Of mice and men, boor review

1. Name 2 themes developed in the novel and say how they are dealt with.
2. Explain the author’s message and its possible links with his biography.
3. Would you recommend the novel to someone? why?

1. The two main themes are Dreams and Loneliness.

        All through the novel, those two themes are brought up quite a lot, especially the dreams. George’s dream is to be independent and have his own farm, with no one to tell him what to do or not to do. Lennie is less ambitious or rather more simple minded, he wants to tend rabbits in George’s farm which is expected when we see how much he loves soft things. This «dream» is what keeps George and Lennie going, even through hardships. They are not the only ones with a dream though, Curley’s wife, for exemple, dreams of becoming an actress. But for every character, sadly, their dreams are far from being achieved or just become impossible, like George’s dream when he killed Lennie. Even if George didn’t think his dream would become true, there still was hope, but the moment he made that decision, it was over. He could have abandoned Lennie and just let him become a «convict» and let him destroy his own dream, but he didn’t.

        That’s what takes us to the theme of Loneliness. You’re probably thinking: «What?», indeed, that’s a good question, l didn’t know how to make a transition between the two themes so… yeah. I’m joking, don’t give me a bad grade please. More seriously, the brotherhood between George and Lennie is only used to make a contrast with each of the characters’ loneliness. Lennie fills up George’s loneliness, we know that by that one time Lennie said that if George is fed up with him he can just go somewhere else and leave him alone but George disagreed and took back the mean things he said to him even if Lennie is nothing more but a handicap to George (it’s a fact, you can fight me on this). Lennie depends intellectually on George and George depends emotionally on Lennie. But other characters’ loneliness is more perceptible. Curley’s wife is very lonely, to the point where she seeks the men’s attention, she is disappointed in her husband because she doesn’t find in him a listening ear. It’s the same for Candy after he lost his dog and the black man who is isolated. Well they don’t seek the men’s attention (happily, otherwise we wouldn’t be reading that for class) but we can feel their loneliness. Also, the town’s name is Soledad which means «loneliness» in Spanish. You can’t be more clear, let’s be honest.

2)   The novel was inspired from Steinbeck’s past as a migratory worker (also called a bindlestiff). He used that experience to create Lennie and George. He moved to the west of the US during the Great Depression to a land owned by his father and everything he ate was natural (fish, crab, vegetables…), we can guess that he also used this aspect of his life to make Lennie and George’s dream.

3)   I’d probably recommend this story to anyone who has time to waste, the way it’s written and the story itself is interesting and sometimes even funny, but lt makes me really sad . I feel bad for most of the characters and guess what? l don’t read to feel sad, l read to travel somewhere better, to forget, if l wanted to feel depressed, l’d just look at my own life haha. Maybe l’m reading too much into things, but looking at the deep psychological meaning of each character’s behavior and situation, it’s very disheartening. For example, Curley’s wife is lonely and doesn’t have anyone to talk to, l was expecting that maybe she would become a star, but how did she end? Dead, lying in straw stack with cowpat and a dead pup. Wow. Lennie the happy-idiot? Killed by his own bestfriend. WOw. Greorge? Working in a farm with people he doesn’t like for the rest of his life and the death of his almost-brother on the conscience. WOW! AMAZING! Life is beautiful! No really, I hate stories that end badly. Life is depressing enough as it is, thanks though.

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