Of mice and men - John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck was born in 1902 in California, where he also grew up.
Already as a child he dreamed of becoming a writer and oftentimes locked
himself in his room to write poems and stories. As a teenager he worked
alongside migrant farm workers. He studied history, English language and
biology at Standford University between 1919 -1925 but never graduated.
After leaving the University, he moved to New York in order to work there as a
journalist but failed to publish his writings successfully. Therefore he returned
back to California and worked as a manual labourer. However, he didn't give
up on writing and published some of his first books but none of them was
successful. The first book which achieved popularity was Tortilla Flat (1935)
and was followed by several other famous books. Throughout his life he was
married three times and had two sons with his second wife. He died at the age
of 66 in 1968 of heart disease.

In his writings John Steinbeck reacts to the Great Depression, which took
place in the 1930s. The social problems that occured influenced his work
greatly and in many of his books he deals with the poverty issues of that time.
He belongs to the writers of the Lost Generation, that means writers that were
born around the year 1900, lived during the 1st World War and portrayed the
reality of it in their writings. Other writers included in this category are for
example Ernest Hemingway or Francis S.Fitzgerald. It's also worth saying that
his book The Grapes of Wrath won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 and even more
important that John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in
1962. Some of his other books include the previously mentioned The Grapes
of Wrath or East of Eden.

The book Of Mice and Men tells the story of two friends called George and
Lennie. They dream of having their own little ranch where they would care
only for themselves and Lennie could breed rabbits there. But they don’t have
enough money to afford it so they work together to make some money.
However, Lennie is mildly mentally disabled and is obsessed by touching
smooth things or animals (like those rabbits he wants to take care of) and is
extraordinarily faithful to his friend George. He often unintentionally causes
them trouble, so they have to look for a job somewhere else. Now they are
working on a ranch that belongs to an older man, whose daughter-in-law is
discontent with her life and her new husband (we don't know her name, she is
referred to as Curley's wife). Therefore she tries to find attention from the men
working on the ranch. One day she is with Lennie alone and provokes him to
stroke her soft hair. But Lennie is very strong and when she wants him to stop,
he starts to panic and unfortunately breaks her neck. When her husband and
other men from the ranch find out what happened, they aim to kill him.
George, however, knows that Lennie did it by mistake and doesn't want him to
suffer in the hands of those people. That’s because the bond they share is so
strong he rather shoots Lennie himself, so he can rest peacefully with their
imaginative ranch on his mind.

This book was published in 1937 and it’s genre is a novella = a story with not
as many characters as if it was a novel. What is also characteristic of novellas
is a surprising ending. Another interesting fact is that this story is written from
an obscure point of view called the objective third person. The author tells the
story as somebody not involved in the story and thus offering the readers no
look into the charaters’ thoughts and feelings. That can also be the reason
why this book has many film and theater interpretations. It is also interesting to
know that this book has been banned from a lot of American schools or public
libraries because of racism, offensive language (even vulgarity) and promoting
euthanasia. But in my opinion, these issues occuring in the book are
speculative and I don't think they are meant in any harsh way but just showing
the reality of that time.

That leads me to the major point of my presentation which is exposing the

main idea of this book and why it was written. The author emphasises dreams
throughout the whole book and concludes that there is no real way to fulfill
them. The American dream seems so unachievable that it causes one to fall
into hopelessness. This shows the reality of life as Steinbeck sees it. There
are many motives behind the happening such as loneliness, powerlessness or
brokenness but also hope and friendship. Interesting is the symbol of Lennie’s
death - it can show the aforementioned impossibility of realizing their dream
and George’s resignation to keep on pursuing it. He loses not only Lennie but
also motivation for further life as he realizes his weakness in this cruel world.
On the other hand it could also be understood quite positively. We see the
mercy and gentleness he shows to Lennie as he rather kills him himself than
watch him being murdered by others. Although Lennie was a burden to him,
he had never given up on him completely. The author stressed this firm bond
of friendship significantly.

At last I want to share my personal opinion of this book with you. Even though
I read it last year, I still remember the feeling I had while reading. I liked the
atmosphere of the American West, ranches and effort of achieving George
and Lennie’s dream which seemed quite promising to me. Although I had an
unpleasant premonition that the story would not end very well I still hoped for
a more or less happy ending. I thought that after Curley’s wife’s death they
would run away together or do something to come closer to the realisation of
their dreamed-of ranch. So I was completely shocked by the decision George
made. I wasn’t ready for it and had to process it for some time. I’m not sure if I
can say I liked the book but I think it’s definitely worth giving it a chance.
Perhaps everyone has a different opinion of it but all of us can take something
from reading it. I was totally impressed by it and I’m very glad I could read it.
Although I don’t plan to read it again, I would surely suggest it to others.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Of_Mice_and_Men
https://www.biography.com/writer/john-steinbeck
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/o/of-mice-and-men/of-mice-and-men-at-a
-glance
https://corazondeoscar.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/the-significance-of-death-in
-of-mice-and-men/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/is-of-mice-and-men-a-banned-book.html
https://www.gradesaver.com/of-mice-and-men/q-and-a/why-did-george-kill-len
nie-at-the-end-of-the-novel-259861
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men - book
information from my reader’s journal