Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (1937)
For several generations of British schoolchildren, this staple of GCSE English Literature syllabuses will be all-too familiar. However, it wasn't on the menu during my school career and I hadn't got around to reading it as an adult either. Our Year 10s have just started studying it and I am therefore pleased to announce that I have finally joined the ranks of those who have read Of Mice and Men.
But the core running through the centre of the novel is the friendship between George and Lennie. Lennie, the giant with the child's mind who doesn't know his own strength, and the quicker-witted George share a bond that is belied by George's chastisement and which serves to make the conclusion even more devastating.
If you’re one of the few people who haven’t yet read the novella, or the revision guides, or written numerous essays on the multi-layered metaphor of Candy’s dog, I won’t go into too many details of the story. If you haven’t read it, it’s a simple but brilliant story that unfortunately may have become obscured and fogged by exhaustive scrutiny. And if you did read it in school, I would recommend a re-visit without the pressure of annotation and analysis, to enjoy it for the bleak yet powerful story of failed dreams that it truly is.
For several generations of British schoolchildren, this staple of GCSE English Literature syllabuses will be all-too familiar. However, it wasn't on the menu during my school career and I hadn't got around to reading it as an adult either. Our Year 10s have just started studying it and I am therefore pleased to announce that I have finally joined the ranks of those who have read Of Mice and Men.
Steinbeck's classic tale of the Great Depression and the American Dream has been endlessly deconstructed by students and English teachers for years, as successive generations search desperately for yet another original interpretation. In order to judge the story on its own merits, I decided to avoid reading any of these before I started.
It’s a short novella, written by Steinbeck as a ‘playable novel’, resulting in large portions of dialogue and limited settings, with the majority of the scenes taking place inside the bunkhouse or the barn, making it easier to transfer to stage. The story doesn't suffer for this, and in fact, it didn't really occur to me until I had finished reading. The accented dialect of the ranch hands is written out phonetically, which I have found off-putting in the past, but works really well here. I could hear the voices of the characters in my head as I read it.
It’s an intense story, with the action taking place over the course of just a few days, from Lennie and George first arriving on the ranch to the tragic ending in the brush four days later. The whole book is really one ominous foreshadowing that leaves the conclusion inevitable, from the moment we first learn about the incident in Weed and witness Lennie’s initial meeting with Curley’s wife. However, although it quite clearly is, it never feels like an obvious setup and instead only contributes to the intensity of the drama.
It’s a short novella, written by Steinbeck as a ‘playable novel’, resulting in large portions of dialogue and limited settings, with the majority of the scenes taking place inside the bunkhouse or the barn, making it easier to transfer to stage. The story doesn't suffer for this, and in fact, it didn't really occur to me until I had finished reading. The accented dialect of the ranch hands is written out phonetically, which I have found off-putting in the past, but works really well here. I could hear the voices of the characters in my head as I read it.
It’s an intense story, with the action taking place over the course of just a few days, from Lennie and George first arriving on the ranch to the tragic ending in the brush four days later. The whole book is really one ominous foreshadowing that leaves the conclusion inevitable, from the moment we first learn about the incident in Weed and witness Lennie’s initial meeting with Curley’s wife. However, although it quite clearly is, it never feels like an obvious setup and instead only contributes to the intensity of the drama.
Although Steinbeck has important messages about the society of 1930's America, the characters are so exquisitely crafted that the story never feels like a lecture. The racism, discrimination and sexism inherent in society at the time of the book's publication is superbly exposed to the reader through the microcosm of life on the ranch.
But the core running through the centre of the novel is the friendship between George and Lennie. Lennie, the giant with the child's mind who doesn't know his own strength, and the quicker-witted George share a bond that is belied by George's chastisement and which serves to make the conclusion even more devastating.
If you’re one of the few people who haven’t yet read the novella, or the revision guides, or written numerous essays on the multi-layered metaphor of Candy’s dog, I won’t go into too many details of the story. If you haven’t read it, it’s a simple but brilliant story that unfortunately may have become obscured and fogged by exhaustive scrutiny. And if you did read it in school, I would recommend a re-visit without the pressure of annotation and analysis, to enjoy it for the bleak yet powerful story of failed dreams that it truly is.
Five stars.
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