num_pages: 113
description: 
  “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.”
They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.
language: English
title: Of Mice and Men
titlecomplete: Of Mice and Men
characters: Whit, Crooks, Slim, Candy, Carlson, Curley's Wife, Lennie Small, Curley, George Milton
genres: Fiction, Historical, American, School, Literature, Read For School, Classics, Novels, High School, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 2457935
places: California, Salinas Valley, California
awards: awardedAt: -1009814400000
name: New York Drama Critics' Circle Award
category: Best American Play
publisher: Heinemann Educational Publishers