3: Of Mice and Men

"A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green."

Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is the most powerful short novel I have ever read. In about 100 pages, he touches on so many of life's trials and tribulations that one cannot help but be impressed. The novella follows the story of two California migrant workers, George and Lennie. The two men move place to place in search of work and entertain a continuous desire to own a small stake of land. Steinbeck explores the plight of these two desperately poor wanders and sets their story against the backdrop of Depression-era America. The economic conditions victimized workers like George and Lennie.

Yet these two men are different than the other migrant workers in a significant way. While the other workers lead a solitary, lonely life, Lennie and George are fortunate enough to have one another, to have another person in the world who actually cares about their well-being. Steinbeck romanticizes this friendship of two men traveling together by characterizing the relationship with compassion, guidance, protection, devotion, and a shared dream of an idyllic farm life.

George and Lennie are interesting characters who break the traditional roles of protagonists. Lennie is a rather static character, as he undergoes no significant changes or development throughout the novel. To the end he is still the physically large but mentally disabled man who loves soft things, is blindly devoted to George, and holds on to a nearly impossible dream. George is more dynamic in that while he never strays from protecting Lennie, he realizes that the world is unfortunately designed to prey on the weak. George is faced with an impossible situation and chooses the lesser of two evils by mercifully killing his best friend. Lennie's death means not only the loss of George's closest companion, but also the death of his optimistic dream.

What instantly drew me in to the story were Steinbeck's amazing descriptions of setting. Normally I read through books without expending too much effort on imagining the settings, but Steinbeck's depictions of time and place are so rich that I let my imagination run free. For example: "On one side of the river the golden  foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter's flooding; and sicamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool." This author really knows how to describe a scene and draw in the reader instantaneously.

Steinbeck wrote Of Mice and Men as a "playable novel," written in novel form but set so that it can be played as it stands. And he indeed accomplishes this goal. The description of setting at the beginning of each part could stand as stage directions and the dialogue could easily be turned into a script. In fact, I was envisioning the story taking place on a stage as I was reading.

The book portrays women in a negative light. The only female character that is involved in the action is Curley's wife, who is never even given a name. She represents the temptation of female sexuality in a male-dominated world. Steinbeck seems to be saying that women are merely troublemakers who bring problems and ruin to men. Curley's wife is a temptress who George sees as a trap into a brawl with her husband.

Lennie has a kind soul but he is completely unaware of his strength and ends up accidentally killing the things he wants to pet. The dead mouse in Lennie's pocket at the beginning of the story is a symbol of the end that awaits weak unsuspecting creatures. The same fate befalls the small puppy, Curley's wife, and eventually Lennie himself, for Lennie's childlike mental capabilities render him as helpless s a mouse. Just as Candy's dog was mercifully shot, George ends up killing Lennie out of mercy, submitting him to a far less painful death than the other men had planned.

Steinbeck shows through his masterpiece that we live in a predatory world where the strong prey on the weak and where people are persecuted for mental, physical, and racial differences. George and Lennie only want to live with one another's interest in mind and to  protect one another. Yet the world is too harsh a place to sustain their ideal friendship and Lennie and George are tragically separated. By the end, the two friends lost a dream far greater than themselves.