Written by John Steinbeck in 1937, “Of Mice and Men” follows two opposite individuals who have formed a close friendship during the Great Depression. Lennie is a large and very strong man whose intellect seems to have been stunted and remains at the level of a child. George is a smaller man but is quite smart, and he has taken upon himself the responsibility to protect and watch out for Lennie. In the way that a child would find nothing wrong with grabbing a woman’s dress solely because it felt soft to the touch, Lennie was the same way. However, Lennie was also unbelievably strong, and this disconnection from his own strength led him into trouble time and time again. The story begins as Lennie and George travel to find work at a farm/ranch after running from their last location to escape retribution against Lennie after he was accused of assaulting the woman whose dress he grabbed. Throughout the novella, Lennie’s innocent, childlike mentality is well established, and in a harsh world like ours, it proves to be very dangerous. 

Dreaming of owning their own land, George and Lennie keep that goal directly in front of them. However, the goal of land is idealism. With George’s difficult decision regarding Lennie at the end of the novella, his idealism is likewise extinguished. It is a tragic story, ringing true to the quote Crooks tells Lennie: “I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads . . . every damn one of ’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a God damn one of ’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land.” Initially, without having any background knowledge about the plot of the book, one would believe that this was a pessimistic view that would eventually be proven wrong, that Georgie and Lennie would succeed and prove that perseverance and hard work do lead to the American Dream. This story is tragic in that it demonstrates how sometimes circumstances are so drastic that everything falls to pieces despite one’s attempts otherwise. 

Truth be told, I knew from the foreshadowing in this novella that Lennie was going to have trouble with Curley’s wife—however, my assumption as to what that trouble was ended up being inaccurate. I thought Lennie would have an affair with Curley’s wife, leading to Curly becoming infuriated and causing George and Lennie to leave and begin the cycle of farm to farm once again. That was not what occurred. In retrospect, there was indeed a lot of foreshadowing for the actual plot twist of the book. The ending was not happy in the slightest. This is the sort of classic that is meant to be read, analyzed, and encoded into the mental library within one’s mind, but not to be re-read for pleasure, at least in my opinion. However, endings like these are unbelievably memorable due to the heightened emotional activity, and the lesson it teaches/perspective it portrays stays with the reader long after the individual concludes the book. Thus, I highly recommend this novella.