This primary source set includes photographs, book excerpts, and documents that provide context for both events and themes in the novella. Of Mice and Men is still widely-taught in high schools across the United States eighty years after publication, not only because it is part of the literary canon, but because Steinbeck has packed so many literary devices and complex social issues into a tiny little package. Its first production in 1937 was written and produced by Steinbeck, himself.ĭue to racism, profanity, and violence, Of Mice and Men is on the American Library Association’s list of the Most Challenged Books in the 21st Century. Because the novella is told in six parts, where each scene has a specific setting and the plot is chronological and dialogue driven, it has also been frequently adapted for the stage. They are seeking their version of the American Dream: to own a farm together “an' live off the fatta the lan’.” However, dreaming becomes desperation as circumstances continually conspire to rip it away. 1 2 Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. In a time when every man is for himself to survive, George and Lennie travel together and take responsibility for each other. Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937 and set during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Of Mice and Men explores the themes of loneliness and isolation. Steinbeck's tale of commitment, loneliness, hope, and loss remains one of America's most widely read and beloved novels.John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice and Men tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two migrant ranch workers in Salinas, California. Of Mice and Men also represents an experiment in form, as Steinbeck described his work, 'a kind of playable novel, written in novel form but so scened and set that it can be played as it stands.' A rarity in American letters, it achieved remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films. But after they come to work on a ranch in the fertile Salinas Valley of California, their hopes, like 'the best laid schemes o' mice an' men,' begin to go awry. Clinging to each other in their loneliness and alienation, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to call their own-a couple of acres and a few pigs, chickens, and rabbits back in Hill Country where land is cheap.

An intimate portrait of two men who cherish the slim bond between them and the dream they share in a world marred by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness.

John steinbeck mice of men