1. OF MICE AND MEN
By Joey Hulsizer

2. JOHN STEINBECK
 Born on February 27, 1902
and died on December
20,1968
 Born in Salinas, California
 Steinbeck was unable to
find a job to provide for his
family during the Great
Depression which helped
shape his writings
 He wrote many famous
works such as Of Mice and
Men, The Grapes of Wrath,
and East of Eden
 Was an author of twenty-
seven books

3. GENRE
 Of Mice and Men is an
American Classic
 It was published in 1937
and the book takes place
during the Great
Depression

4. MAIN POINTS
 The book starts off when Lennie and George are resting by a pond in preparation
to their newest job at a ranch
 Lennie is not completely there mentally and often times gets George and him into
trouble
 George tells Lennie that if he gets them in trouble at their new job to come back to
this pond and wait for him
 At the ranch they meet the owner’s son, Curley, and his wife
 Curley’s wife is not satisfied with their marriage and aspires to do bigger things in
life
 Curley is a smaller man and often times wants to compensate for his size by
starting fights with bigger men
 Curley starts a fight with Lennie, and Lennie accidentally breaks his hand
 Curley’s wife decides to take interest in Lennie because he broke her husband’s
hand
 Curley’s wife tells Lennie that he can feel her hair. She then gets mad at Lennie
for being too rough with it. Lennie gets scared and snaps her neck by accident
 Lennie runs away to the pond where George told him to hid if he ever does
anything wrong
 Curley is infuriated that Lennie killed his wife and intends on making him pay a
painful death
 George gets to Lennie first and kills him first painlessly so that he does not have
to suffer

5. MAJOR THEMES
 One major theme of this book is
depression. Mostly everyone on this ranch
is very depressed and wishes that their
life would have gone differently. They all
aspire to do something happier with their
lives
 Another major theme of this book is hope.
When George and Lennie come to the
ranch, they spread their plans of buying
their own land and living off of it. This
gets everyone’s hopes up that maybe their
bleak life will get better.

6. QUOTES
 “I seen hundreds of men come by on the road an’ on the ranches, with
their bindles on their back an’ that same damn thing in their heads…
Every damn on of’em’s got a little piece of land in his head. An’ never a
God damn one of’em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little
piece of lan’. I read plnety of book out here. Nobody never gets to heave,
and nobody gets no land.”
 “Whatever we ain’t got, that’s what you want. God a’mighty, if I was alone
I could live so easy. I could go get a job an’ work, an no trouble. No mess at
all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and
go into town and get whatever I want.”
 “Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.”
 “’S’pose they was a carnival or a circus come to town, or a ball game, or
any damn thing.’ Old Candy nodded in appreciation of the idea. ‘We’d just
go to her,’ George said. ‘We wouldn’t ask nobody if we could. Jus’ say, ‘we’ll
go to her,’ an’ we would. Jus’ milk the cown and slice some grain to the
chickens an’ go to her.’”
 “We could live offa the fatta the lan’.”
 “All kin’s a vegetables in the garden, and if we want a little whisky we can
sell a few eggs or something, or some milk. We’d jus’ live there. We’d
belong there.”

7. SOURCES SITED
 "Of Mice and Men." SparkNotes.
SparkNotes, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
 "Of Mice and Men Quotes, Of Mice and
Men Important Quotes from John
Steinbeck Novel."Of Mice and Men Quotes,
Of Mice and Men Important Quotes from
John Steinbeck Novel. N.p., n.d. Web. 27
Feb. 2013.
 "Of Mice and Men Quotes." By John
Steinbeck. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
 "Biography." John Steinbeck -. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Feb. 2013.