What reasons may lie behind Steinbeck's decision to call his novel 'of mice and men'?

Of mice and men essay

Essay question: what reasons may lie behind Steinbeck’s decision to call his novella ‘of mice and men’?

Having recently read john Steinbecks internationally respected novella ‘of mice and men’ I have been asked to explain why he may have chosen the title he did, what clever connections there are between the title and the narrative and where the title came form. Firstly here is some relevant researched background information.

John Ernst Steinbeck was born on the 27th February 1902, in Salinas California. He died on the 20th December 1968. He went to a university in California called Stanford University. He studied between 1920 and 1926, but did not wish to take a degree. Steinbeck worked as a manual labourer before he successfully was able to financially support himself with his writings. It was here that he developed a knowledge and love of the natural world and the diverse cultures that figure so prominently in his works. Steinbeck lived with his wife Carol in the family cottage He produced works including The Red Pony, Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men.

The novella ‘of mice and men’ which is a spectacular masterpiece was written in 1937 it also was produced into a film which just shows even more clearly the talent of the great Steinbeck. ‘Of mice and men’ is about two migrant farm labourers who are forced to travel form farm to farm trying to find work in the great American depression of the 1930s. The American depression is a period of time in America where economical value plunged forcing loss of jobs. Due to this jobs became very hard to get, as there simply was not enough money to pay workers. This is a brief synopsis of the plot; there are two main protagonists George a kind dignified and protective man and Lennie who is described as an affectionate giant with an infantile mind. George is Lennie’s friend who looks out for Lennie and protects him form the evil around him as best as he can. There are also two main antagonists Curley who is insecure aggressive and hotheaded character. And then there is the second antagonist Curley’s wife who is an attention seeking flirtatious woman. In the novella we see George and lennie on their way to work on a new ranch. When they get to the ranch many problems face them but they try to get through these as best as they can because they have a dream. A dream that helps them focus and carry on as best as they can, the dream is about having there own land.

The title ‘of mice and men’ comes from a poem by Robert Burns here is quote from the poem.

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men

Gang aft agley (often go wrong)

And leave us nought but grief and pain

For promised joy!

This is a preview of the whole essay

The title ‘of mice and men’ comes from a poem by Robert Burns here is quote from the poem.

The best laid schemes o’ mice and men

Gang aft agley (often go wrong)

And leave us nought but grief and pain

For promised joy!

The quote from the poem above tells us that plans that we make and are thought through with so much time and consideration often go wrong. These then leave us with the bad things instead of optimism with think pessimistic we are unhappy we get grief and trouble and our joy is destroyed. This is true in relation with the book because many of the characters dreams often go wrong to. Pessimistic out looks are a big theme in the novella as there is a lot of lonely characters that are not going nowhere.

To better understand how important the theme of broken dreams is within the book, I will now discuss how different characters within the narrative suffer from disillusionment and dreams that do not come true. Many of these characters grow pessimistic from previous dreams growing wrong. Firstly let us look at lennies and Georges dream there dream was to own a plot of land and for lennie to have different colour rabbits and look after them.

“Live of the fatta of the lan’..an’ have rarabbits”.

Lennie and Georges dream were destroyed painfully and brutally by Lennie’s death. There is also another example of dreams being destroyed as the theme of the title in relation to the poem is broken dreams. When Curley’s wife explains that she could have been in the movies but she was to young.

“coulda been in the movies, an had nice clothes”

But these dreams also were not fulfilled. But George never did give up optimism all the way to the end.

“With us it aint like that we got a future we got somebody to talk to who give a damn”

This is one of my first reasons why Steinbeck decided to call his book ‘of mice and men’ because of the link to the poem and broken dreams

Having discussed how broken dreams touch many of the characters lives and shown evidence to back up my points of view, ill now discuss how the title connects to another key aspect of the book- that of the worlds of humans and animals. Lennie connects to the animal world in unusual ways because many people argue that we are more intelligent and superior compared to animals that are meant to be less superior and intelligent than us. But I believe Steinbeck has masterfully shown us in his novella that there is not much variation. It shows how ghastly we can be towards each other being stereotypical and racial for instance toward Lennie and Crooks. It also shows we are violent and don’t always trust and communicate as good as we should to each other. The men in the ranch marginalize Lennie because he is mentally impaired.

“You’re as crazy as a wedge”

Crooks gets marginalized racially as he is the only coloured person on the ranch is gets called one of the most horrible words you could probably say to a black person ‘nigger’.

“He woulda killed the nigger”

I find this very disgraceful how one human can say this to another. And as for the way curley acts toward the fellow men on the ranch is appalling using violence and bad language because he don’t like the way the person acts or the way the person is especially to lennie who is completely innocent. Just because he is bigger than he is.

“Come on, ya big bastard”

I think he is status conscience as he likes to be at the top everybody obeying him and he feels threatened by Lennie. And he shouldn’t have started a fight with lennie

“Slashed at lennie with left then down at this nose with his right”

In a way I think that the book should be called ‘of mice and men’ as Steinbeck is saying we are no different to animals in many ways because many people on the ranch act like ‘pigs’

To further illustrate the similarities and differences between humans and animals, creative similes are used to show how the characters on the ranch behave like animals sometimes for example many characters see lennie as a beast.