Book Review- Of mice and men

“Of Mice and Men”

Who would you prefer ending up dead: The first main hero or the second main hero? If your choice is the second main hero then John Steinbeck’s short novel, Of mice and men, is the perfect book for you. And if you like reading books with the first main hero ending up dead, then the best book for you will be…Of Mice and men, as well. Because, in a sense, the first main hero dies too. If you kill someone, who play a very important part in your life, with your own hands, won’t you be almost dead too?

Set in the harsh depression years of 1930s of America, Of Mice and Men is a typical American style book. America at that time did not respect relations and this is what the book represents. It is set a few miles south of Soledad near the Salinas River. Every chapter starts of with a very detailed description of the settings. “The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains…” (ch. 6).

Steinbeck believes what he imagines or he imagines what he believes. That’s why the original name of the short novel was ‘Something that happened’. The attractive simplicity of his writing in this novel is that he achieves the difficult task of telling an unusual story in a convincing manner, without having to explain in any detail why it happened. It was nobody’s fault in particular the event turns out as they did. It was all down to specific combination of circumstances which go to make up the plot.

It was as if America did not accept friendship at that time, that’s probably why friends broke up soon. It’s not me who’s saying all this, its Steinbeck’s novel. I never knew friendship could cause these many problems. It was only friendship that made the first main character kills the second main character.