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Themes
There are many important themes in this novel including the importance of loyalty and friendship, loneliness, fate, racial intolerance, class conflict, mental disability, idealism and reality.
The title of the novel is taken from Robert Burns’ famous poem written in November 1785 ‘To a Mouse, on turning her up in her nest with the Plough’. The reference comes in the seventh verse, the last two lines of which read:
‘The best laid schemes o’ mice and men
Gang aft a-gley.’
The last line means ‘often go wrong’. Burns and Steinbeck share the same pessimistic views on fate.
In the book, the two main characters, George and Lennie, share a dream. George dreams of a piece of land of his own. Lennie dreams of tending rabbits. We are introduced to them both at the beginning of the book. As the two talk, it becomes clear that Lennie has a mental disability but is deeply devoted to George and dependent upon him for protection. Loneliness is a recurrent theme in the novel. ‘Guys like us,’ George says, ‘that work on the ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place.’ Lennie replies: ‘But not us. And why. Because . . . because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look' after you, and that's why.’ The alternative to the companionship that George and Lennie share is loneliness. George frequently affirms the fraternity between them. ‘He's my . . . cousin,’ George tells the ranch boss. ‘I told his old lady I'd take care of him‘. The boss is suspicious of the bond between George and Lennie, and the other characters in turn also question this friendship: they have simply never seen anything like it. In their world, isolation is the norm. Even Slim, who is usually sympathetic and understanding, expresses surprise. ‘Ain't many guys travel around together. I don't know why. Maybe ever'body in the whole damned world is scared of each other.’
Somewhat related to the theme of loneliness is racism, which also results in personal isolation. Crooks, the old black man on the ranch, lives alone, ostracised by the ranch hands because of his race. The barrier of racial prejudice is briefly broken, however, when Crooks becomes an ally in the dream to buy a farm. Crooks has a cynical honesty that illustrates Steinbeck's own criticism of American society's failures in the Depression era of the 1930s.
Class conflict is another theme in the novel. Although George and Lennie have their dream, they are not in a position to attain it. In addition to their own personal limitations, they are also limited by their position in society. Their idealistic dream is eventually destroyed by an unfeeling, materialistic, modern society. The tensions between the characters are deeply embedded in the nature of American capitalism and its class system. Curley, the son of the ranch owner, is arrogant and always looking for a fight. This is not merely a personality trait. His position in society has encouraged this behavior; his real strength lies not in his fighting ability but in his power to fire any worker. Similarly, Carlson, the only skilled worker among the ranch hands, is arrogant and lacks compassion. Carlson would be difficult to replace in his job as a mechanic; therefore, he feels secure enough in his status to treat the other workers sadistically. This trait is seen when he orders Candy's dog to be shot and when he picks on Lennie. The other workers go along with Carlson because they are old or afraid of losing their jobs. Lennie's mental retardation also symbolises the helplessness of people in a capitalistic, commercial, competitive society. In this way, Steinbeck illustrates the confusion and hopelessness of the Depression era.
Genre and Style
Of Mice and Men is a tragic novel told from the point of view of a third-person omniscient narrator who can access the point of view of any character as required by the narrative. It is the first of Steinbeck's experiments with the novel-play form, which combines qualities of each genre. The novel in fact needed few changes before appearing as a play on Broadway. The language Steinbeck uses varies from sentimental, tragic, doomed, fatalistic, rustic, moralistic and comic to poetic. The poetic element of Steinbeck’s style is balanced by the realism of the language his characters use. His writing is mainly simple and direct but sometimes the tone does become lyrical.
Among the many literary devices Steinbeck uses in the story, the techniques of repetition and foreshadowing in order to build up to the climax of the tragedy are some of the most effective. Almost every scene points towards the dreadful ending. For instance, at the beginning of the book, we learn that Lennie likes to stroke mice and other soft creatures but has a tendency to kill them accidentally. This foreshadows the death of his puppy and the death of Curley’s wife. Also, when George reveals that Lennie once grabbed a woman’s dress and would not let go, the reader can more or less predict that similar trouble will arise at the ranch, especially once Curley’s wife appears on the scene. Finally, the scene in which Lennie brutally squeezes Curley’s hand foreshadows the force with which he grabs Curley’s wife by the throat, unintentionally breaking her neck.
Lennie’s fate is also foreshadowed in the events surrounding Candy’s dog. Candy dotes on the dog in the same way that George is devoted to Lennie, yet he must survive the death of his companion, who is shot in the back of the head, just as Lennie is killed at the end of the book. When Candy says that he would rather have shot the dog himself rather than allow Carlson to do it, this episode clearly anticipates the difficult decision that George makes to shoot Lennie rather than leave him to the mercy of the ranch hands.
The point of view of the novel is generally objective—not identifying with a single character—and limited to exterior descriptions. The third-person narrative point of view creates a sense of the impersonal. With few exceptions, the story focuses on what can be readily perceived by an outside observer: a river bank, a bunkhouse, a character's appearance, card players at a table. The focus on time, too, is limited to the present: there are no flashbacks to events in the past, and the reader only learns about what has happened to Lennie and George before the novel's beginning through dialogue between the characters. Thoughts, recollections, and fantasies are expressed directly by the characters.
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Critical Context
At the time of the book's publication, critical reaction was mostly positive, although at the end of the 1930s, after Steinbeck had written The Grapes of Wrath, there was some re-evaluation of Steinbeck's earlier work. Some critics complained that Of Mice and Men was flawed by sentimentality. Other critics faulted Steinbeck for his portrayal of poor, earthy characters.
Critical opinions of Steinbeck's work have always been mixed. Both stylistically and in his emphasis on manhood and male relationships, which figure heavily in Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck was strongly influenced by his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway. Even though Steinbeck was hailed as a great author in the 1930s and 1940s, and won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962, many critics have condemned his works as being superficial, sentimental, and too moralistic. Though Of Mice and Men is regarded by some as his greatest achievement, many critics argue that it suffers from one-dimensional characters and a contrived plot, which renders the lesson of the novel more important than the people in it.
Recent criticism, beginning in the 1980s, has acknowledged that Steinbeck's best work is timeless at its deepest level. Over sixty years after its publication, Of Mice and Men is a classic of American literature. It has been translated into a dozen foreign languages.
