out for Lennie constantly. He could spend his money in cat houses and in pool parlors. Lennie feels guilty because he thinks that he is holding George back from money and
women. But George still love Lennie with all his heart, and protects him from harm.

The character named Crooks is the crippled negro stable buck, is segregated from the other men because he is black. He´s forced to sleep in a separate bunk, away from the others. Since he is all alone all night; he resorts to books to find companionship. He tries to portray himself as proud and reserved by his own will, but inside he is happy to be around the other men. He wants to be part of George and Lennie´s dream to. He said that he would work for free. He Gives up the farm dream when he realises it isn´t going to work out. He is the only one, beside George, who understands Lennie and befriends him. He looks past Lennie´s mental handicap and Lennie looks past Crook´s physical handicap and colour.

The character named Curley is the boss´s son. A small thin young man with a brown face, with a pair of brown eyes and a head of tightly curled hair. A lightweight fighter who has done quite a bit in the ring. He wears high-heeled boots and spurs to prove he isn´t a labouring man. He believes himself to be superior to everyone. In the book Candy tells George a little about Curley: "’Curley is just like a lot of little guys. He hates big guys. He´s alla time picking scraps with big guys. Kind of like he´s mad at ´em because he ain´t a big guy. You seen little guys like that, ain´t you? Always scrappy?’” (p. 27-28) "’S´pose Curley jumps a big guy an´ licks him. Ever´body says what a game guy Curley is. And s´pose he does the same thing and gets licked, then everybody says the big guy oughtta pick somebody his own size, and maybe they gang up on the big guy.’" (p.28)
George opinion on Curley: "’This guy Curley sounds like a son-of-a-bitch to me, I don´t like mean little guys.’" (28) But Curley sort of almost disappears in the story after he picks a fight with Lennie, and Lennie after a bit of beating crushes Curley´s hand.
The men then threaten Curley so he would tell everybody he caught his hand in a machine.


There isn´t much known about the character referred to as Curley’s wife. She isn´t even given a name but referred to as Curley´s wife. She´s lonely because Curley doesn´t pay much attention to her. This lack of attention forces her to seek it elsewhere. She flirts with the other ranch hands but they pay her no attention either. "Candy laid the stump of his wrist on his knee and rubbed it gently with his hand. He said accusingly: ´You gotta husban´. You got no call foolin´ around with other guys, causin´ trouble.´ The girl flared up.
Sure I gotta husban´. You all seen him. Swell guy, ain´t he? Spends all his time sayin´ what he´s gonna do to guys he don´t like, and he don´t like nobody. Think I´m gonna stay in that two-by-four house and then bring in the ol´ right cross?´" (p. 82).

Candy is an old man who is missing a hand. He doesn´t really have a family and is an outcast, but he has a dog that he had his whole life who has been his family. Carlson who didn´t like it, killed it. Candy gets depressed and out of loneliness, tries to join into George and Lennie´s dream of having a place of their own. Old Candy who was afraid of being alone wanted to have some friends. He offers to give up everything he has so that he won’t end up alone.

You can see a parallel between Candy and his dog, with George and Lennie. To the men in the bunkhouse Candy´s dog is nothing more than a "dragfooted sheep dog, gray of muzzle,... with pale, blind old eyes,"(p. 24) but Candy sees him as a companion and an old friend. And to George, Lennie is more than a "big guy" (p.25) who can´t speak for himself, he’s his friend and companion . On the ranch Lennie is suspected to be of no value because of his lack of intelligence, and Candy´s dog is thought to be of no importance because he has no teeth, can hardly see, can´t eat and stinks. The dog is, "no good to [Candy] you" (p. 44) and he is "no good to himself" (p. 44). After Lennie kills Curley’s wife, he´s no good to George or himself. Carlson´s luger (a gun) which is used to shoot Candy´s dog in the back of the head is also used by George to shoot Lennie in the back of the head. Both Candy´s dog and Lennie are killed out of love. Candy feels that his dog no longer needs to suffer and George never wants Lennie to suffer for a crime he didn´t mean to commit.


I have found 2 main themes in this book; man´s desire to create and seek dreams and man´s desire for companionship.
A person´s will to pursue dreams is expressed through out the book. The most obvious example of this is George and Lennie´s attempt to save enough money to buy their own small farm. The plan is to "live of the fatta the lan´".(p. 14) Never again would they have to work for somebody, nobody would ever boss over them again they would be their own bosses. And off course, Lennie would be able to feed the rabbits. Another example is Candy´s wish to get in on their dream, because he doesn´t want to end up alone.
Man’s wish for friendship is indicated throughout the story.
A good example is Crooks hunger for genuine friendship. Being black, he’s separated from the rest of the men, which off course makes him lonely. "Sure you could play horseshoes till it got dark, but then you got to read books. Books ain´t no good. A guy needs somebody- to be near him." (p. 72) And then there is Curley´s wife who is craving for someone who pays attention to her and spends time with her. She may be married to Curley but he pays little attention to her. So at every chance she gets she tries to talk with somebody, but they mostly ignore her because she´s married to Curley.


Of Mice and Men? Does the book sound good? No, I wouldn’t say so anyhow, but the title doesn’...

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Inactive member [2002-11-28]   Mice And Men
Mimers Brunn [Online]. https://mimersbrunn.se/article?id=1293 [2024-03-29]

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