Of Mice & Men
By: John Steinbeck
Novel Summary
This novel starts out introducing you to the main characters, which are mainly focused on Lennie and George. These characters are best friends and are on a road trip. However, it is not a fun road trip. Lennie and George are both broke to the point they could be considered poor. They are both on the hunt for a job to make money, in a northern part of California. George is the smart one who is intelligent, and usually makes most of the decisions. On the other hand, Lennie suffers from a slight mental disability. He has a weird obsession of petting things like mice and rabbits. The pair wander around until they eventually find work. Things become slightly better when they find a job at a ranch in Soledad. This is when new characters get introduced like Candy, Crooks, Curley, Curley's wife, Slim, and Carlson.
Theme analysis
This story teaches a lesson in human nature. Every character like Lennie, George, Curley, and Candy all comfort each other at some point to comfort each other's lonliness and self isolation. At some point in the story, characters admit real truths. For an example, Curley was always protective over his wife, but as the book progresses, Curley admits that he is actually not happy in his marriage. Moral of the story is that in the end, they all actually made each other feel better about themselves.
Lennie
Lennie is very tall and thin. He has a slight mental disability, and he enjoys petting strange things. (Ex: Rabbits, Mice, Women, etc.) He usually is not a very big help to most situations, and is mostly despised by everyone.
George
George is very quick and hard-working. He assists Lennie with a lot of work and basically protects him.
Candy
An old man who lives on the ranch. He has one hand. His dog was killed in the beginning of the story.