Biographical Information and Novel Overview

John Steinbeck and Of Mice and Men

BiographyBorn on February 27,

1902Born and raised in

Salinas, CaliforniaWorked summers as a

hired hand on a ranchAttended Stanford

UniversityLeft in 1925 to pursue

a career in writing in New York.

Unsuccessful at this and returned to California.

Biography1929 – Steinbeck

publishes his first novel, Cup of Gold.Poorly received, as

were his next few books.

Married his first wife in 1930.Moved to Pacific

Grove, California, where the people influenced his writing.

Continued writing, but not successfully until 1935.

BiographyIn 1935 Steinbeck

published Tortilla Flat, the first of his works to gain any success. It was followed by Cannery Row, another success.

In 1939, Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, the novel that won him the Pulitzer Prize.

“ I hold that a writer who does not

passionately believe in the perfectibility of

man has no dedication nor any

membership in literature.”

- From John Steinbeck’s Nobel Prize Acceptance

Speech

BiographyAwarded the Nobel

Prize for Literature in 1962 for “his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and keen social perception.”

Died on December 20, 1968 in New York City.

His ashes were returned to Salinas, California.

Of Mice and MenWritten in 1937.Regarded by some

as his greatest achievement.

Part of a three-novel series about the plight of the California laboring class. The other novels were In Dubious Battle and The Grapes of Wrath.

Of Mice and Men The title for Of Mice and

Men came from a poem written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785.

The poem is titled “To a Mouse, on turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough”

Steinbeck was inspired by two lines in the seventh stanza of the poem. “The best-laid schemes o’

mice an men/ Gang aft agely,

Roughly paraphrased, this means that even though we may plan for one thing, sometimes the things we plan fail to happen, or worse, things go terribly wrong.

Of Mice and Men – Historical InfluencesAfter World War I, many

poor rural farmers from Great Plains States such as Oklahoma and Texas moved to California to find work in the fields.

A recession following WWI led to a drop in the price of crops, so farmers had to produce more crops to earn the same amount of money.

Of Mice and Men – Historical InfluencesAs a result of the need

to produce more, many farmers bought more land, and subsequently invested in machinery to work that land.

To make matters worse, the stock market crashed in 1929.Many farmers were

unable to pay their debts and lost their property, forcing them to find other ways to support their families.

Of Mice and Men – Historical InfluencesDust Bowl in the Plains

States. The land was dry and unproductive. Farming was no longer a dependable way to support a family.Many families from these

states packed up and moved to California.

Known as Okies.Okies were often met with

scorn from the California natives, which made their dislocation even more unpleasant.

Of Mice and Men – Historical InfluencesOf Mice and Men

focuses on the plight of migrant workers such as those coming to California in the 1920s and 1930s.

Of Mice and Men – Plot OverviewTwo migrant workers,

George and Lennie, come to California looking for work and dreaming of owning a farm of their own. The men find work, but Lennie, who is mentally handicapped, finds himself in trouble, and it is up to George to find a way out.

Of Mice and Men - Characters Lennie – a lumbering, childlike migrant worker.

Slightly mentally disabled, Depends on George completely.

George – Lennie’s traveling companion. Devoted to caring for Lennie, although he claims otherwise.

Candy – the aging ranch handyman Curley’s wife – the only female character in the novel although

she is not named. Represents the temptation of females in a male-dominated

world. Crooks – the black stable hand Curley – the boss’s son. Confrontational, mean spirited, and

aggressive. Slim – highly skilled mule driver Carlson – ranch hand The Boss – man in charge of the ranch and Curley’s father Whit – ranch hand

Of Mice and Men – ThemesThe Predatory

Nature of Human Existence

Fraternity and the Idealized Male Friendship

The Impossibility of the American Dream

A theme is a broad idea, or a message, conveyed in a piece of literature. Themes usually deal

with life, society, or human nature.

Most themes are not directly stated. They are usually implied or hinted at.

Of Mice and Men - MotifsThe Corrupting

Power of WomenLoneliness and

CompanionshipStrength and

Weakness

A motif is a recurring idea, object, place, or statement in a piece of literature that helps develop the story’s themes.

Of Mice and Men - SymbolsGeorge and

Lennie’s FarmLennie’s PuppyCandy’s Dog

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.