I remember reading this at school at being completely uninterested in the story. I remember the teacher droning on about basic plot allegories before we read each section; she would tell us what certain things “meant” before we had even seen them. She would explain how this portrays a vital part of American culture and a vital element of human nature. All in all we were told what to see in the book before we even began reading.

Perhaps she should have just let us read it first, and see what we took from it before being told how to read it. I hated it at the time. I hated being told that passages meant certain things when clearly criticism is just speculation. This wasn’t effective teaching: it was being told how to think. She should have prized open our minds and made us engage with it more. When I approached it again years later I did so with more of an open mind, I was determined to find more in the book than I’d been taught to see.

And I did. Lenny and George naively dream of the farm; they dream of a retreat where they can reside in friendship without having to answer to any master. They wouldn’t have to go to work; they can simply work for themselves. Running their own farm would mean that they are self-sustainable. They could grow crops for themselves and choose when they laboured: they would be free. Well George wants this. Lenny just wants a few rabbits to pet. The attractiveness of the dream draws in Candy, who is very old and very lonely. He doesn’t want to end up like his dog: put down because of his years. He wants someone to protect him and care for him in his advanced years. The three become united by this shared dream but it is nothing but fancy.

“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”



Indeed, the American dream doesn’t exist in this book. Only harsh cold reality awaits the protagonists. Crooks, for all his cruel and understandable bitterness, was right in the end. The farm is just a dream. It is evocative of the loneliness within the human soul, and how we will always long for the impossible. It’s impossible because there is no sunset over the rainbow. Life doesn’t quite work like that. People don’t always get what they want. The world is a cruel unforgiving place here. This is embodied by Lenny; he is vulnerable and emotionally weak. He is completely unaware of the vicious strength he possesses. He never truly understands the situation. He almost walks through the world blind. The world he sees is different to that of everyone else’s.

So this is a story about the outsiders, about the unloved and misunderstood. This a story about those that long for an alternative to the drudgery of standard human existence, but have their expectations cut short. This is a story about how we judge people based upon their appearance and how we label them unjustly. This is a story that Mary Shelley would have loved, a story where a character with an innocent heart is destroyed by the world he should have been accepted by.

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این استین بک بی رحم! عین تقدیره داستان هاش: اول به آدم رؤیاهای شیرین نشون میده، در حالی که آدم میدونه قراره همه چیز به فاجعه ختم بشه.
فکر نمی کردم بعد از این همه مدت، یه داستان بتونه این طور منقلبم کنه، با این که آماده ی همچین پایانی بودم.

Of Mice & Men, by the modern American author John Steinbeck, is a powerful and moving analysis of life during the Depression of the American era. It deals with the lives of two ranch farm hands, Lennie and George. Lennie is a simple, backward man who is tall and powerful but kind. George is the brains of the outfit, who organizes and arranges for them to get work on the ranches and farms as they travel and dream of getting their place, where they can make some money, have a home, and where Lennie can have lots of rabbits to play with and stroke.
The short novel is set out in acts as though it were a play and begins with the two men having to run away from the ranch they are working at, as Lennie has gotten too fond of one of the women on the farm who was kind to him. As he is pure and likes soft things, he stroked the lady's dress and accused her of trying to attack her. They run off and hide until the men stop searching, then move on to another ranch where they have work lined up.
The novel is about friendship, loneliness, plans, and broken dreams during the Depression. It hits America in the '50s—a must-read.

“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”

Sometimes, there is nothing to say because the author said it for you.

I read Of Mice and Men decades ago when it was required reading in high school. During that time period, several U.S. states banned the book.

I listened to it on audiobook and it's narrated phenomenally by Gary Sinise. The plot focuses on two men who stick together while working and looking for migrant work during the Great Depression. George is a small, thin man and Lennie has learning disabilities. They have a shared dream to own a plot of land where they can grow their own food and be their own bosses. Lennie wants to tend rabbits because he likes petting things that are soft.

Of Mice and Men was published in 1937. The language in the book is indicative of the time that it was created and it is jarring and offensive.

If you want to feel real sad, absorb Steinbeck's pitch perfect prose right to your dome. A worthwhile bummer of a great book.

When I was in college taking teaching courses I graded a lot of homework about this book. It was pretty magical, interacting with a novel I had loved when I read it in school and seeing it again through the opinions of young students. I’ve always found I like a novel more when I can dig into it and being able to be on the teaching side really opened it up further, especially because I was reading key passages over and over again. So this book holds a really special place in my heart.

Have read this a second time for book Club and just as good second time around.

I just love Of Mice and Men and am delighted to have read my second Steinbeck book and enjoyed it so much. This is the story of two friends George and his large simple minded friend Lennie who are both drifters with nothing in the world except each other and a dream of owning land and settling down raising rabbits and "liven of the fatta da lan" and having peace in their lives. I love the characters of this book and how Steinbeck describes them, they get right inside your head. The plot of this novel is so simple yet very sharp and well written and the reader is drawn very quickly into the story. While reading this book I could see other book that I have read came from the characters and plot of this novel. This is a very small book just over a 100 pages but a wonderful read that leaves you wanting more of Steinbecks wonderful story telling. A 5 Star read.

