Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men is a touching tale of the friendship between cardinal menset against the backdrop of the United States during the low of the 1930s. The book addresses the real hopes and dreams of working-class America. Steinbecks short novel raises the lives of the poor and dispossessed to a higher, symbolic level. The novel opens with two workers who are crossing the country on foot to find work. George is a cynical, irresolute man. George looks after his companion, Lennietreating him like a brother.Lennie is a giant man of incredible strength, however has a metal hinderance that makes him slow-to-learn and al intimately child-like. George and Lennie had to flee the last town because Lennie touched a womans dress and hed been accused of rape. They begin to work at a ranch, and they share their dream they wish to own their own piece of land and farm for themselves. They feel dispossessed and unable to control their own lives. The climactic moment of the novel rev olves around Lennies be intimate of soft things. He pets the hair of Curleys wife, but she gets scared.In the resulting struggle, Lennie kills her and runs away. The farmhands form a lynch mob to punish Lennie, but George finds him first. George understands that Lennie cannot live in the world, and he wants to give up him the pain and terror of being lynched, so he shoots him in the back of the head. The literary power of Of Mice and Men rests firmly on the relationship between the two central characters, their friendship and their shared dream. These two men are so very different, but they come together, stay together, and support each other in a world full of people who are destitute and alone.In a way, Of Mice and Men is an extremely despondent novel. The novel shows the dreams of a small crowd of people and then contrasts these dreams with a reality that is unreachable, which they cannot achieve. Even though the dream never becomes reality, Steinbeck does leave us with an opt imistic message. George and Lennie do not achieve their dream, but their friendship stands out as a shining example of how people can live and love even in a word of lunacy and disconnectedness.Its powerful ending is climactic and shocking to the extreme. But, we also come to an understanding of the tragedy of life. Regardless of the sufferings of those who live it, life goes on. The book is great, highly recommended. Theres so much human nature in those few pages, its just amazing how Steinbeck managed to pack it all in so nicely. Many of the most major and fundamental principles of the human psyche are here self-esteem, meaning to ones life, loneliness, friendship, love. The book is a masterpiece.