Of Mice and Men

By popular request... What are the main themes of Of Mice and Men? Well first of all, and probably most importantly of all (as everything else connects to this in some way) you need to consider The American dream. This menas, very simply, the idea that because America is not (like England was perceived to be) a class-ridden society, where the position that you are born in determines your future, Americans in Steinbeck's time believed (as many still do) that it was possible to be born into a relatively humble position, and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, so to speak, and make a success of your like. Therefore, many people speak of Obama as 'living the American Dream' because he managed to overcome prejudice (though not huge economic disadvantage) and rise to the highest office in the land. Similarly, George and Lennie believe that they can make something of themselves and buy a small farm--be independent and a success in their own terms. Even this very humble dream is seen as unrealistic by others--for instance, by Crooks and by Curley's Wife.

The idea of the American dream connects to other kinds of dreams and ambitions. Curley's Wife, of course, longs to be famous, a 'movie star', which is another kind of dream at this time, when films were becoming a big industry, and it seemed possible for relatively unknown people to 'make it big' in the movies. It was a bit of a cliche that men would try and pick up young, pretty girls by telling them that they could do well in films, and so to a contemporary readership, Curley's Wife's report of the man who let her down would appear very naive. Her belief that her mother was hiding his letters would have been seen as foolish but also would have added to her innocence.

More later...