Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This was the first book that I picked out of my TBR jar and one that fit quite nicely as I need to re-familiarise myself with it to help tutor my younger sister with exams. I didn't study this novel when I was in school as I did my English GCSE a year early but many of my friends did, as did another of my sisters and my partner. With so many people reading it around me I read this book when I was 16 and I remembered most of the story, but very little other than that. So this is technically a re-read although I do feel as though I began the book with very little opinion and so am looking at it with fresh eyes.

It is a novella about George and Lennie, two land workers during The Depression who yearn for the American Dream. The 'American Dream' at it's very heart is the dream of freedom and who would dream of it more than those who are shackled most by society? This story is very much a story of the marginalised. It is about Crooks: the black man, Candy: the physically disabled, Curly's wife: the woman and Lennie: the man with learning difficulties. It is a story of how their dreams are sidelined, ignored and crushed for the sake of the privileged. It chronices the victory of the white people, the men, the able, the landowners.

Lennie is childlike and naive but not what we could call innocent. He commits multiple acts of cruelty albeit unwillingly. He kills countless mice, then his puppy and finally Curly's wife. He is rough without meaning to be, but his most redeeming quality is his unshakable faith in George and their dream of a place to call their own. Ultimately, I found myself believing in the little piece of land and the rabbits because Lennie did.

George I find to be incredibly paternal as he took care of Lennie by imposing on him what he believed to be best. George always believed Lennie's 'failure' to be inevitable as we see at the very beginning of the story where George tells Lennie to return to that very spot if there were ever to be trouble. Sadly, George is not quite the hero that Lennie believes him to be. By the time the novella begins George no longer believes in the dream that he continuously sells to his ward and spends his time and money at the local brothel despite making it quite clear that he neither trusts nor likes women. His choice at the end of the book to kill Lennie is as much about granting himself freedom as it is about saving his friend. 

I was very disappointed by the treatment of women in this novella. The most we ever hear any woman outside of the brothel is Curly's wife. It says an awful lot about the status of women that the only female character apart from Aunt Clara isn't even given a name, but is defined purely by the man that she is married to. The ranch workers are very quick to label her a 'tart' and trouble, but in actual fact I just think that she is lonely. In her talk with Lennie she explicitly says that she doesn't like her husband and it's clear that men have tried to take advantage of her in the past. She met a man once who claims that he could make her a star in Hollywood. This naivety is something that her and Lennie share and so the conversation that they have before it all goes wrong is one of the sweetest, most touching parts in all the book. 

I was finishing the book just as the sun was setting and it was the most perfectly evocative scene as George asked Lennie to look out across the river and imagine his rabbits. The end of the book is sad and left me feeling a little empty. Afterwards I felt angry with George and the society in which he and Lennie lived. The book as a whole reminded me of the sentiments in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  Lennie was the creature, strange and different who is resented for that. Outcast by society which exacerbates what it sees as his 'faults'. Lennie is only different and only suffers because society has 'normal' and rules surrounding it. Society is therefore Dr Frankenstein. It is the creator which ultimately seeks to destroy what it has made because it is frightened by it's creation. Lennie is never as radicalised as the Creature nor George (acting on behalf of and as society) as merciless as Victor Frankenstein but, for me there are certainly strong thematic parallels. 

Ultimately, I could never say that I 'liked' this book. I found it frustrating and was disappointed by it's lack of judgement. I found Steinbeck to be portraying something rather than commenting on it and I just wanted him be less neutral. I know that this is not other's experience of this book but I wasn't that impressed by it and as a result doubt that I will be picking up more Steinbeck in the near future. 

Rating: ★★