I realised the true power of ‘Of Mice and Men’ the first time I taught the novel to a (usually) disinterested class of Year 11 students. I got my first hint that something was up when the previously monosyllabic, ‘tough guy’ of the class arrived on time (!) for my lesson, took his coat off without being asked, sat down and asked, with affected nonchalance, ‘We reading that book again today Miss?’. Kids began to initiate discussions about the story and ask interesting questions. It was a revelation. Then there was the long silence that settled over the group after we had read the section where George shoots Lennie, as several streetwise 15 year olds discreetly wiped away a tear.
It’s a special story. It’s also a pretty simple one and at its heart is the relationship between George and Lennie. It’s a love story; not in any sexual sense but in the sense that love is the only real explanation for their actions in the story.
‘If we had any ketchup you could have it. And if I had a hundred bucks I’d buy you a bunch of flowers.’ (George)
George would dearly like to create a home for Lennie where he could be safe and where George wouldn’t constantly be watching out for him. There is genuine affection and companionship between them and that provides an antidote to the loneliness that afflicts so many of the other characters in the play. There are constant references to how unusual it is for two guys to travel around together for work. Their unconventional friendship provokes a variety of responses from the other characters; suspicion (Curley and the Boss), envy (Crooks and to an extent Candy), acceptance (Slim) and indifference (Carlson and Whit).
There are clear parallels between Lennie and George and Candy and his ‘ole dog’. Nobody else can really understand what is ‘in’ these two relationships for Candy or George. Rather than familiarity breeding contempt, in both cases it is the longevity of the relationships and the being ‘used to’ the smelly old dog or the simple giant, that breeds deep affection and a desire to protect.
‘I kinda got used to him and then I couldn’t get rid of being used to him’ (George) ‘I had him from a pup…I wouldn’t want him to suffer.’ (Candy, as Carlson is trying to persuade him to shoot his dog)
Just as Candy loses his only real companion, his dog, George loses Lennie when he must kill him to protect him from a worse fate at the hands of a lynch mob. Ultimately, George cannot keep Lennie safe from himself.
Now that the show is cast (including the dog!), the actors and I are are beginning to explore these relationships. Now matter how many times I hear, read or watch this story, it never fails to move me. I think what makes it so brilliant (and so beloved of adolescents in English classrooms everywhere) is that you can strip away the context of the American Dream and the Great Depression and all that ’stuff’ and there is just a cracking human interest story underneath.
Brilliant and insightful post, Liz. But are you assuming that everyone knows the story? You’ve given away the ending!
I think it’s a pretty well known story and many of our audience will be students of the text anyway. I did once have a kid flick on ahead and loudly declare to the whole class “He kills him in the end, the little one kills the big one!”. Luckily I think the enjoyment of the plot comes from how and why it happens as much as what happens!
i didnt know the story… guess i wont need to see it =(
Will you be giving The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and The Diary of Anne Frank a miss for the same reason Rob???
Nope, but I’ve never read/seen Of Mice and Men and was looking forward to seeing what the whole things was about- didn’t even know what the general story was.