Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck

Of Mice And Men

"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."

Of Mice and Men is a fairly short tale of a friendship between a caring George and a child minded Lennie. As seen in the quote above even their dress shows the strength of their bond together, despite Lennie taking a submissive role in the friendship. The story starts with George promising Lennie a life of happiness and tranquillity with all the rabbits and puppies he can pet. But the story takes a tragic turn just as their plans of happiness start to come together and their lovely plans aren't followed through.

Because the book is so short and there wasn't much time for Steinbeck to develop his characters very much, but this doesn't have any affect on the novel's impact on the reader. The characters don't need to learn a lesson from it, the story just needs to be told, and Steinbeck does just that. He tells the story, and he does it with strong emotion. So much emotion packed into one little book left me a little shell shocked and stricken.

Lennie's character is by far my favourite, though that may be because he is the most detailed character. He is a large strong man with the mind of a small child. Because of his naivety Lennie often finds himself in trouble and most of the time it is at George's expense. The thing that made me really love Lennie's character is his love for George and his certainty that George will always come back to him and always take care of him, and the irony in this towards the end of the book.

Another character in the book is Curley's unnamed wife, now I don't know if I like or dislike her character but she does make a good point in the book! She talks about how she's kept from her dreams of acting and ends up married to a man she doesn't like, and is kept in a house to wait for him and not to talk to the other men on the ranch. She's lonely being married to Curley and she wants to talk to other people, but the men on the ranch assume she's being a bit promiscuous, when in reality she's lonely and upset and just needs a nice chat. In essence she's a character who doesn't make a large appearance in the book, but does make a good point about feminism and the prejudices against women.

This is a very emotional and easy read and I look forward to reading more of Steinbeck's work, as I think his prose flows nicely and is a great comfort.