Comparing 'Of Mice And Men And Robert Burns' To A Mouse

In the world of American Literature, very few works leave a great mark among us. Some written works change the world, by creating a new model, a new way to express ourselves or by the way it changes us, making us reflect and think of the choices and environments; these words are woven in a way it will catch our attention, no matter what. These stories will make us reflect and feel the need of change towards society and life. John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Robert Burns’ “To A Mouse” are a few of those life-changing works. Robert Burns’ poem, written in 1785, can be reflected in many works through the years, including in Of Mice and Men and it can be seen as their themes can be compared, even if there are differences in the way they express

their stories. An examination of the way the protagonists in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Robert Burns’ “To a Mouse” go through the events and understand their lessons can show that both authors used these stories to tell the hardships of society and the powers beyond us.
To begin with, both tell of hardships of power and control, of man versus nature.

Steinbeck uses the main protagonists, Lennie and George, to show the codependency one has with another, and how it destroyed them both. As proven in: ““Well, I could. I could go off in the hills there. Some place I’d find a cave.”“Yeah? How’d you eat? You ain’t got sense enough to find nothing to eat.”” (Steinbeck 7), Lennie tries to leave George in peace but the latter knows better. Lennie would be the weak one in the relationship as he depends completely on George, who guides him and defends him in any situation. George makes the calls, and Lennie follows. Similarly, Burns uses the mouse to show how powerless they are not only to the manpower, but to the environment. And that is expressed by the farmer, who reflects on that, only to find out he is also powerless to “the power beyond” in the following lines: “An' forward, tho' I canna see, / I guess an' fear! (lines 47-48)” in which he says he cannot see the future, he can only guess and fear it. However, Steinbeck reflects on the struggles of an American in times of the Depression, and how people were powerless during these times of crisis, and even more as people suffer through their own demons; while Burns reflects on how we don’t notice how powerless we really are, as a plague can destroy us, a war can ruin us, or a bad politician can make us struggle and yet we believe we cannot be

beaten.

Now, they both send a very similar message, yet they tell it in different ways. John Steinbeck goes through the process of explaining the full story and how it affected not only the protagonists but everyone around them. Shifting tones, and point of views between the characters, it can tell how it began and how it ends, and how each one of these characters change (for better or worse). Take George as an example: ““Well, it’s ten acres,” said George. “Got a little win’mill. Got a little shack on it, an’ a chicken run. Got a kitchen, orchard, cherries…” (Steinbeck 28), he began as a hopeful yet cynic man who dreamed of a little farm and worked for a peaceful future with Lennie; and yet, at the end of the story it can be seen that he was now a broken man with a broken dream, specially as: “But George sat stiffly on the bank and looked at his right hand that had
thrown the gun away.”(52), this shows the exact moment he realizes that Lennie is now gone and what he did.

However, Robert Burns goes straight to the outcome of the story. “To a Mouse” is an eulogy to a mouse that lost his home from to a farmer who was doing his job, and as seen in “Your small house, too, in ruin!...And bleak December's winds coming, / Both bitter and piercing!” (lines 19-24), the animal won’t have a place to stay during the cold months and lost its protection, its “dream” is now gone. It’s all in the point of view of the farmer, yet it shifts the tone from the death of the mouse’s “dream” to the powerless feeling from the man in his realization. Robert Burns and John Steinbeck share the same idea and the same theme, and the latter was even inspired by the former, as they have a difference of 152 years in between and the title of Steinbeck’s work: Of Mice and Men, is part of one of the lines of the poem: "The best-laid schemes Of Mice and Men often go awry." (lines 39-40) which means that even George and Lennie’s scheme went bad. They both wrote these stories with a purpose of changing the views of society

itself.

They also use symbolism and allegory to express the roles of society and how they work, now and then. Burns gives an eulogy to a mouse, except the mouse has humanlike characteristics as shown in “You need not start away so hasty / With argumentative chatter!” (lines 3-4), and speaks to the mouse as if it were a human who just started an argument with him. And at the end, he speaks of being “the mouse” as he is dependent on society’s rules, on the politics and the nature (the powers beyond him, the Big Man); and he can lose his own home too. 152 years later, Steinbeck has a wide world of characters, each one representing a part of society, from the average man to the beauty queen; they all give something to the story and they all learn the message at the end of story: American dream is a hard dream to find, especially to the handicapped and the elderly, and the ones who find it can go crazy with anger or find peace. By reading “few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green...The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon.” (Steinbeck 1-52), it shows how the story comes to a full circle, in the same place by the river. This will tell that society made these people depend on each other, that Lennie wouldn’t have lived without George (and even with him, it wasn’t enough) or that George will not get his dream since the circumstances won’t let him.

In conclusion, Robert Burns and John Steinbeck’s stories are made to teach us to not expect anything from life, as it can change in ways that it was once thought impossible. Of Mice and Men and “To a Mouse” will teach us lessons that history has tried over and over again to tell us, will change our views of society by using these symbols as characters. Even if they are different in structure, in details and in certain themes; they both share the same idea. They will teach us of power, of manipulation, of inferiority and circumstances with their stories. They will teach us to respect and understand people as much as we can, for these people can depend on us and believe in us. And we can depend on these people, too.