As far as classics go, I am well behind in the literature. It honestly is a genre I struggle with, as has been established in various posts like The Picture of Dorian Gray, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four, and not-so-obviously my Frankenstein where I talked about Mary Shelley as a writer instead of talking much about the novel itself. It is one of those genres that fails to get its hocks in me most of the time, and even then the writing style can throw me out quite suddenly. I am attempting to rectify this by reading more classics to find the right ones for me, and so here we are with John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.

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. Labourers 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 labouring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck’s work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, 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.

Would you be surprised if I told you I actually didn’t mind Of Mice and Men? I have heard of so many people hating it thanks to high school English curriculums and being forced to spout themes and meanings of the text out in essays. Thankfully, I completely missed any of John Steinbeck’s novels, instead faced Jennifer Donnelly’s A Gathering Light, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, and Scott F. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. Given that I dodged a bullet, I can say that Of Mice and Men doesn’t feel like one of those accursed English class literature novels. Of course, this likely would be different if I had read it back then.

Perhaps I should preface my discussion by stating that this review is likely not fit for English students to read if they didn’t read Of Mice and Men. I am going to be making a lot of points based on my opinion and interpretation of the book with no evidence, just good ol’ vibes. That doesn’t cut it for your novel essays, so don’t even try to use this as a copy.

The themes are interesting because they are left to the reader’s imagination and inclinations. What I mean by that is they have loose reference, more so ideas and possibilities than concrete, established themes. Yes, there is the friendship theme, almost like a brotherhood, and their shared dream creating meaning in their lives. That last point is shifting into symbolism territory though, and there is a lot of that going on in this novel. If you’re still reading, children, know this – if there is a essay prompt for symbolism and you have read Of Mice and Men, then you best pick that because you have a lot to choose from.

For obvious reasons, I’m not going to list the symbolism and meanings, but I do want to bring up the fact that the foreshadowing in Of Mice and Men rounds the novel off so nicely. If you’re a learned reader, you can tell what is going to happen, and the pieces line up wonderfully in that regard. It is smartly done, balancing the characters and the overarching conflicts with the setting, social dynamics, and emotion of the text. Nothing feels rushed or out of place, nor does it feel too heavy-handed or long-winded. The points of the novel come across in such a succinct way, yet there is so much vivid description and sensory engagement with the text. It makes Of Mice and Men a short but fulfilling read in my books.

If this is now my endeavour into literary classics is going to go, I might just find myself saying that classics are pretty good after all. It will come down to the authors and their writing styles, I know, but I have East of Eden in my library requests already and more than a handful of classics on the way. I guess annafromuni didn’t do three years of undergraduate English literature papers for nothing after all.