Of Mice and Men1

A detailed Summary of Of Mice and Men1

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, in 1902. He was raised in a fertile agricultural valley about twenty miles from the Pacific Coast. Both the valley and the coast would become the setting for some of his novels and short stories.

In 1919 he attended Stanford University, where he took literature and writing classes. In 1925 he left the university. He did not attain a degree before his departure.

For the next five years of Steinbeck's life, he worked as a laborer and a journalist in New York City. Then he worked as a caretaker for an estate in Lake Tahoe. During these five years, he was also working on his first novel, Cup of Gold.

He then got married and moved to Pacific Groove where he published his next two books, The Pastures of Heaven and To a God Unknown. He also worked on some of his famous short stories.

He gained success and financial security with his book Tortilla Flat. This was full of stories about Monterey's paisanos.

In 1952, he published East of Eden, a story about the Salinas valley and Steinbeck's own family history.

The last decades of his life were spent in New York City and Sag harbor with his third wife. Throughout Steinbeck's life he published twenty-fi

Of Mice and Men is book in which many issues dealing with the responsibilities of friendship become apparent. The style and characters Steinbeck creates in the story face problems that conclude with real life consequences. The problems faced are realistic for an adult with "the mind of a child."

In the book Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck uses his characters to create a theme of friendship overcoming all. Friends are willing to go to any lengths for each other, no matter the consequences. In the book, George puts his life on the line several times in order to save his companion, Lennie. When Lennie gets himself into trouble, is always right behind to "save 'im." Even when George is forced to end Lennie's life, he understands that he "hadda" in order to save Lennie's soul. There is no step too large for a "true" friend to take for another friend.

Throughout the length of the novel, Steinbeck portrays friendship as a difficult task, but well worth it. He makes it clear that true companions stick together through everything.

ve books. After his death in 1968, four more of his books were published. Six years before his death, John Steinbeck won a Noble Prize.

Steinbeck refers to George and Lennie wanting

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 828
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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Of Mice and Men1

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