Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Essay

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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a novel about the difficult life of American migrant workers during the Great Depression. It uncovers the hardship of this historical period and reflects the author’s personal experience and knowledge about the lives of migrant ranch workers. Steinbeck invites the reader to think about each personage with compassion as he describes all characters as they are, with no judgment or admiration. This essay will examine the key themes of the story and the historical context, provide a brief analysis of the main characters, and give an overall reader’s opinion about the novel.

The events in the novel take place during the Great Depression. Lennie and George, two migrant workers, arrive at their new job on a ranch in Salinas, California, where they will be bucking barley. Lennie and George are friends, and they are dreaming of having their farm one day. Lennie has a mental disability, so George has to look after him. Two friends stay in the house with other workers, where they get to know some new people and realize that they are the only ones who stick together while the rest of the workers are loners.

Later on, they meet Curley, the son of their boss, and Curley’s wife, who is the only female on the ranch. Curley is a boxer, so he immediately dislikes Lennie because he is much bigger and stronger than other men, whom Curley can easily fight. Meanwhile, Curley’s wife is always seeking attention from the ranch workers as she feels very lonely. George refuses to talk to her and warns Lennie to stay away from her as well because he thinks that it might get them in trouble.

Further in the novel, Lennie encounters Curley’s wife in the barn. As always, the girl is desperate for attention, so she starts a conversation with Lennie and even encourages him to touch her hair. However, she gets scared when Lennie pulls her hair too strong and starts screaming when he does not let her go. In turn, Lennie gets a panic attack and accidentally breaks her neck. The girl dies, Lennie realizes what he has done and runs away, but everybody on the ranch immediately understands who killed her. The workers follow Lennie with a clear intention to kill him. To save his friend from suffering, George finds Lennie first, calms him down by telling his favorite story about their farm, and shots him in the head.

The protagonists of the book are George and Lennie. The two men are very different in many ways. Whereas George is small and lean, Lennie is big and strong. George is witty, smart, and independent, whereas Lennie has a mental disability and needs constant help. These two people are the only friends in the novel since the rest of the workers are very isolated. Generally, the book has quite a few characters, but each of them occupies a special place in the plot.

On the surface, this is a story of the unique friendship between two men. Still, there are a few other relevant themes that are essential for this novel, which are loneliness, moral issues, and the hardship of living during the Great Depression. The idea of friendship is represented in the relationship between the two protagonists ‒ George and Lennie. Although they are very different, they stick together, and having each other’s support gives them the strength to survive: “We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us” (Steinbeck, 2003, p. 118). George sometimes complains that his life would be better without Lennie, yet he keeps repeating that their friendship is what makes them special. Even in the end, when George realizes that there is no way to save Lennie from lynching, he finds the strength to shoot him and minimize his pain.

Another central theme in Of Mice and Men is loneliness. Some critics argue that loneliness and isolation are central to this novel. Namely, Vyas (2019, p. 184) in the analysis of selected novels of the Great Depression refers to the other article by Mickael J.Mayer, arguing that “all the characters of the novel experience loneliness.” Some characters feel lonely as they are socially isolated, for example, Curley’s wife. Since workers do not want to get in trouble, they avoid her: “I get awful lonely… I get lonely… You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to anybody but Curley. Else he gets mad” (Steinbeck, 2003, p. 98). To emphasize this isolation, the author never mentions her name, and the girl stays “Curley’s wife” even after her death.

However, it can be argued that even Lennie, who is seemingly the least lonely character in the novel, feels isolated as well. The thoughts that come into Lennie’s head when he hallucinates about his Aunt Clara show the other side of his character. Lennie is stressed, but the man does not think that his friend is going to save him. Contrarily, he is afraid that George will hit him with a stick. Such representation of each character might be intentional as it is hard to trust others and not feel lonely while being abandoned by one’s country.

The next critical theme is the desperate social situation during the Great Depression. The 1930s were crucial for America, and Stainback wrote Of Mice and Men when he was involved in social and economic problems ( Study Guide, 2015). However, he emphasizes that women and black people got affected by the Great Depression the most, which is respectively embodied in the characters of Curley’s wife and Crooks. Although, as Heavilin (2018, p. 25) admits, gender issues in Of Mice and Men might only be spotted by a careful reader. Overall, sexism and racism are the results of a problematic social environment.

