History Literature / OfMiceAndMen

One of the most challenged books of the 20th and 21st centuries and a frequent target of censors, who criticized it for bad language, "promoting euthanasia", and being "anti-business". However, it remains very popular and is a widely used MediaNotes/SchoolStudyMedia. It has also had several film adaptations, including theatrical releases in 1939 and 1992 and made-for-TV versions in 1968 and 1981. The most famous adaptation is probably the 1939 film, which was directed by Lewis Milestone and starred Creator/BurgessMeredith as George and Creator/LonChaneyJr as Lennie, with a musical score by none other than Music/AaronCopland.

* CompleteTheQuoteTitle: The title is taken from the Robert Burns poem "To a Mouse". The line where it occurs goes in full "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley". It foreshadows how the plans of the main characters will go unfulfilled due to tragic circumstances.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: From Rabbie Burns' "To a Mouse". [[GeniusBonus If you know the rest of the poem]], you won't be expecting a HappyEnding.

** Inverted with Lennie when he does this to a literal puppy, he [[spoiler: [[ShootTheDog ended up killing it]] due to his unchecked strength and even gets mad at the puppy for dying so easily]].

* NoNameGiven: Curley's wife nor The Boss.

''Of Mice and Men'' is a 1937 novel, one of Creator/JohnSteinbeck's most famous, set during TheGreatDepression. It involves Lennie Small (a mentally-impaired GentleGiant) and George Milton, migrant workers who arrive on a California farm in the town of Soledad to work and hope to earn enough money to open a rabbit farm of their own, but ... things go pretty wrong.

One of the most challenged books of the 20th and 21st centuries and a frequent target of censors, who criticized it for bad language, "promoting euthanasia", and being "anti-business". However, it remains very popular and is a widely used UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia. It has also had several film adaptations, including theatrical releases in 1939 and 1992 and made-for-TV versions in 1968 and 1981. The most famous adaptation is probably the 1939 film, which was directed by Lewis Milestone and starred Creator/BurgessMeredith as George and Creator/LonChaneyJr as Lennie, with a musical score by none other than Music/AaronCopland.

* DiedInIgnorance: [[spoiler:Overlaps with LetThemDieHappy. After Lenny has run away following his AccidentalMurder of [[AndCallHimGeorge Curley's wife]], George runs ahead of the [[TorchesAndPitchforks angry mob]] to find Lennie at the lake, the place where George told him to go if he got into trouble. George invokes this trope as he talks to Lennie about their dream of the farm, and he falsely reassures him that he is not in any trouble, and they can go get their farm right at that moment. George makes sure Lennie is staring at the lake and not at himself, so he can die with the [[TragicDream hope of a future that will never come]], rather than knowing his only friend is about to kill him.]]

One of the most challenged books of the 20th and 21st centuries and a frequent target of censors, who criticized it for bad language, "promoting euthanasia" and being "anti-business". However, it remains very popular and is a widely used UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia. It has also had several film adaptations, including theatrical releases in 1939 and 1992 and made-for-TV versions in 1968 and 1981. The most famous adaptation is probably the 1939 film, which was directed by Lewis Milestone and starred Creator/BurgessMeredith as George and Creator/LonChaneyJr as Lennie, with a musical score by none other than Music/AaronCopland.

* SmartJerkAndNiceMoron: Played with. George appears to be more gruff, severe and stern than mentally handicapped Lennie (who DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength) who is a cheery, childlike person. However, he's doing this for Lennie's protection, since the later is incapable of realizing the damage he causes. It also comes up in the BackStory when George tells a story about making Lennie do stupid stuff just for laughs, and how he learned AnAesop not to do that anymore.

* AccidentalMurder: At the climax of the book in chapter 5, Lennie kills Curley's wife. He didn't ''mean'' to, he was just trying to stop her from screaming and getting him into trouble, which is lampshaded when George finds the body and talks to Candy and Slim.

