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Of Mice and Men Study Guide
1)
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was born in Salinas, and lived the early part of his life in Monterey County, California. ... During the 1930s, his works included The Red Pony, Pastures of Heaven, Tortilla Flat, In Dubious Battle, and Of Mice and Men. ...
2)
In stanza seven of “To A Mouse”by Robert Burns the farmer is saying to the homeless mouse that he is not alone in thinking that foresight or planning may be in vain, for often the best imaginable plans of mice and men go led astray, leaving nothing but pain and suffering to rend our day. Regardless of the plans which people or mice make for themselves, were all subject to fate, accidents, and other things beyond our control, and these things often destroy our otherwise wonderful plans.
The poignant work, “To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up”, written in the late eighteenth century, was perhaps one of Steinbeck’s greatest inspirations in writing Of Mice and Men. ... But after they come to work on a ranch in the Salinas Valley their hopes, like "the best laid schemes o mice an men," begin to go awry. ... Neither men nor mice can control their destiny. ... Crooks, a black man, is forced to live in a corridor of the barn all by himself and is not allowed to play blackjack with the other men at night. One night, when Lennie comes in to visit Crooks and tells him about how he is going to have alfalfa for his rabbits, Crooks demoralizes naïve Lennie with his oppressive words, “You’re nuts…I seen hundrends of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with their bindles on their back an’ the same damn thing in their heads…An’ never a God damn one of em’ ever gets it.”
5)
In Of Mice and Men, mentally handicapped Lennie represents the vulnerability of the mentally ill. ...
8)
Although the book Of Mice and Men is tragic in nature because of its depressing outcome, I would not consider George a tragic hero. ... His acclaimed work, Of Mice and Men is no exception.
Approximate Word count = 1974
Approximate Pages = 7.9
(250 words per page double spaced)
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