Of Mice and Men is an excellent book in many ways. It perfectly reflects the atmosphere that prevailed in America during the Great Depression. Each character in this story is a part of a big puzzle to a disruptive picture of the destroyed state. After reading this story, I had a strong feeling that the death at the end was nobody’s fault. All these people were products of their time. I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a realistic depiction of the situation in America during the 1930s.

To conclude, Of Mice and Men is a depiction of difficult life in the period of economic stagnation, which leaves a visible trail in every single person. The author pointed out all the negative social aspects that existed in the working class and emphasized the value of true friendship. On the whole, this novel goes beyond the narrative on its surface as it explores the deeper social issues, which are unnoticed by the people whose basic needs are not met.

Reference List

Heavilin, B. (2018) ‘“The [wall] of background”: the cultural, political, and literary contexts of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men ’, The Steinbeck Review , 15(1), pp.13-25.

Steinbeck, J. (2003) Of mice and men . London: Longman Publishing Group.

S tudy guide for John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (2015) Gale, Cengage Learning.

Vyas, H. (2019) ‘The idea of post-war America in the selected novels by Steinbeck and Dos Pasos’, A Global Journal of Humanities , 2(1), pp.182-185.

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Of Mice and Men: an Analysis

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Published: Jan 30, 2024

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Introduction, contextual analysis of the novel, examination of characters and relationships, themes explored in the novel, symbolism and imagery in the novel, a. loneliness and isolation, b. dreams and illusions, c. prejudice and discrimination, b. nature imagery, c. title significance.

  • Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
  • Cantor, Paul A. "Of Mice and Men and the American Dream." The English Journal, vol. 81, no. 6, 1992, pp. 55-58.
  • Ginther, Diane. "The Social and Historical Context of Of Mice and Men." Gale, 2002.
  • Lee, A. Robert. "Of Mice and Men: A Kinship of Powerlessness." Modern Critical Interpretations: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, edited by Harold Bloom, Infobase Publishing, 2011, pp. 21-36.

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mice and men essay

Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

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Developing Lennie's Character Anonymous 10th Grade

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Of Mice and Men

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Theme Analysis

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The American Dream of every individual’s right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has been ingrained within American society since the writing of the Declaration of Independence , when the phrase made its first appearance. George and Lennie ’s dream of working hard and saving enough money to buy their own farm and “live off the fatta the lan” symbolizes the concrete ways in which the American Dream serves as an idealized goal for poor and working-class Americans even in the darkest and hardest of times. Through Of Mice and Men , however, Steinbeck argues that while throughout American history—and especially during the Great Depression—the American Dream has at best been an illusion and at worst a trap, unattainable dreams are still necessary, in a way, to make life in America bearable.

The Great Depression represented the end of an era of the American Dream—the artistic and economic innovation and prosperity of the “Roaring Twenties” came to a short, decisive stop, and American society went into crisis mode. In the midst of this sudden shift, many felt like the rug had been pulled out from under them—this sentiment and perspective is echoed in George and Lennie’s insistence on pursuing their dream of a peaceful, sustainable life of ease and independence even as they are in the depths of an economic crisis which threatens not just their plans, but their very lives. Though little is known of George and Lennie’s background, it is clear that they grew up together in Auburn, a Gold Rush town that boomed in the late 1800s but suffered by the 1920s as gold prices dropped. Families hoping to make their fortune in gold continued to flock to Auburn, and soon Auburn was overrun by people camping by the river, hoping to pan for gold in the water in light of the closed mines in town. George and Lennie, then, appear to be fleeing a town where there’s nothing left for them, chasing their own dream even as they shut out the knowledge that there are countless people like them—many in their very own hometown—pursuing dreams just as broken and hopeless as their own.

George and Lennie encounter hostility and calamity, it seems, nearly everywhere they go. In this way, Steinbeck portrays the gritty reality of trying to make it in America as a poor itinerant worker. Their struggles are almost always as a result of Lennie’s inability to function normally within the bounds of social codes and contracts. His childlike nature draws him to soft, pleasant, cute things—but his immense strength and huge physical frame make him an object of fear. Lennie is unable to understand why people keep rejecting him, or why he keeps killing the mice, puppies , and other soft animals he enjoys holding and stroking. George, rather than helping Lennie to control his strength or his impulses, continues stoking Lennie’s dream of having limitless rabbits to tend and pet whenever he wants. George knows, on some level, that for either him or Lennie to confront the truth about Lennie—that he is a burden, and a dangerous one at that—would tear them apart. As a result, he retreats into a dream of he and Lennie having their own farm: a distinctly American dream of self-made independence, plenty, and harmony. Candy , another laborer on the ranch where George and Lennie find work, is also swept up in the romantic vision of owning a farm, offering up his savings to help secure a plot of land. This dream is unrealistic by any standards, and in light of George and Lennie’s financial insolvency and social struggles, impossible. In order to make their rootless, dangerous, and directionless existence more bearable, however, George and Lennie cling tightly to the dream of America they’ve manufactured together. Lennie and George were raised on promises of prosperity and independence tied to a sensibility rooted in the expansiveness of the American West—but the dreams they were led to believe could be their reality have evaporated as the West has turned from a place of potential and riches to one of dust, emptiness, and squandered potential.

