May 29, 2014
Mr. Natoli
American Literature
Of Mice and Men Final Summative Of Mice and Men is a novel written by John Steinbeck in which we are introduced to two men heading for a ranch to make a living and find their way. Lennie is a tall, strong man with little to no intelligence. He is often undermined and does everything under the command of his friend George, who is small, but also very strong. The title of this novel is said to have come from an ode written by Robert Burns entitled “To a Mouse”. In this poem there is a line that states “The best laid plans of Mice and Men, often go awry, and leave us nothing but grief and pain, for the joy we expected.” This shares a close relation with plans that George and Lennie had laid out for themselves about arriving on the ranch to work. George and Lennie had a dream to one day own their own land and live in their own house. On this land Lennie would tend the rabbits and George would do the other work. Lennie was overly excited about this plan because he had a love for anything that was soft, much like mice, rabbits and other animals with fur. However, Lennie had a bad habit of getting himself into trouble, always unintended he put a lot of stress on George and his relationship with the other workers. George often talked about how much easier life would be if he didn’t have Lennie to look after, so when Lennie killed a poor innocent woman on accident he took it upon himself to kill Lennie, because it would have caused him more hurt to see anyone else do it. By putting Lennie out and saving him a lifetime in prison George abandoned all the plans he and Lennie had set out for themselves in the future. They both had always looked forward to the dream they wanted to achieve, and now that Lennie was gone none of it would ever be the same. George couldn’t go on with the plans without Lennie; his heart would hurt knowing that the one person who was most excited about getting their own ranch couldn’t be