Of Mice and MenBy John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck (1902-1968)• Won Pulitzer Prize for

Grapes of Wrath (1939), East of Eden (1952), and Of Mice and Men (1937).• Born in Salinas,

California• Destination point for

dust bowl migration• Received the Nobel

Peace Prize in 1962

John Steinbeck (Cont.)• Was a voice for the poor and downtrodden• Anti-Capitalism views• Association with labor unions and leftist groups influenced his

writing and eventually lead to people believing in his association with the communist party.• “Socialism never took root in America because the poor see

themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.”

Of Mice and Men (1937)• According to the American Library Association Steinbeck was one

of the ten most frequently banned authors from 1990 to 2004, with Of Mice and Men ranking sixth out of 100 such books in the United States.

• “For too long the language of books was different from the language of men. To the men I write about profanity is adornment and ornament and is never vulgar and I try to write it so.”

• Of Mice and Men in particular contains euthanasia, racial slurs, anti- business themes, and contains offensive language.

• Titled after Robert Burns poem titled To a Mouse, “The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry”

• “In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other.”

-John Steinbeck, 1938