Of Mice and Men

I finished reading the classic tale "Of Mice and Men" (Steinbeck) today, and I decided I would use this blog to write an appropriate book review of the short novel. As I am new to writing book reviews you will have to bear with me. I am also going to try to keep the spoilers at a minimum.

So I was slightly pressured into reading this by my boyfriend and subsequently his mother, who both urged me to read it (alas, I never read it in high school). So since I have plenty of time now (it being winter break and all), I decided to read it and write a review.


I found the short novel to be very compelling, and the characters unique and captivating. The language itself was a little hard to understand, as it was from a different era (the 1930s, as I later found out). One of the main characters was constantly using words like "tart" and other outdated words (such as the "n" word, but that was an acceptable usage at the time). I found that the language difference actually enhanced my reading experience, as it allowed me to delve deeper into the novel and relate to the characters as well as the plot.

Speaking of the plot, the plot moved at a very fast pace, a pace I was very surprised about and not used to. The book moved very fast through the plot. However, there were pauses to add detailed and sometimes poetic descriptions about the settings of the novel. In fact, at the beginning of the novel, long paragraphs were taken for descriptions of the characters and of the settings before the author introduced the dialogue. Because of this style, though, we are introduced to the characters in very appropriate ways and allowed to create our own opinions of them.

Concerning the characters of the novel, Steinbeck naturally draws you in to feel pity and somewhat mixed feelings for Lennie, one of the main characters. Lennie is what can loosely be defined as mentally retarded--to an extent. Due to his repetitious behavior and other behaviors throughout the novel, I personally feel that Lennie is probably a very low-functioning autistic. The author has us sympathizing with Lennie throughout the novel--even though he does do terrible things, his intention is never to harm anyone, and after he has done bad wrong he feels a tremendous amount of guilt.

George, his everlasting companion and caretaker, is an interesting character himself. Sometimes it seems he feels obligated and resentful that he has to take care of Lennie, other times he just feels sorry for him and the fact that he really doesn't belong in the world of the novel.

After reading the end of the novel and mulling it over, I realized that I had found my interpretation of the novel. Most of the characters had dreams--George, Candy, and Lennie formed a dream (and possibly a goal) together to get some land, farm off of it, and live alone and happy together, but their dreams cannot be accomplished because of Lennie. Lennie does not belong in the world of the novel; he is misinterpreted, and because of this he is not accepted and will never be accepted. That is the tragedy of this story and what makes it memorable.

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I plan on writing reviews for novels and films sporadically in this blog. However, I may be writing reviews (and interpretations) of classic literature, because I will be reading such literature in my classes next semester. I'll probably be so busy I won't have time to read novels outside of college reading (as usual).