* AmbiguousInnocence: Lennie has the mind of a very young child -- but, like a child, he can't properly control his strength, and he can be scared or made angry, causing him to lash out like a child. And as he's so very strong, that makes him incredibly dangerous.
* AndCallHimGeorge: Lennie is one of the TropeMakers. He loves cute and cuddly animals. Only he loves them too much for their safety, due to his immense and uncontrollable strength.

** George seems to use this to lie about Lennie's mental defiency to the boss by claiming that Lennie was also kicked by a horse [[ChildhoodBrainDamage in the head]].

* TheAtoner: George, it's partly why he's so protective of Lennie, when they were younger George made fun of Lennie's simplemindedness like everyone else until it caused an accident where Lennie nearly drowned.
* AttractivenessIsolation: With the central theme of loneliness to the story, Curley's Wife's loneliness is a result of her beauty. She admits she married Curley for the wrong reasons and that she only did it to spite her mother for denying her chance at fame. She only wants someone to talk to but everyone else is just so afraid of Curley's reaction that they consider her "jailbait" becuase they see her as more trouble than she's worth. Her name is also a reflection of this, she was objectified for her beauty and men are too scared of Curley to even talk to her.

* BigGuyLittleGuy: Lennie and George respectively.

* BodyMotifs: Curley has a hand motif: His glove full of Vaseline, his status as a prized fighter, and how he's emasculated after his hand gets broken by Lennie.

* BullyingTheDisabled: Curley's first scene is intimidating Lennie for being bigger than him and mocking his inteligence. Then shows no qualms about goading him into a fight, believing him to be too stupid to be a skilled fighter. However, Lennie manages to grab his hand and promptly crushes it out of stress. When George manages to pry Lennie off of Curley he pretty much broke every bone in his hand, but everyone agrees that Lennie had no choice and it was [[AssholeVictim bound to happen to Curley sooner or later]].

** The crushing dreams of people that lived through TheGreatDepression.

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Oh sure, Lennie is "dumb as hell" and pretty gentle to boot, but Curley's crushed hand will testify that he is not someone you provoke.

* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: 'Candy's been sharpening his pencil and sharpening and thinking.'

* DumbButDiligent: Lennie may not be the smartest but his strength and obedience make him one of the best workers on the ranch, with Slim stating that he nearly worked several of his coworkers to death because they couldn't keep up with him.
* DumbMuscle: Lennie is a deconstruction of this trope, with almost all the death in the book is caused by Lennie accidentally killing something, due to his strength, and not realizing this until it is too late.
* EveryoneHasStandards: While the workers agreed with Carson's idea to euthanize Candy's dog, they were fully against Curley's brawl against Lennie. Since Lennie did nothing to earn Curley's ire and [[BullyingTheDisabled Curley was just looking for someone to take his anger out on]]. When Lennie broke Curley's hand, the workers were more supportive towards Lennie than they were to Curley since [[AssholeVictim he pretty much had it coming]].

** The whole scene with Candy's dog foreshadowed the end of the book.

* HaveAGayOldTime: Curley's wife is referred to as "jail bait" a number of times, but she is not underage, it is used to mean that the workers are worried that she would accuse them of rape if they crossed her, and end up in prison.

** A more subtle example is in George's name-- his surname is Milton, a reference to the author of ''Literature/ParadiseLost''.

** While George's frustration with Lennie is at times understandable, there are other times when he outright verbally abuses him. Despite this, he has always looked out for him and cares about him deeply. Their friendship is still deep and they remain loyal to each other considering they all they have in the world.
* LaserGuidedKarma: When Curley picks on big guys, Lennie in particular, Lennie breaks every bone in his hand. When George and Lennie are nice to Candy, he offers them three hundred dollars to make their dream a reality. That seems to be the way it works around here.

** Candy is also forced to accept this apply to his dog for getting too old.

** Slim blackmails Curley with this dilemma. Either live with a crushed hand and emasculated ego or they'll tell everyone how he goaded a kind-hearted, mentally disabled, herculean simpleton into a brawl and lost. Then got him and his carer fired, in order to salvage the remains of his dignity and masculinity.
** George is forced to kill Lennie after he unwittingly and accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for Lennie even if George didn’t kill him. George can either; run away with Lennie to another state, until they run out of places to go or become the most wanted men in the USA, allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley, have Lennie go to prison where he might get corrupted by the other inmates or have Lennie go to an asylum where he would likely be subjected to electroshock therapy.

