Why Of Mice and Men is Nice Time and Again

Welcome back to Blogging with Benji, where there’s no need to be shelf-concious! This month, I’ll be discussing Of Mice and Men, a John Steinbeck classic published in 1937. Of Mice and Men is a short novel, and only consists of six chapters. Each chapter is set in only one location and functions like a scene in a play or a movie. Of Mice and Men tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant farm workers in California that travel together. Though his last name is Small, Lennie is big, muscular, and extremely strong. For example, Lennie likes to pet soft things like mice but always ends up killing them on accident with his strength. He has trouble remembering things and relies heavily on George to make plans and to communicate with other people. George is small and thin, but he is also smart and clever. He takes care of Lennie and the two of them have a strong friendship. The story begins at the Salinas river where George and Lennie are walking to the next

farm in Soledad, California. They were chased off the previous farm when Lennie grabbed a girl wearing a soft dress because he wanted to feel the dress. After arriving at the new ranch, George does all the talking in order to draw attention away from Lennie, but they run into trouble with Curley, the boss’s son. He dislikes “big guys” and loves to fight with other people. Curley’s wife is depicted as flirtatious and takes a special interest in Lennie after he breaks Curley’s hand (on accident) out of self-defense. A recurring theme that comes up in almost every chapter is George and Lennie’s dream of having their own farm one day, where they can “live offa the fatta the lan'” with no one in charge of them. Lennie wants to tend to rabbits and constantly talks about taking care of the rabbits throughout the novel. They recruit Candy, an old swamper, after Candy expresses an interest and offers a significant amount of money to purchase land. With Candy’s money, having their own farm seems possible for once, and they only need to work for one more month in Soledad to earn enough money. 

WARNING: SPOILERS, STOP READING IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS BOOK. 

However, their plans all come crashing down when Lennie talks to Curley’s wife and accidentally kills her when trying to stop her from screaming after he touches her soft hair.  Lennie goes back to the river at the start of the novel to wait for George (George had designated it as a rendezvous earlier), and the other farm workers set out to kill Lennie. George finds Lennie, and the two talk about their dream one last time. After hearing the mob approaching, George tells Lennie to face the other side of the river and to imagine the farm and tending to rabbits, but he shoots Lennie in the head before Curley and the other workers arrive. 

Even if you ignored the spoiler warning, I still highly recommend reading Of Mice and Men since there is much more to it then just the plot. Steinbeck illustrates the relationship between George and Lennie masterfully. Lennie is always messing up and getting into trouble, but George does not leave Lennie even though it would make his life a lot easier. Lennie sees George as a kind of big brother that will always be there for him. George kills because he knows that Curley and the other workers will likely torment Lennie before killing him, and he wants to spare Lennie from a painful, inevitable death. Killing Lennie can almost be seen as a heartbreaking act of love since it saves Lennie from a lot of future pain. This theme comes up earlier in the book when Candy’s dying, blind, dog is shot. The dog was struggling to live and was in pain, but Candy still loved the dog and did not want him to die. Not killing the dog may have been more cruel since it would have suffered even more, which is why Candy eventually agrees to euthanize the dog. Steinbeck describes Lennie in a way that makes it impossible to not sympathize with Lennie. Lennie does terrible things like killing mice and puppies, crushing Curley’s hand, and snapping Curley’s wife’s neck when trying to get her to stop screaming. However, Lennie never means to do anything bad and is extremely innocent. He does not understand many societal norms like why touching someone’s dress is harassment. Except for George, the other characters do not know that Lennie has a mental disability, and view him solely as a psychopath and murderer. In reality, Lennie only wants to tend to the rabbits and touch soft things like velvet or silk. 

I enjoyed Of Mice and Men, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a short, but deep read. The whole story takes place over a few days, but this style allows Steinbeck to go into more detail and adds tension (one chapter feels hopeful but then Lennie murders someone in the next one and everything falls apart). George’s and Lennie’s dream was always unattainable, but it gave them hope, meaning, and something to work towards. Overall, Of Mice and Men deserves a sebaceous score of 11/13 bologna slices on the rigorously tested Bologna Blog scale.