Sometimes the significance of the title of a novel is not immediately obvious. I found this to be the case in a novel I have recently read, "Of Mice and Men" written by John Steinbeck. During this essay I will discuss how my initial understanding of the title of this novel changed dramatically after careful study of the text.
             "Of Mice and Men" is a story about two friends who travel together looking for work. George and Lennie have a very strong friendship despite the obvious differences between them. George is a reasonably clever man who is the leader of the two and Lennie has the mental capacity of a child who depends on George for guidance and protection. Throughout the novel the bond that they share is demonstrated immovably. This adds drama to the end of the novel when George is forced to shoot Lennie to save him from a lynch mob because he accidentally killed someone.
             Whilst reading the novel I imagined several reasons for the title of the novel. My first thought was that "Of Mice and Men" had some relation to the fact that throughout the story Lennie had a strange obsession with stroking mice and he always ended up killing them.
             "I'd pet 'em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead - because they was so little."
             However when I finished reading the book I realised that the full significance of the title was something deeper. I was then introduced to this quote.
             "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
             This is a famous quote from the Robert Burns poem "To A Mouse." Roughly translated this means that no matter how much planning and preparation you put into something, your plans often go astray. Everything comes down to fate in the end. I believe that this simple quotation sums up the entire idea of the novel and it is through this that Steinbeck is able to demonstrate his
             ...