Even though George and Lennie never achieve their dream, it is what keeps them going in the darkest of times. Indeed, even as George prepares to execute Lennie with Carlson’s rifle in the novella’s final pages, George urges Lennie to stare off into the distance as George narrates the familiar details of their shared dream: a “little place” all their own. Steinbeck closes the novella with George shooting Lennie to protect him from a worse death at the hands of the angry ranch laborers who are out for vengeance. This tragic act of violence in the midst of George and Lennie’s “dream” shows that for George, this vision of the America he was promised is ultimately just a fantasy—unattainable yet necessary in order to bear the difficult reality of life.

The American Dream ThemeTracker

Of Mice and Men PDF

The American Dream Quotes in Of Mice and Men

“Well, we ain't got any,” George exploded. “Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble....An' whatta I got,” George went on furiously. “I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job I get. Jus' keep me shovin' all over the country all the time. An' that ain't the worst. You get in trouble. You do bad things and I got to get you out.”

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“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place. […] With us it ain't like that. We got a future.”

[…] Lennie broke in. “ But not us! An’ why? Because...because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why .”

mice and men essay

“Well,” said George, “we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens. And when it rains in the winter, we'll just say the hell with goin' to work, and we'll build up a fire in the stove and set around it an' listen to the rain comin' down on the roof.”

“We could live offa the fatta the lan'.”

“S'pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or any damn thing." Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. "We'd just go to her," George said. "We wouldn't ask nobody if we could. Jus' say, 'We'll go to her,' an' we would. Jus' milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an' go to her.”

“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.”

“I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we'd never do her. He usta like to hear about it so much I got to thinking maybe we would.”

“No, Lennie. I ain't mad. I never been mad, an' I ain't now. That's a thing I want ya to know.”

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Of Mice and Men

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Imagine a seventh chapter that details the events of George’s life without Lennie. What happens to George? Does he maintain any of the relationships he started at the ranch? What happens to the dream farm? Cite evidence from the text to support your outcome.

Curley’s wife is not depicted as a wholly innocent character. Is this treatment of her fair or unfair? Prepare a defense of her character and support your point of view with evidence from the novella.

Do you agree with George’s decision to take Lennie’s life into his own hands, or do you believe George should have turned Lennie into the law?

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GCSE English Literature - 'Of Mice & Men' Essays & Essay Plans

GCSE English Literature - 'Of Mice & Men' Essays & Essay Plans

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Having trouble understanding John Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice & Men’? Or in need of another study resource? Here’s what you’ve been seraching for! We’ve put together our coveted sample essay and combined it with 4 of our equally impressive grade 9 essay plans. Our essay plans are detailed, easy to follow and include key quotations throughout. All resources conform with the official Pearson Edexcel IGCSE specification, with our selection of essay questions comparable to those you’d find in actual exams . Each essay has been evaluated at a grade 9 standard by teachers. Grab this set now to expand your vocabulary, sharpen your grammar, and enhance your overall English proficiency. Engage with this resource and uplift your English Literature grade to a 9. Leave us a review and let us know whether you liked this resource!

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The Compiled Sample Essay, Essay Question: Curley’s Wife: Sample Essay Question: ‘Explore the role of Curley’s Wife in the novel’

Essay Plan Characters:

  • Our easy to follow essay plans cover the characters:
  • Lennie(Physical Vs Mental, Dependent, Predator Vs Prey)
  • Crooks(Lonely & Shy, Realist, Used)
  • Curley(Aggressive, Insecure, Inconsiderate & No Empathy)
  • Curley’s Wife(Lonely, Misunderstood, Flirtatious) *Each key topic listed next to a character highlights the main theme of the paragraph, however subtopics are referenced to connect different aspects of the character(AO1)

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  1. Of Mice and Men Sample Essay Outlines

    Find sample essay outlines for analyzing themes, characters, and literary devices in John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men. Explore topics such as loneliness, drama, realism, naturalism, and the American Dream.

