Of Mice and Men

Home > Literature and the Arts > Literature in English > American Literature

Of Mice and Men (1937), a play by John Steinbeck. [Music Box Theatre, 207 perf.; NYDCC Award.] Farm laborer Lennie ( Broderick Crawford) is a loving but infantile giant who has often killed pets accidentally with his crushing embrace. His buddy and fellow migrant worker, George ( Wallace Ford), has warned him to be careful, since one day it might not be an animal that he kills. When their boss's sluttish daughter‐in‐law ( Clare Luce) finds Lennie in a barn weeping over a dead puppy, she is sympathetic, so Lennie attempts to embrace her. But she screams and, in a panic, Lennie breaks her neck. George finds out where Lennie has run to hide and shoots him before the other men can get to him. Steinbeck based the play on his own novel, which appeared to have been written with a play in mind. The drama has seen many revivals, including a fine Broadway mounting in 1974 with Kevin Conway and James Earl Jones. The popular novelist John STEINBECK (1902–68) was born in Salinas, California, and educated at Stanford. Of Mice and Men was his first (and only) stage success, although he adapted some of his other stories for the stage, such as The Moon Is Down (1942) and Burning Bright (1950). Rodgers and Hammerstein's short‐lived musical Pipe Dream (1955) was based on Steinbeck's novella Sweet Thursday and his novel East of Eden served as the basis for the equally short‐lived musical Here's Where I Belong (1968).

Of Mice and Men, novelette by Steinbeck, published in 1937 and dramatized by the author in 1937.

George Milton and Lennie Small, itinerant farm laborers, come to work on a Salinas Valley ranch in central California. Lennie has tremendous strength but a feeble intellect, and possesses a morbid desire to handle soft objects. George compensates for Lennie's deficiencies by exploiting his strength and cherishing their mutual dream of a small farm of their own. Curley, son of the boss, is an arrogant bully whose bride's promiscuity has already caused quarrels among the farmhands. When jealousy prompts him to pick a fight with Lennie, he emerges with a crushed hand, and his wife begins to admire the unwilling Lennie. She seeks a pretext to be alone with him, and one day in the hayloft tries to arouse his desire. He begins to stroke her hair, and, when she resists, he accidentally breaks her neck. He flees to the river, planning to escape. George and a friend discover the body, and George hurriedly follows, ahead of a mob led by the enraged Curley. Finding Lennie beside a secluded pool, George calms his fears with the frequently repeated description of the farm of their hopes, and shoots him in the head.