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Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

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High School English, 9th - 12th
by Shmoop.com

Resource Summary:

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Overview

Of Mice and Men, published by John Steinbeck in 1937, is set in the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression. In 1936, Steinbeck took a journalistic assignment for the San Francisco News, investigating the migrant working situation in California. The stories and circumstances he discovered are reflected in Of Mice and Men. The novella’s two main characters, George and Lennie, embody the American struggle to survive the Depression, but the novella is timeless because it captures the personal isolation and suffering present in the land of opportunity.

Of Mice and Men is more than a little book about a certain time and place; it covers friendship and sacrifice, not to mention a healthy dose of the bittersweet futility of holding onto dreams. Even as Steinbeck was reworking the text as a play script, he was developing its broader themes and context for his masterwork Grapes of Wrath. Of Mice and Men can be thought of as a sketch for that great painting, though it still stands alone. For its stark and unflinching observations, this is one of Steinbeck’s best-loved pieces – and a significant contribution to his Nobel Prize in literature.


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