Just Finished Reading John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

When I was in the ninth grade, my English teacher assigned John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl as a required reading.  I did not like it at all...and since then 44 years have passed until I picked up another work of his.  As it turns out, the book I finally did choose, the short 1937 novel Of Mice and Men, is another Steinbeck story that is now commonly assigned in high school.  After reading it, though, I can understand why perhaps my English teachers may have passed up on it: the language is pretty rough in places and there are some areas in it with sexual material...not necessarily something that they were ready to deal with in high school in the early 1970s...at least not as a required book...

Of Mice and Men is about two young men: the smart but uneducated George, short in stature, and his traveling and working companion, the mentally challenged near-giant Lennie.  Lennie has a fondness for petting little furry creatures like mice, but he cannot seem to handle any for any length of time without accidentally killing them with his strength, which he chronically underestimates.  Ultimately, he wants for George and him to buy a small plot of land of their own where they can live off of it and he would get to tend the rabbits.   The two are migrant farm/ranch workers on their way to a new job at a ranch in California.  Once there, they encounter problems with a bully who not only feels challenged by Lennie's size and demeanor, but also is extremely jealous about his own attractive newlywed wife, whom the men working there regard as a flirtatious "tart".  You might imagine some scenarios for trouble...and you'd be right...but since I'm not going to give away the story, you're going to have to find out what happens for yourself!

The thing that struck me the most about Of Mice and Men was how Steinbeck moved the story and revealed the personalities of the characters with extensive dialogue, keeping the narration and introspection to a minimum.  That was pretty impressive.  Another thing he did involved misdirection...leading the reader to anticipate a climactic conflict in one direction while ultimately leading into a different one...an outcome that, having finished the story and looking backward at it, seemed completely reasonable.  Steinbeck also examined racial prejudice and injustice, as well as how everyone needs to have something to believe in and dream for...and how a good, feasible dream can spread like wildfire through a dispirited group of people and revitalize them.  But perhaps most of all, he spotlighted the plight in his times of the mentally disabled and how they, especially the ones who were poor, were often misunderstood and treated unfairly.  I sometimes wonder to myself just how much better off they are today...and how much more we need to do...

Get a copy of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men: it won't take you very long to read it and it will be worth your while.  And, besides, you won't have to impress some high school English teacher with a book report after you've finished...