Robert Crayola - Of Mice and Men: A Readers Guide to the John Steinbeck Novel

Of Mice and Men:

A Reader's Guide to the John SteinbeckNovel

by Robert Crayola

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Robert Crayola

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/robertcrayola

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Of Mice and Men: A Reader'sGuide to the John Steinbeck Novel. In this text I'll help youwrap your head around the book, and by the time we're done hereyou'll have a thorough understanding of it. We'll be looking at thestory in terms of where it came from the author and time period.We'll also look at the elements of literature that make up thestory, examining each individually to see how it plays a part inthe book as a whole. And then I'll give you summaries of everysection of the book, which you can use to clarify any confusingpoints, to help you remember the story, or to prepare yourself forreading the book if you haven't yet done so.

I will mention though, that if you haven'tread the book, I will be going over every major plot detail. So ifyou don't want spoilers, go and read the book first! It's a veryshort book. If you don't care about spoilers, then read on.

AUTHOR: Let's begin by looking at theauthor, John Steinbeck. Who was he, and how does that relate to thebook? We're only going to take a very general look at hisbiography, but it will show you that the story in Of Mice andMen really springs from his own experiences.

Steinbeck was born John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr.,on February 27, 1902, in Salinas, California, right near whereOf Mice and Men takes place. His father was a countytreasurer, and his mother had been a teacher. Steinbeck was reallyencouraged in his reading and writing while growing up. The areawhere he grew up, Salinas, was very rural town with lots of farmland around. This exposed him to a lot of the farming communitysince he himself worked on farms in the summer for extra money. Hegot to see the way of life of these workers, their transitoryexistence, and that shows up in a lot of his works.

After high school Steinbeck began college atStanford University in nearby Palo Alto. And although he attendedfor five years, until 1925, he left with no degree. From there hewent to New York and tried to make it as a writer, but met withlittle success. He went back to California and worked in Tahoe Cityas a tour guide, and it was there he met Carol Henning, who hemarried in 1930. They moved near Monterey, California, andSteinbeck focused on his writing once again, and began to meet withsome success.

In the early 1940s Steinbeck's marriage beganto fall apart. He soon divorced and remarried a another woman namedGwyndolyn Conger. They had two children together.

Also, during World War II Steinbeck wentoverseas to work as a war correspondent in Europe and North Africa,but after being wounded in 1944, he returned home.

Steinbeck showed sympathy for liberalorganizations throughout life, and was associated at various timeswith communist causes. He traveled to the Soviet Union in 1947, andas with many of his travels, he turned the trip into a book.

1948 was a bad year for Steinbeck. By thattime his books had become more popular, but in that year he lostone of his best friends, the marine biologist Ed Ricketts, in anaccident, and then was divorced by his wife, leading to a deepdepression.

In 1949 he met Elaine Scott at a restaurantin Carmel, California, and they would be married a year later, andbe together till his death.

Steinbeck continued to write a wide varietyof material, and to travel regularly until his death on December20, 1968. He had been a smoker all his life and had heartdisease.

He was the author of 27 books and receivedthe Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He wrote novels, shortstories, nonfiction, and in a variety of genres.

CONTEXT: Context is where a book comesfrom. Now that we know a little about Steinbeck's life, we can lookat the placement of Of Mice and Men in that life. It waspublished in 1937 and by then he had met with some success withbooks like Tortilla Flat and In Dubious Battle. Ifyou aren't too familiar with American history, you should also beaware that the 1930s was the time of the Great Depression, whenmany people were impoverished and struggled just to feedthemselves. Jobs were hard to come by and paid little, and we'llsee that in Of Mice and Men.

The location is near Salinas and Soledad inCalifornia, near the Central Coast. It's a dry and hot region withmany farms to this day. Steinbeck wrote this book while staying inMonte Seleno, California.

STRUCTURE THE NOVELLA: Let's begintaking a look at the book itself. First we're going to look at theoverall form. As I'm sure you've noticed, it's a pretty thin book,coming in at around a hundred pages, depending on which edition youuse. A story of this length is considered a bit long to be called ashort story, and a bit short to be a novel, so it's often known asa novella.

Also, Steinbeck wrote the book in the form ofa "novel-play," so that it could easily be adapted to stage orfilm. There is a strong focus on dialogue and actions that caneasily be shown visually, making it easy to adapt. And it wasquickly and successfully adapted for both theater and film, andlater television.

The book is divided into six untitledsections, and Steinbeck wrote the book with the thought of athree-act play in mind, with two chapters in each section.

TITLE: The original title of the bookwas "Something That Happened," but Steinbeck changed the title to aphrase from a poem by Robert Burns called "To a Mouse." The poemsays:

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

And the language may be a bit odd to themodern ear because of Burns's thick Scottish dialect, and renderedin modern English reads like:

The best laid schemes of mice and men

Go often awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain,

For promised joy!

This is going to relate to the story, becauseseveral characters have schemes and plans that don't go asintended.

CHARACTERS

LENNIE SMALL: Lennie is big and strongbut unintelligent, possibly mentally retarded. He likes animals,mice, rabbits, and dogs. George is his only real friend.

GEORGE MILTON: George is small and hasa temper. He is gruff, but he's smart. He bosses Lennie around andlooks after him.

AUNT CLARA: Lennie's aunt, now dead.George knew her too, and when she dies, Lennie tags along withGeorge.

THE BOSS: The ranch boss. Seems like afair enough guy, but "has a temper."

CURLEY: The Boss's son. A shortlightweight boxer with an attitude. He hates big guys andimmediately takes a disliking to Lennie, and then George. Curleywas recently married.

CURLEY'S WIFE: A woman who flirts withthe ranch hands, very pretty. Curley seems very possessive of herand fears she will be unfaithful to him.

SLIM: The authority that the ranchhands actually work with (as opposed to The Boss). Described asfriendly and fair.

CARLSON: Carlson is a ranch hand, abig guy, and he seems friendly. He takes on the task of killingCandy's dog.

CANDY: Candy is an old man, a"swamper." He cleans the bunk house and we also learn he cancontribute $350 toward the land George and Lennie want to buy. Helets his dog be shot to death by Carlson.

CROOKS: The "stable buck." A black manwith a crooked spine (the name Crooks comes from his crookedback) who works in the stables. He has some books, is good athorseshoes, and is intelligent. He is isolated in the barn, awayfrom the other men in the bunk house, but also isolated in beingthe only black man there.

WHIT: A ranch laborer. He shows theothers the pulp magazine with the letter from a previouslaborer.