  2. Of Mice and Men Critical Essays

    Form and Content in Of Mice and Men. Of Mice and Men recounts the story of two itinerant ranch hands who, despite their apparent differences, are dependent on each other. Lennie Small, by far the ...

  3. Dreams and Reality in Of Mice and Men

    John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is a powerful and vivid depiction of life in rural America. It recounts the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two lonely itinerant farm workers who ...

  4. Of Mice and Men Essay Examples • Topics, Prompts • GradesFixer

    Of Mice and Men Essay Topic Examples. A wide range of essay topics, introduction paragraph examples, and conclusion paragraph examples for different essay types aim to help you exercise creativity, delve into personal interests, and engage deeply with John Steinbeck's classic novella, Of Mice and Men.Your choice of topic can significantly impact the quality and depth of your essay, so choose ...

  5. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

    This essay will examine the key themes of the story and the historical context, provide a brief analysis of the main characters, and give an overall reader's opinion about the novel. Get a custom essay on Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. 190 writers online. Learn More. The events in the novel take place during the Great Depression.

  6. Of Mice and Men: An Analysis: [Essay Example], 783 words

    American author John Steinbeck's classic novella Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and is set during the Great Depression era in Salinas, California. It follows the story of two migrant workers, George and Lennie, as they try to survive and make a better life for themselves. This essay will analyze the novel's historical and social context ...

  7. Of Mice and Men Essay Questions

    Burns poem, in which a field worker offers philosophical reflections after upsetting a mouse's nest, mirrors Steinbeck's work, in which Lennie unintentionally destroys the lives of small, furry animals (including, at the novel's opening, a mouse, which is a clear wink at the Burns poem). 3. Of Mice and Men is highly "dramatic" - that is ...

  8. Of Mice and Men Study Guide

    Poetic Origins. The title of Of Mice and Men is drawn from a Robert Burns poem titled "To a Mouse, on Turning up in Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785," which features the line "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, / Gang aft agley.". The poem describes its speaker's shock and regret upon realizing they have disturbed a ...

  9. Of Mice and Men Suggested Essay Topics

    Suggested Essay Topics. 1. George and Lennie are obviously committed to each other, yet they often criticize each other or threaten to leave. Examine the negative aspects of this relationship, and ...

  10. Of Mice and Men Themes

    Of Mice and Men takes its title from a line in a famous poem by the Sottish poet Robert Burns. Burns's poem "To a Mouse, On Turning up in Her Nest with the Plough, November, 1785" contains the lines, "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,/ Gang aft agley." "Gang aft agley" is a Gaelic phrase which translates to "go oft awry," and the poem's concern with the difficulty ...

  11. Of Mice and Men Essays

    Join Now Log in Home Literature Essays Of Mice and Men Of Mice and Men Essays Violence and Sadism in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men Anonymous Of Mice and Men. In John Steinbeck's powerful American masterpiece Of Mice and Men, first published in 1937 during the height of the Great Depression, the main characters of George Milton and Lennie Small experience many hard and difficult situations ...

  12. The American Dream Theme in Of Mice and Men

    How does Steinbeck portray the American Dream in his novella? Explore the themes, quotes, and analysis of George and Lennie's dream of owning a farm and the challenges they face in the Great Depression.

  13. A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice and Men

    The Tragic pattern closes. There is a sense of completeness, of both defeat and satisfaction. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck has shown us something about the pain of living in a complex human world ...

  14. Of Mice and Men Essay Topics

    for only $0.70/week. Subscribe. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

  15. GCSE English Literature

    A guarantee that each essay hits the following 2 asssemessment objectives: AO1, AO4; The Compiled Sample Essay, Essay Question: Curley's Wife: Sample Essay Question: 'Explore the role of Curley's Wife in the novel' Essay Plan Characters: Our easy to follow essay plans cover the characters: Lennie(Physical Vs Mental, Dependent, Predator ...

  16. Of Mice and Men Themes

    The main themes in Of Mice and Men are loneliness, innocence, and dreams. Loneliness: Race, age, gender, and class create barriers between the characters. Crooks's private room, segregated from ...

  17. Social Realism in Of Mice and Men

    The narrative of Of Mice and Men — from George and Lennie's hopeful dreaming to the calamitous end to those dreams—is founded upon a rigorous analysis and critique of the encompassing ...