* NiceGuy: Slim, a worker at the ranch who is polite to everyone, including Curley's wife, and is the only person to console George after he kills Lennie
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Lennie for ripping out a woman's soft dress at the beginning, thus getting him accused of attempted rape and forcing him and George to leave behind their original jobs. [[spoiler: Then Lennie accidentally kills Curley's wife]].

* ResentfulGuardian: George once laments early on that if not for having to spend money on Lennie, and his moments of stupidity interfering with his plans, he could spend his spare cash at [[TheOldestProfession the whorehouse.]] Then again, this was said in a fit of rage that Lennie caused, and once Lennie is killed, George is not happy about the future that awaits him, as a solitary migrant worker, with no partner to make the hardships more bearable.
* RevengeBeforeReason: Curley tries to beat up Lennie for laughing at him but fails to remember Lennie's reputation for being the strongest man on ranch despite his childlike intelligence.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Steinbeck loves this trope. The whole story seems to be setting things up for George and Lennie and Candy to get that little farm of their own and live happily ever after... except, nope! Lennie commits murder due to being LethallyStupid DumbMuscle, George has to shoot him, that means he and Candy can't afford the little block of land, and so George just goes back on the road on his lonesome.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Despite George and Lennie's genuine and endearing friendship as well as a number of sympathetic characters, this book is set during the Great Depression so it's pretty obvious it's pretty bleak, depressing, and cynical.

* ThinSkinnedBully: Curley spends his days strutting around the ranch like a preening, arrogant rooster, challenging anyone who so much as looks at him wrong or he suspects of talking to his wife. [[spoiler: He hates Lenny at first glance because of his mental handicap and because he towers over Curley. When Slim and Carlson hurt his pride when they confirm that they haven't been with Curley's wife; Curley tries to reassert dominance over the ranchers by beating up Lennie, who was absent-mindedly laughing about the American dream, not laughing at Curley's expense like the others. After a brief beating from Curley, Lennie is convinced by George to fight back and he successfully breaks Curley's hand, which emasculates him and presumably ruins his boxing career.]]

* WhosLaughingNow: Curley tries to fight Lennie when he mistakenly believes that Lennie was laughing at him but in reality Lennie was smiling about his, George's and Candy's dream home. The end result was Lennie breaking his hand while under George's command and had to be restrained by both him and Slim.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: It's very easy to mistakenly assume the two protagonists are brothers. George uses this to his advantage, telling everyone that Lennie is his cousin.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Curley's wife just wants to bond with Lennie and allows him to feel her hair. He ends up accidentally breaking her neck.

* NeverTrustATitle: Dispite the name, there are no mice in the book, or even mention of them.

[[caption-width-right:255:''"Tell me about the rabbits, George..."'']]

** George is forced to kill Lennie after he unwittingly and accidentally kills Curley's Wife, as there were no positive outcomes for Lennie. George can either; run away with Lennie to another state, until they run out of places to go or become the most wanted men in the USA, allow Lennie to be lynched by Curley or have Lennie go to prison where he might get corrupted by the other inmates.

* AmbiguousDisorder: The exact nature and name of Lennie's disability are unspecified. The important parts are that he's got the mental state of a child, has a fondness for soft texture, is very impressionable and he has strength beyond a regular man. Due to his child-like state, Lennie is unaware of what he's actually capable of and what damage he can do. Lennie has to rely on a carer (first his Aunt Clara and then George after she dies) to protect him from the outside world, as well as rein him in when he gets agitated or scared. This is justified because the story is set in the 1930s, where psychology wasn't a perfected field of work and where public knowledge of mental disabilities was bupkis.

* ForgottenFallenFriend: Curley used his wife's death to get murderous revenge on Lennie for breaking his hand. Their marriage was lifeless and Curley didn't take too long to assume the role as a CrusadingWidower.