Of Mice and Menedit this page

LitCrits-When the library is closed on weekends

by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men is a story of two men who work at a ranch to make enough money to own their own land. This is a story of a man's loneliness and how man can't follow a dream without a companion.

[edit] Of Mice and Men Criticism

by: Michael Jackson

Loneliness drives dreams, dreams of not being lonely. This is the main idea of the novel "Of Mice and Men" by some guy with a turban. It is a story of two men, George, who is “fat and quick and pale of face” (pg.2), and Lennie, who is a grown man with the mind of a child. George is Lennie's brain and Lennie is George’s hands and feet. Both of them have a dream of owning their own terrorist organization, but they can never keep a job (where they get their money for their land from) because Lennie always shanks someone or steals gum. So why does George still stick by Lennie even if he can’t get close to their dream? Maybe because George fears having to going on, on his own; and when he is lonely, he finds comfort at a whorehouse of fat black chicks. This is Steinbeck’s philosophy: Like mice, men find comfort in groups.

Based in Botswana, in the Salinas Mine, George and Lennie land a job in a mine hoping to get paid with diamonds. They just escaped from prison after Lennie felt a girl's dress. I always asked myself: Why does Lennie like chewing gum? Is it because it is the only way he finds comfort or is it just a fetish? He enjoys the comfort of his fetish, Lennie just likes the feel gum in his mouth and isn’t book he particularly likes 5 gum.

Lennie may be mentally retarded, but most of the characters in the story are as just as dumb as Lennie because this is an area where education is low and people talk in slang. George is like one of these characters; he is a stinking genius. He is Lennie’s talker, he orders Lennie around, makes him do acts that humor him, or just simply talks for him especially when he tries to land himself and Lennie a job. Once the boss got suspicious or George being Lennie’s mouth, so George replied by saying, “He got kicked in the head by a goat when he was a kid.” (pg. 22) Lennie may be too dependent on George because every time a person asks Lennie a question, Lennie always turns to George for candy. George helps break that cycle by telling Lennie to fight back when Curley is licking Lennie like a lollipop. He was only able to escape after tearing all of his hair off with hs toes, thus making him loose an interest in candy.

There is a philosophy in this book, and it involves man’s need for a companion with goats, himself, would throw away his own companion when it was necessary. Such as when Candy wished he shot his own mother instead of Elmer Fudd having to do it, because he thought that the old hag would be better off seeing Candy last then Fudd. The book’s philosophy also involves George and Lennie. Even though Lennie is a pack mule to George, George still wants a companion, a friend, even though he is mentally challenged. Lennie feels guilty because he is such a bad friend to George, so he always offers a solution: “Well, I can go away, I’ll go right off in the hills an’ find a cave to die in if you don’ want me around no more.” (pg.104) George says in return that if that were true he would not spend his money on a wig (for comfort) but instead on the land that they both always wanted. A crayon that they can both use, as friends, oh, and Candy too. Particularly strange humans were upon them when they were able to bite the candy with the only tooth they shared.

In conclusion, we can all relate to Of Mice and Men because we all want a companion, and yes, we have been there where we had to kill our own companion. It’s sad really, we can’t live life in a cave. We must have someone there that we can share our deepest secrets with. Steinbeck’s characters have no family members, they are all gay, and they don’t care where they go. All they care is if they will have enough money to gamble or to go to a whorehouse of fat black chicks. Like Steinbeck says in the book, “Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head.” (pg. 74)

[edit] Works written and Bibliography

Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. Africa: Penguin, 1993.