John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men – Background Notes

Author	John Steinbeck (1902-1968), California native; concerned with the plight of the misfits, homeless & hopeless in a fast-changing America.
Title	Allusion to Robert Burns’s (1759-1796) poem, “To a Mouse” (1785) Connection – Theme:
Structure	Like a play with each chapter beginning with a description of setting
Setting	Ranch near Salinas River in California; 1930’s – The Great Depression – Novel covers a total of three days
Characters	George Milton Lennie Small Candy Crooks Curley Curley's Wife Carlson Slim Whit The Boss Aunt Clara Will. Tenner Andy Cushman Al Wilts	Point of View: 3^rd Person Limited Because of this, the characters are revealed indirectly – we do not know what they are thinking or feeling – actions, reactions, & words (dialect) only. Reader must determine motivations, etc.
Themes	friendship, loneliness, the American dream, rootless-ness, power, justice/fairness, mercy, violence, predatory nature of humanity – along with its victims, corrupting power of females, indifference of the world, worth or lack of worth of the individual
Other literary techniques	Realistic Fiction: Dialogue/Dialect/Detail/Imagery – The Great Depression. Captures the American experience; reflection of history
	Allegory: def – Symbol *look for character “types”, categories, symbolic places, symbolic deaths
Philosophy behind the book	Naturalism: The system of thought holding that all phenomena can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws. 1. Presents human behavior as a scientist would – just the facts with no moral judgment at all – attempts to be painstakingly precise 2. Human beings as “animals” – products of their heredity and environment – fate is predetermined by the circumstances of life. 3. People are beaten down and generally defeated by natural and/or hostile economic forces they cannot possibly overcome. 4. Common settings, lower class, unremarkable people who somehow become involved in intense dramatic incidents, usually ending in violent death. 5. While all this seems negative and contrary to a person’s life meaning much of anything, the 20^th century naturalist almost always builds in a sense of importance of the individual – a significance to their lives.