John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men

Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway

was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full,

rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes, heavily made up. Her fingernails

were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like sausages.

She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the insteps of which

were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers. "I'm lookin' for

Curley," she said. Her voice had a nasal, brittle quality.

George looked away from her and then back. "He was in here a

minute ago, but he went."

"Oh!" She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the

door frame so that her body was thrown forward. "You're the new fellas

that just come, ain't ya?"

"Yeah."

Lennie's eyes moved down over her body, and though she did not

seem to be looking at Lennie she bridled a little. She looked at her

fingernails. "Sometimes Curley's in here," she explained.

George said brusquely. "Well he ain't now."

"If he ain't, I guess I better look some place else," she said

playfully.

Lennie watched her, fascinated. George said, "If I see him, I'll

pass the word you was looking for him."

She smiled archly and twitched her body. "Nobody can't blame a

person for lookin'," she said. There were footsteps behind her,

going by. She turned her head. "Hi, Slim," she said.

Slim's voice came through the door. "Hi, Good-lookin'."

"I'm tryin' to find Curley, Slim."

"Well, you ain't tryin' very hard. I seen him goin' in your house."

She was suddenly apprehensive. "'Bye, boys," she called into the

bunkhouse, and she hurried away.

Curley's wife enters Steinbeck's Of mice and Men through the male dominated space that is the bunk room and immediately casts the two friends into darkness. She literally and metaphorically takes away their light presumably we assume, a foreshadowing of her role in the text. She will destroy their intimacy and even their lives. However she is also destroyed herself and she is notably only 'a girl' too. I do like the simplicity of Steinbeck's description and the momentum of the detail. We accumulate a picture of this nameless woman as if we are there with George and Lenny reviewing the appearance of this anomalous figure. For Curley's wife is an anomaly. She doesn't have a function on this ranch by reason of her sex and her effect on others seems disruptive if not cataclysmic.

The heavily sexualised appearance of Curley's wife is not of course only dependent upon the consuming and objectifying gaze of the male characters. It is also due to her attempt to emulate those film stars she aspires to become. This falsity therefore is emphasised through the very 'constructed' and even theatrical way she is made up. The reader recognises her identity is based on this debased copy cat performance of a film star and I have always wondered about the 'nasal brittle' quality of her voice. Why is this detail included by Steinbeck within the narrative, and what are its implications? Guy Clare pointed out to me from his situation as a vet, that her voice is probably nasal as it is unhealthy AND would preclude her becoming a film star as it is harsh and off putting. This seems very plausible and adds pathos to the description as it negates her dream and the novel is of course, all about dreams and their unrealities.

John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is one of them books that you just cant put down, very emotional. Very enjoyable to read.

Great plot! Especially the climax! No bad points whatsoever, I loved it!

Set in the 1930's, right after the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men takes place in Salinas, California, mainly circling around 2 field laborers, Lennie and George.

They are the complete opposite. Lennie is gigantic, like a huge gorilla, but has the mind of a kid. While Lennie, is rather short, and 'dark of face' and seemingly 'sculpted precisely.' The two may seem to make a very unlikely, and dysfunctional pair, but in fact, they are reasonably good friends, but at times argue a lot. Maybe at the fact of Lennie being a bit retarded, for when he was only a young kid he got his head banged real hard on something.

Aside from the arguments, they cling to each other in the ugly face of alienation and loneliness. They get work when they can, for they have a grand plan. To own a few acres of their own land. The whole package. Have their own log cabin, a vegetable field, a cage for the rabbits, for Lennie loves those rabbits. Generally their own land they can roam freely upon without hesitation or reluctance or fear.

But, when they start working around Salinas for the boss of the son of a guy named 'Curley' who's only bent on giving George and Lennie, especially Lennie, a hard time, their dream, now really appearing to be merely a dream, begins crumbling before their eyes. It is within their possession; their grasp of harnessing and achieving. But when it is all said and done, not even George can prevent Lennie's unswerving obedience to the things he firmly taught him to follow, nor the seductive grace of a beautiful woman - Curley's wife.

This was the first John Steinbeck book that I have read and finished, and for deciding to pick the book up and read it in the first place, I am very glad for that. After finishing it, I was granted with a heightened sense of admiration and respect toward the author, and I plan to read many more of his books. Read this book; not only for entertainment and insight into things, not to mention that A grade in your English class, if you ever happen to stumble on having to read this book or having a mandatory book report assigned on it, but also for the heightened sense of love for literature and admiration and respect towards the author, which this book gave me, and I guarantee, will also give you if you read it.

*I gave the value for money rating for this book a 7 because the book is very short being only 107 paperback pages, and the version of this book I read was the Penguin one, with the silhouette of Lennie and George sitting in front of a pool of water, which is the Salinas river. On the back it said that for the U.S. this book is $8.99. There are many other paperback books, which are better, and much longer and are cheaper than that, so that's the reason why I gave it a 7. It's such a short book, you would expect it to be cheaper, but it's not.*

Of Mice and Men is a terrific story set in the 30s depression era, so often the territory of John Steinbeck, one of the great American writers and a champion of the hardships of ordinary people. Ultimately a tragedy we follow George and his friend Lennie, the latter who would be described these days as someone with Learning Difficulties, a couple of drifters who are in search of a place to call their own. The pair are held together in a dysfunctional pact and talk repeatedly one day of having their own farm, escaping from their hand to mouth existence and life of casual labour. But after they come to work on a ranch full-time, with the plan of saving up money, their hopes like the best laid plans of mice and men, go awfully wrong. It is a very simple, classic, moral, humanist, timeless story with some heartbreaking scenes.

John Steinbeck, Gary Sinise, Of Mice and Men: Unabridged - This is one of Steinbeck's most famous novels and arguably his most accessible. It tells the story of George, an intelligent migrant farmworker and his friend Lennie who is mentally underdeveloped. Lennie is big and friendly and eager but doesn't know his own strength and his actions have caused the two men to have to move jobs recently. In their current position, Lennie likes to play with the rabbits owned by the farmowner's daughter, but when he plays too hard and kills a rabbit and upsets the girl, bad things happen. Will George be able to protect Lennie, or will he look out for himself?

This is a moving account of the friendship between the two men and showcases the difficulty Lennie has in functioning in the real world where he held to the same standards as everyone else, even when he doesn't understand, and the tragedy that occurs as a result. People who don't generally like Steinbeck do seem to like this book, and it's a good introduction to his work, especially for young teenagers.