Of Mice and Men by John Ernst Steinbeck - review

Authors Avatar

Of Mice and Men

Introduction

        Of Mice and Men was written by John Ernst Steinbeck. This book was published in 1937. This is a tale about an extraordinary friendship between two migrant labourers during the Great Depression who shared the same dream of having their own ranch ‘living on their own land’. They moved on to a new job after they ran away from their previous job in a hurry, following an incident involving the larger of the two men. Here they met new people as well as trouble along their job in the ranch with the boss’ son who greatly dislikes big people, and his wife who likes flirting with the boys a lot. In a fight Lennie tried to defend himself against Curley but he still kept punching Lennie, he decided he had enough so he fought back and when he saw the opportunity he grabbed Curley’s hands and crushed it. He also accidentally killed his wife while stroking her hair in the barn which George was really crossed about and decided to kill him for their own good. The Great Depression occurred during the 1930’s (year when this book was published) when the American Stock Market on Wall Street crashed catastrophically and led to a massive economic depression, which greatly affected America and some parts of the world that resulted to workers migrated all over the country to find jobs. Lennie & George were migrant farm worker who moved from one place to another to find work. They became migrant workers because of the trouble that they caused at their old place, which urged them to get on the run and find a new job. George is small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes (might be a bit worried) and having sharp, strong features Lennie is his complete opposite a huge man, shapeless of face, with large pale eyes, with wide sloping shoulders; and walks heavily dragging his feet a little, like the way a bear drags its paws and with arms hanging loosely. This shows us how animal-like Lennie is.

Join now!

        Workers in the ranch live in a bunk house ‘a long rectangular, building’ which could accommodate up to 8 people in their own bunks. George’s first thoughts about the bunk house was dirty and unhygienic infested with tiny bugs; which came into his mind when he found a small yellow can on the box shelf which was supposed to kill tiny bugs and insects. The bunk house, which they were living in, was quiet big but without privacy as there were no individual rooms, an infested bunk house with an old dog going in and out which we don’t ...

This is a preview of the whole essay