Ready Reference Treatise: Of Mice and Men

By Raja Sharma

Guide books or book notes are primarily written to make students understand the original text better, especially from all those angles which are often overlooked by a casual reader.

But, in the recent years it has been noticed that a very large majority of the students, without reading the original texts, rely on the guide books or notes prepared by their teachers or others. This is definitely not a healthy habit because students do pass their exams with the help of such notes; they miss so many things which haunt them in their later lives.

I would strongly advise all students to read the original text once again even if you have already read it, after reading this short treatise. You will see that the same story, after reading this treatise, will begin to give many new meanings to you.

All the best.

Raja Sharma

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jul 25, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476323558

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Of Mice and Men

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2012 Raja Sharma

Smashwords Edition

All Rights Reserved

Chapter One: Introduction

John Steinbeck, the Nobel Prize winning author, has written some of the all time best novels in English. Of Mice and Men is considered as one of his best books. It was first published in 1037.

This tragic story revolves around two displaced migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small. The story is set in during the Great Depression in California, in the United States. George Milton and Lennie Small move from place to place looking for job. The story describes their struggles and their attempts to survive.

In the 1920s had become a bindlestiff- A disreputable vagrant-who had very difficult time during that period. The story is based on Steinbeck’s own experiences as bindlestiff.

The title Of Mice and Men is taken from Robert Burns’ poem To a Mouse. A line of the poem goes like this: The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…Often go awry.

Steinbeck was highly influenced by the poem and it left a deep impact on his mind and he realized that the best of the schemes made by men fail.

It is often said that the language of the novel is vulgar, offensive, and racist. The book Of Mice and Men has found its place in the course of study in many