This is a book of characters who aspire to go places, but never quite get there. It is the only book that brought me to tears when I finished the last pages. You feel for both Lennie and George throughout, and while it's hard to read of the abuse towards the former, it allows you to see the depth and strength of the bond that both men have with each other. Companionship and loneliness are two recurring themes throughout this simple, yet impactful story.

“I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why.”

Petition to begin a support group for anyone who has been emotionally destroyed by Of Mice and Men?!

Rereading Of Mice and Men was a unique and highly rewarding experience. I studied this book inside out at school, memorising entire sections and quotes, studying themes and characters, and over the years it has remained a favourite of mine. Revisiting this book transported me right back into the classroom, back to discovering one of the books that would stay with me forever.

Of Mice and Men is a simple story, with a relatively small cast of characters, coming in at just over 100 pages. Yet what Steinbeck manages to achieve within such a short page count is staggering. My heart breaks for all of these characters - the loneliness, the broken dreams, as they all strive to find their place in the world. The characters are what make this book special - how can you not feel for George and Lennie? Or Candy and his dog? Or even Curley’s wife, villainous though she may be presented initially, who isn’t even given a name. Through Of Mice and Men we get to witness beautiful friendships and human kindness, but unfortunately we also have to face cold hard reality, racism and prejudices.

I have loved every single Steinbeck book that I have read so far - his prose and writing is on another level for me. He particularly had a fine hand for when it came to descriptions of landscapes and nature. Simply BEAUTIFUL.

So happy that I revisited this once again. Even if I basically cry from start to finish. This book is proof that you can study a book to death in school and still love it in adulthood. 5 stars.

موش‌ها و آدم‌ها برای من جز همون مجموعه کتابایی بود که باید یواشکی و دزدکانه از توی کتاب‌فروشی برمی‌داشتمش و سریع حساب می‌کردم و می‌پریدم بیرون! چرا؟! چون اضطراب سنگینی نگاه دوستان و مردم که با خودشون بگن: «عه! دیگه این که همه خوووووندن!!» اذیت کنندست.
بهرحال، خیلی خیلی حالم خوب میشه وقتی مترجم مقدمه رو می‌بره آخر داستان و با خیال راحت به خواننده اجازه می‌ده بدون مقدمه چینی بره شخصیت‌ها و داستان کتاب رو لمس کنه و در نهایت نظر خودش و محتوای کتاب رو بهمون می‌گه.

شخصیت لنی خیلی دوست داشتنیه البته قطع به یقین فقط در رمان!!! ، چرا که اگر در زندگی واقعی همچین کسی از اطرافیانم وجود داشت دلم می‌خواست هر روز بمیرم و رنج کشیدنش رو نبینم!


پایان: پانزدهم شهریور ماه سال ۱۴۰۲

در بین چند کتابی که از استاین بک خوانده‌ام موش‌ها و آدم‌ها را خیلی دوست داشتم. فوق العاده بود. ترجمه و موخره آقای سروش حبیبی هم بسیار عالی بود. دوستانی که کتاب را خوانده‌اند اگر اهل فیلم هستند فیلم اقتباسی این اثر
Of mice and men (1992) 7.5
را ببینند که جان مالکویچ هم در آن ایفای نقش می‌کند. البته گویا چندین اقتباس از این اثر صورت گرفته است ولی من این نسخه را دیدم و فیلم خوبی بود.

A kind of modern fairy tale of a little intelligent man and a big powerful giant, however shall we say quite dumb ( intellectually challenged). The friends wander California's many dusty roads and get any job possible, as lowly migrant farmhands during the harsh lengthy Great Depression, 1929- 1939 just trying to survive the deluge, nothing very special here the sad truth be told, as so many millions of
others are in the same frightening situation, starvation. George Milton the little guy is always telling Lenny Small, (the name sure doesn't fit him) the large fellow what to do, guidance the poor man desperately needs. The two arrive at another farm where they meet Curley the boss's sin , make that son. A bully who pushes Lenny too far, some people don't know when to quit, he pays the price. Best scene in the novella is Lenny crushing Curley's hand, like it was made of jelly...you can almost literally feel his bones crack and crumble, the result makes for a sickening sound. The childlike behemoth likes tiny cute things animals or women, still with a bad habit of killing them by accident, he means well, yet they're nevertheless... dead. The men are always talking about buying a modest ranch, the goal more a dream than a probability for that era, keeps them together, George feels responsible for Lenny and the truth they need each other. However Curley's wife, no name just "wife" she wasn't an important enough character the author believed, to have one is killed, the dream shattered. Can Lenny escape punishment or does he ...the crude would say , buy the farm? John Steinbeck; history has shown him to be a great writer, the critics much less numerous now, in one of his most famous books for the interested, the title comes from an old Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse". The if I may judge its meaning is misunderstandings... can lead to hate and violence, all people will be good to each other if only they knew their enemies better, love not hostility would prevail; this may in today's atrocious climate seem naive but we must believe or there is no future.