A review by open_ears_now
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

dark emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

I've read "The Pearl" and "The Red Pony" previously. I'm dipping my toes into more classic Americana. 

I'm a fan of Steinbeck's writing style, it's terse like Carver, but has more words for descriptions. 

A great read, the tension builds early on giving you a feeling of what the ending will be like. (I've already known the ending - a book this short and old is spoiled all the time. I still liked it. I've also never had to read it for school, which is also probably why I liked it.)

There's many themes and notes to be found in a story so short. Spoilers ahead:
  • Curly's Wife has no name in the book. No one refers to her by her name, only by names. This aligns with how she feels and how others perceive her. In conversations with Lennie she reveals that she could have made something for herself. She's lonely and no one will talk to her. No one really knows her. The men on the ranch don't regard her for who she is, but of what they think women are.
  • Crooks comes close to tasting a new freedom by imagining a future with Candy, George, and Lennie on their farm. Curly's Wife threatens to accuse him of raping her to put him in his place. The two of them are both locked into a life they don't like, but Curly's Wife doesn't see that. She's a racist. When Crooks talks to her, she snaps back with a threat that he knows he can't do anything about. Crooks is reminded of the world he's in, and takes back wanting to go to George and Lennie's farm.
  • This can be tied back to earlier in the chapter where Crooks is telling Lennie that their dream of owning land will never come true. For Crooks, he knows that his life won't change because of the color of his skin and all the racists around him.
  • Lennie represented hope with his child like innocence and mind. George always kept up the facade of owning land, but Lennie helped him to keep on hoping for something like that. Lennie couldn't understand a future where that wouldn't happen. When Lennie dies, George's hope dies too.
  • When George's hope dies, so does Candy's. Candy has lived all his life in a ranch, hoping for some future, for some change. Maybe he hoped in the past. He has saved money after all. His hope rises, and gets crushed again by Lennie's death.
  • Candy's dog being shot is a foreshadowing of the ending, where George shoots Lennie. Candy is sad and frustrated for being unable to end his own dog's life. George sees that duty as his own. It's fitting then, when Carlson questions why Slim and George are emotional after Lennie dies. Carlson killed Candy's dog and seems to pay no attention to why Candy would be sad. He seems the same here.
  • Slim knows that Candy's dog had to die. It seems he knew that Lennie had to die too, by the hand of George. I think all of the men believed in George's story of Lennie stealing the gun and George wrestling it away from him except for Slim. There's an unspoken understanding from Slim - he knows what George has done for Lennie, and he can understand George's feelings.
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