<i>Of Mice and Men</i>

Of Mice and Men

<p><i><b>Of Mice and Men</b></i> is a <a href="/en/Novella" title="Novella" class="wl">novella</a> written by <a href="/en/John_Steinbeck" title="John Steinbeck" class="wl">John Steinbeck</a>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="#cite_note-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[1]</span></a></span><span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[2]</span></a></span> Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced <a href="/en/Migrant_worker" title="Migrant worker" class="wl">migrant</a> <a href="/en/Ranch" title="Ranch" class="wl">ranch</a> workers, who move from place to place in <a href="/en/California" title="California" class="wl">California</a> in search of new job opportunities during the <a href="/en/Great_Depression" title="Great Depression" class="wl">Great Depression</a> in the <a href="/en/United_States" title="United States" class="wl">United States</a>.</p>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Novella by John Steinbeck</div>
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<style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1066479718" typeof="mw:Extension/templatestyles mw:Transclusion">.mw-parser-output .infobox-subbox{padding:0;border:none;margin:-3px;width:auto;min-width:100%;font-size:100%;clear:none;float:none;background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .infobox-3cols-child{margin:auto}.mw-parser-output .infobox .navbar{font-size:100%}body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-header,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-subheader,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-above,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-title,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-image,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-full-data,body.skin-minerva .mw-parser-output .infobox-below{text-align:center}</style><div class='mobile-collapse'><header class="mobile-collapse-header mobile-collapse-btn"><b>Quick facts: Author, Cover&nbsp;artist, Country, Language,...</b> <span class='arrow'>▼</span></header> <table class="infobox vcard mobile-collapse-element"><caption class="infobox-title" style="font-size:125%; font-style:italic; padding-bottom:0.2em;">Of Mice and Men </caption><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" class="infobox-image"><span class="mw-default-size"><a href="/en/File:Of_Mice_and_Men_(1937_1st_ed_dust_jacket).jpg" class="mw-file-description image media-thumb" title="Book cover illustration of two men walking along a dirt path between grass and a few trees" data-hash="File:Of_Mice_and_Men_(1937_1st_ed_dust_jacket).jpg"><img loading="lazy"alt="Book cover illustration of two men walking along a dirt path between grass and a few trees" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg/220px-Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg" decoding="async" data-file-width="1844" data-file-height="2883" data-file-type="bitmap" height="344" width="220" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg/330px-Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg/440px-Of_Mice_and_Men_%281937_1st_ed_dust_jacket%29.jpg 2x"></a></span><div class="infobox-caption">First edition cover</div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Author</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/John_Steinbeck" title="John Steinbeck" class="wl">John Steinbeck</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Cover<span>&nbsp;</span>artist</th><td class="infobox-data">Ross MacDonald</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Country</th><td class="infobox-data">United States</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Language</th><td class="infobox-data">English</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Publisher</th><td class="infobox-data"><a href="/en/Covici_Friede" title="Covici Friede" class="mw-redirect wl">Covici Friede</a></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label"><div style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.2em; padding: .1em 0;">Publication date</div></th><td class="infobox-data">1937</td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="infobox-label">Pages</th><td class="infobox-data">107</td></tr></tbody></table> <footer class='mobile-collapse-footer mobile-collapse-btn'><b>Close</b> <span class='arrow'>▲</span></footer></div>
<p>Steinbeck based the novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in the 1910s, before the arrival of the <a href="/en/Okie" title="Okie" class="wl">Okies</a> that he would describe in his novel <i><a href="/en/The_Grapes_of_Wrath" title="The Grapes of Wrath" class="wl">The Grapes of Wrath</a></i>.  The title is taken from <a href="/en/Robert_Burns" title="Robert Burns" class="wl">Robert Burns</a>' <a href="/en/Scots_language" title="Scots language" class="wl">Scots language</a> poem "<a href="/en/To_a_Mouse" title="To a Mouse" class="wl">To a Mouse</a>": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley". (English "The best laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry.")</p>

<p>While it is a book taught in many schools,<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[3]</span></a></span> <i>Of Mice and Men</i> has been a frequent target of <a href="/en/Censorship" title="Censorship" class="wl">censors</a> for vulgarity, and what some consider offensive and racist language; consequently, it appears on the <a href="/en/American_Library_Association" title="American Library Association" class="wl">American Library Association</a>'s list of the <i>Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century</i>.<span class="mw-ref reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="#cite_note-4" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 4;"><span class="mw-reflink-text">[4]</span></a></span></p>



Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. Steinbeck based the novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in the 1910s, before the arrival of the Okies that he would describe in his novel The Grapes of Wrath.  The title is taken from Robert Burns' Scots language poem "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley".  