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Of Mice and Men. By John Steinbeck. Steinbeck ’ s Life. Born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California (a typical American small town at the turn of the century) He attended Stanford University in Palo Alto intermittently
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Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck
Steinbeck’s Life • Born on February 27, 1902 in Salinas, California (a typical American small town at the turn of the century) • He attended Stanford University in Palo Alto intermittently • During periods when he was not in school, Steinbeck worked on a ranch and as a laborer in the beet and barley fields of Salinas
Initial History • Originally published in 1937 • Based on Steinbeck’s own history as a “bindle stiff” in the 1920s • A bindle stiff is one who carries one’s own clothes or bedding in a bundle
Steinbeck became a celebrity upon publication of the novel The novel was selected as a Book of the Month Club and over 117,000 copies of the novel were sold before its official publication on February 25, 1937 Critical response was generally positive, although some critics were offended by the roughness of some of the characters and their lives By April 1937, the novel was on the best-seller lists across the country, and continued to be a top seller Critical and Public Reception
The Novel as a Play • Steinbeck initially conceived the novel as a play • Each chapter is arranged as a scene • Each scene has a specific setting: a grove, a bunkhouse, a barn • The play was initially produced on Broadway in 1937, the same year as the novel’s initial publication • A limited-run revival was also produced in 1974 with James Earl Jones as Lennie
The Title • A reference to a Robert Burns poem: “To a Mouse” • A line from the poem suggests that the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry
The Novel’s Setting • The novel takes place in the migrant farming communities of the Salinas Valley of California during the Great Depression of the 1930s
Idealism vs. Reality Alienation and Loneliness Race & Racism Class Conflict Mental Disability Loyalty Friendship and Fraternity Thematic Topics in the Novel
Film Adaptations • There have been four major film adaptations • 1939 with Lon Chaney, Jr. as Lennie • 1968 with George Segal as George (for TV) • 1981 with Robert Blake as George and Randy Quaid as Lennie (for TV) • 1992 with John Malkovich as Lennie and Gary Sinise as George (and also directing)
Life During the Great Depression The following images provide a glimpse of the novel’s world
Again the Covered WagonTaken by Dorothea Lange near Holtville, Imperial Valley (1939)
Arkansas SquattersTaken by Dorothea Lange near Bakersfield, CA
Drought Refuge EncampmentTaken by Dorothea Lange near Holtville, CA
On the Road to CaliforniaTaken by Dorothea Lange (Feb. 1939)
Sources • New Deal Network. New Deal Document Library. 2003. 29 Nov. 2007 http://newdeal.feri.org/texts/default.cfm. • “Of Mice and Men.”Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 2240-62. • “Of Mice and Men.” Internet Movie Database. 03 Jan. 2008 <imdb.com>. • “Of Mice and Men.” Internet Broadway Database. 03 Jan. 2008 <IBDB.com>.
