Of mice and men

“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 [b:’Of Mice and Men’ (1937)|446875], 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.