Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men is a testament to the predatory nature of man. It is this darker side of the human spirit which has exiled man from the Garden of Eden, now manifesting itself as the American dream. John Steinbeck shows a world doomed to isolation and loneliness, where the only alleviation from ones suffering is to prey on those weaker than oneself. His story is one of a shattered dream, of pain and suffering rather than the promised plan. The backbone of his novel is the simple eight verse poem “To A Mouse”. Steinbeck lays flesh upon the bones of this poem about a farmer who upturns the nest of a mouse just before the onset of winter.

The book opens by a beautiful riverbed in Southern California, mocking Eden with its serenity and beauty. Two men, George and Lenny, are settling down for the night. They are two seemingly ordinary migrant workers during the winter of the depression. George is a wiry quick witted fellow who watches out for Lenny, a large and awkward man who possesses the mind of only a small child. One soon learns that they possess something quite extraordinary. It is a friendship strong enough to weather this harsh world. On a small ranch nearly void of life, it serves as a beacon of hope for the Americ

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Since the money came from a lump sum he received when losing his hand, he was in a sense sacrificing part of his own body. The creatures Lenny kills slowly scale in magnitude, eventually leading to Curley’s wife. “You know what I can do to you if you open your trap?” In this manner she is using their suffering to make her lowly position more tolerable. At one point she even threatened to have Crooks lynched in order to assert her superiority over him. Just as the mouse was snug in his home, the harsh steel of human nature upturned it. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically. ”

It soon becomes clear that Eden cannot coexist with the nature of mankind. It is then that George realizes what must be done. An aging ranch hand who long ago lost his hand to a machine, Candy’s fears of being discarded by an unforgiving world are greatly exacerbated by this act. Each character George and Lenny meet tells a different version of the same story.

Approximate Word count = 1245
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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