Of Mice and Men

I came across an old hardbound copy of Of Mice and Men in the librerie¹ at TIFR. The title seemed familiar and intriguing, the quality of the hardbound was excellent, and the golden ochre pages had the mesmerising old paper smell: it was hard not to pick this book up. It is a short and captivating read and I finished it in a few days. I liked it so much that I wanted to share my thoughts on it here.

Spoiler-free review

The book is primarily a tale of two men: George Milton (who is small and witty) and Lennie Small (who is slow and brawny). The story takes place along the Salinas river near the Gabilan mountains, a few miles south of Soledad, California.² The two men are going to go work on a ranch to buck barley, and this is where they (and the reader) meet a slew of characters. There are conflicts in no time, and the story gets tense quickly. I go into more detail on this in the spoiler section of the review.

The plot is well-paced, well-written, and there is always some action taking place. It is simple, and yet, it keeps you hooked. There is vivid description of nature and the passage of time, which helps set the scene and the setting of rural America.

• “The day was going fast now. Only the tops of the Gabilan Mountains flamed with the light of the sun that had gone from the valley.”
• “The flame of the sunset lifted from the mountatintops and dusk came into the valley”
• “Now the light was lifting as the sun went down, and the sun streaks climbed up the wall and fell over the feeding racks and over the heads of the horses.”
• “The sun streaks were high on the wall by now, and the light was growing soft in the barn.”
• “Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun.”
• “Only the topmost ridges were in the sun now.”

Also contributing to the tone is the grammar of the dialogue of the characters. The characters speak with negative concord, that is, they use double negatives even when they want to make a negative statement. They also use words and phrases such as “sets” and “could of” and “ast” and “purty” and “pitchers”. It didn’t take long for me to understand what the characters were saying.³ It was fun to read this dialogue as it made the characters real and believable.

I loved reading this novella! I suggest that you read the book before proceeding further to the section with spoilers so as to not deprive yourself of the opportunity to experience this story.

Review with spoilers

George and Lennie

Of Mice and Men is a tragedy concerning many men, a woman, and hardly any mice. The story is set in a world where each man is on his own, and in this setting, the two protagonists are an unlikely duo who always stick together. The two men could not be more different. George knows how to talk to people, and how to get out and stay out of trouble, whereas Lennie gets heavy physical labour done like it’s a piece of cake. George wishes he would not have to take care of Lennie all the time, and that he would be better off alone. However, he knows that this is not true. George cares for Lenny, and Lenny cares for George as well.

“He ain’t no cuckoo,” said George. “He’s dumb as hell, but he ain’t crazy. An’ I ain’t so bright neither, or I wouldn’t be buckin’ barley for my fifty and found. If I was bright, if I was even a little bit smart, I’d have my own little place, an’ I’d be bringin’ in my own crops, ‘stead of doin’ all the work and not getting what comes up outa the ground.” — George speaks of Lennie

Petting and rabbits

Lennie does not remember things well. Lennie forgets most things. George has to constantly keep reminding him of what events took place recently, and this also tells us what happened. We learn two crucial points at the start of the story: we learn that something bad happened in Weed, which is why they were on the lam, and that Lennie loves to pet mice. Lennie loves petting all things (especially mice), but since he is so big and strong, he inadvertently kills the mice. Lennie is deeply interested in is rabbits. He wants a simple life, and he would like nothing better than to pet animals. And he likes rabbits better than mice because they are larger, and he could pet them harder without killing them.

“I never meant no harm, George. Honest I never.” — Lennie

Lennie is like a big baby. His actions are cruel, but his intentions are not.

“Sure he’s jes’ like a kid. There ain’t no more harm in him than a kid neither, except he’s so strong.” […] “He’s a nice fella,” said Slim. “Guy don’t need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus’ works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain’t hardly ever a nice fella.” — Slim speaks of Lennie

The characters

As the pair reach their new workplace, we meet a bunch of new characters. We are introduced to Candy, an old swamper, who lost his arm in an accident at the ranch. We also briefly see the boss, the owner of the ranch. There is Curley, the son of the owner who is always looking to cause trouble, and there is Curley’s wife, who got married to Curley just two weeks ago. In addition, we also come across Slim, Carlson, Whit, and other workers. Finally, we also hear of Crooks, a person of color who is the stable buck.

Dreaming of a better future

George is focussed on getting their own land, their own mansion. This idea seems grandiose to everyone else, no one believes that this can succeed. No one except George and Lennie (and later Candy). George has told this story to Lennie so many times that they (even Lennie!) remember it by heart.

George’s voice became deeper. He repeated his rhythmically as though he had said them many times before. “Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re poundin’ their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”

“An’ live off the fatta the lan’,” Lennie shouted.

George is cunning, he knows ways to help him achieve his goal. For example, when he learns from Candy that they will get money for their stake if there is an accident on the ranch, he orchestrates and instigates a fight between Curley and Lennie, knowing all well that Lennie will hurt Curley, and that Lennie may get hurt too. At the end, they manage to extract compensation from Curley.

They were on their way to earn enough money for the stake. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the events at the end of the book made it impossible for their dream to come as it turns out.

The people are all on their own

A recurring motif throughout the book is that everyone is either alone or ends up alone.

Carlson insists that they kill Candy’s old dog. They say that Candy’s dog is old and of no use, and stinks, and has rheumatism. However, Candy loves and values his dog. After all, they have grown up together. Carlson suggests to shoot the dog in the back of the head with his Luger pistol.

We see that Crooks is alone as he is a “colored man”. It is only Lennie, who does not have any of the inhibitions or prejudices against Crooks because of race, who talks to him.

We see that no one speaks to Curley’s wife, for she is a woman. What’s worse is that she remains an unnamed character throughout the book; Steinbeck does not even give her a name.

In the climax of the story, Lennie means no harm, but ends up killing a pup, and then kills Curley’s wife as well. Candy is the first to find out, and George finds out too soon thereafter. George knows that Curley and others will not like what George did. This is a repeat of the Weed incident all over again, but even worse this time. George tries to convince Curley and Carlson to let Lennie live, but they do not listen. He has no choice but to go along with the others.

We cut to Lennie in his safe spot, as instructed by George. George leads the rest of the gang to Lennie.

“I ain’t got no people,” George said. “I seen the guys that go around on the ranches alone. That ain’t no good. They don’t have no fun. After a long time they get mean. They get wantin’ to fight all the time.”

“Ain’t many guys travel around together,” he mused “I don’t know why. Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

“It’s a lot nice to go around with a guy you know,” said George.

Cyclical story and foreshadowing

The story is cyclical in nature. The book begins near a pool, with sycamore trees, and a heron, and both men walking towards the pool, and Lennie has done something bad, unintentionally. The book ends with all of these conditions. I half expected the book to end as it started, showing a recurring loop. However, what happens is much darker.

George ends up killing Lennie. He talks to Lennie about their dream one final time, and then shoots him in the back of his neck with the Luger, just how Candy’s dog died. The only difference being, that it was George himself who killed his ‘dog’ unlike Candy.

I feel terrible for Lennie. Lennie died even though he didn’t mean any harm. In some ways, it was a worse ending for George, as he has to live with the fact that he killed his friend, and now he ends up alone, just like everyone else.