Review of Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

*Of Mice and Men* by John Steinbeck (1937). Published by Penguin Books.

Back in high school, I used to be one of those people who hated everything we read in English class. I’m realizing now as I’m older, over a decade out of high school, that a lot of the books we read were actually good, but I just could not appreciate them when we were forced to analyze a very specific way and had to do everything for assignments.

I never read Of Mice of Men, but we did read other Steinbeck like Grapes of Wrath when I was in the ninth or tenth grade.

And I remember I did not really like that novel so clearly, and since then I have not touched another Steinbeck novel despite him being such a giant of 1930s American literature.

One day I was looking for another audiobook to listen to on Libby as I did work, and I wanted something short. When I plugged in the filter to see what kinds of books were available right now, I began scrolling, and after a minute or two, I saw this book specifically was available.

With this maturity and wiseness I’ve acquired over the years, I decided to give it a chance because of how short the novel was. I could literally listen to it in one work session, and that’s exactly what I did.

Here’s my review!

George and Lennie dream of starting their own farm and roots.

Clocking in at a little over one hundred pages, this is a novella you could literally read in one sitting. While I did not have a physical copy of the book, I certainly managed to get through it fairly quickly.

Like some of Steinbeck’s other great novels, this is set during the Great Depression. The location is California, where George, a field worker, works with Lennie. George is very smart despite not being to have an education, as he is a migrant worker in the fields, but Lennie is mentally disabled. He relies on George in his day to day life.

They’re moving their way to another part of the state for work, and they dream about having their own plot of land and not having to move around so much. We learn here that despite Lennie’s dream of having a bunch of rabbits and taking care of them, he often doesn’t know the power of his strength, and he has a tendency to accidentally kill rabbits and other small animals with it.

One of the reasons they’re moving now though is because Lennie grabbed a woman’s skirt, saying it was pretty, and then he refused to let go of it. Part of his disability is that he grabs tighter when emotionally stressed, and that’s what happened here. It led to a rape accusation, and they had to skip town.

The two find work at a farm, where they then have a confrontation with Curley, the owner’s son. Curley begins bullying Lennie because of how big he is, and he’s such an easy target because of his disability. Curley’s wife also begins flirting with Lennie, who is attracted to her.

A ranch hand named Slim gives Lennie a puppy. Candy, another ranch hand, then offers the duo money to buy a farm at the end of the month, but then things change rapidly when Curley goes after Lennie. Lennie crushes his fist, effectively defending himself from the perceived threat.

After this, George starts leaving Lennie on his own alone. Lennie befriends another Black worker on the farm, and everyone starts discussing buying the farm and getting out of here. Curley’s wife then shows up and flirts with Lennie, but she’s shown to be nasty and racist during this encounter.

The very next day, Lennie kills his puppy by accident. Curley’s wife finds him there, and she tells him about her loneliness and dreams of becoming a movie star fading away. She asks him to stroke her hair, but when he does so, she screams after realizing how strong he is.

This freaks Lennie out, and he accidentally breaks her neck and kills her. He flees the scene after realizing this, and then the ranch hands find her, forming a lynch mob to take him down. They call for the police and begin hunting him, and George starts looking for Lennie.

He finds Lennie at their meeting spot, and tells him about the dream Lennie loved to hear so much about. As the lynching mob approaches the two, George makes the decision to kill Lennie and shoot him, knowing that this would be a better end. The group then arrives to see the scene.

Slim takes George away, realizing what has happened. The other two have no idea what’s going on, and can’t understand the sheer amount of grief before them.

Overall Thoughts

What a sad tale this was, and I see why Steinbeck is considered one of the greats. The prose in this novel is excellent, and considering this is only a novella, he certainly got straight to the point.

Novels are hard in their own way, but shorter forms of fiction are very difficult to write because you need to be able to wrap things up concisely. This novel does just that, even though we may find ourselves wanting to dwell in the universe of the book a bit longer.

I’m glad I read this! It was such a good listen on audiobook, and I will probably purchase a copy for my personal library if I ever find myself stumbling on a copy at a used bookstore.

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