Of Mice And Men (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) Mass Market Paperback – 30 Sept. 1993

“Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”I realised recently that I was one of only a few people who had not studied, or read, Of Mice and Men. As someone studying English Literature, this seemed like a crime, so I instantly set to rectifying that. Of course, everything I say in this review will not be discussing anything that has not already been covered on Of Mice and Men, and I will probably just be expressing myself in a less interesting manner. But, if you’re interested in reading some of the points that stuck out most to me, then go ahead :).I think this is a brilliant story, and well-deserving of its reputation. It has a very distinctive style, with unique central characters and a philosophical layer over the entirety of it which appears to act as a commentary on human nature. Being my first exposure to John Steinbeck, I imagine this is the style he is renowned for, and I look forward to engaging with it more in the future, perhaps with Grapes of Wrath in a couple months.“Guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Seems to me sometimes it jus' works the other way around. Take a real smart guy and he ain't hardly ever a nice fella.”This is a story that revolves around our characters, which is driven by several powerful concepts, such as the often paradoxical nature of life, that interweave and act more as a subtle intrusion more as the main focus of the story. George and Lennie are our main protagonists, with George looking after Lennie, who has a mental disability. I think that these are both crafted fantastically, with their strenuous but genuine friendship being depicted in an authentic manner that was amazing to read.We have other key characters in Of Mice and Men, but I would say that these were not as well crafted as George and Lennie. But this is no bad thing. Steinbeck obviously made a conscious decision regarding this, and as such makes George and Lennie the focus, with others, such as Curley, appearing to represent the harsh life of the working class during The Great Depression.Throughout Of Mice and Men, I felt this air of perpetual melancholia, and a sense of dread that somehow permeated from every word. As George and Lennie discuss their dream, it just felt like the whole time that they would not achieve their aspirations, and because of this, Of Mice and Men was incredibly impactful, and a tense reading experience throughout which I have rarely felt before. To do this, John Steinbeck was obviously a master of his craft.“Guys like us got nothing to look ahead to.”Of Mice and Men is of course a brilliant read, with memorable characters, fantastic prose and also a read that allows for a philosophical reading that you can return and build on a long time after reading. I have not nearly covered the interesting aspects of this canonical story, nor could I if I tried, but these are just a few reasons you should read Of Mice and Men. For its size, it offers so much, and as a reader you can have the freedom of just enjoying a read, or engaging with with the concepts Steinbeck discusses.This was a good read, with unique central characters and a very distinctive, page-turning prose. Throughout the entirety of the read, there was an air of melancholy and sadness that was leading to the ending that I suspected would occur, but dreaded throughout.

The introduction to this edition tells us that Of Mice and Men continues to be banned by school boards throughout the US, mainly because of the earthy, racist language used by the characters throughout. There are plenty of UK students who wish the same applied here. For some reason, Of Mice and Men occupies the same risible space in the minds of many english students as that other course staple To Kill a Mockingbird - that is, they hate it. A pity, because Of Mice and Men is superb, and touches on universal themes such as loneliness, poverty, friendship, jealousy and cruelty, which are part of its enduring relevance and appeal. It is a dream within a dream - the dream of two itinerant farm workers, Lenny and George, to scrape enough money together to buy a small farm of their own, become independent and 'live off the fat o' the lan'.Susan Shillinglaw writes a revealing introduction to this edition, which also tells us that Steinbeck conceived a new narrative form - the 'playable novel' i.e. a story that could equally be read as a conventional narrative or seen in dramatic performance. The plot is staged as a play, with theatric scenes and a narrative that guides us carefully from one set piece to the next. It is clear from the outset that this will be a tragic 'play', and so it proves. The intro also tells us that Steinbeck saw with his own eyes a hired hand kill a ranch foreman with a pitchfork when working as a farm hand himself. This episode is reimagined as one of the pivotal points of the narrative, and leads to the tragic ending.GCSE students may hate it, but Of Mice and Men has stood the test of time as an enduring, precautionary tale of what happens when man is pitched against fellow man in a society that has lost its true sense of morality. It is this universality and the razor-sharp tightness of Steinbeck's storytelling, that makes Of Mice and Men a profoundly moving and richly rewarding read.

Good for my gcse english.👍🏽 would reccomend.

If you’re child will be taking their g.c.s.e exams soon,, they will need this book, a good way to remember the story for the exams, is to make flash cards, or get the family to read out a paragraph in a funny voice, to test your child, that’s what we did, we had great fun, and it helped our daughter remember the answers better.

As described