Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

Published 1937 · 196 pages · 29,859 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Drama, Literary Fiction, Short Fiction, Southern & Regional American Fiction

How hard is Of Mice and Men to read?

Of Mice and Men scores 34 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 35 out of 100
The language is primarily colloquial and accessible, reflecting the speech of migrant workers during the Great Depression. Terms like 'bindle,' 'swamper,' and 'jerkline skinner' are specific to the setting but generally understandable through context. The vocabulary is more varied than a child's diary but lacks the density of specialized literary prose.
Sentence structure: 38 out of 100
Steinbeck employs direct, declarative sentences, particularly in dialogue, which often features contractions and simple structures. Narrative passages are clear and descriptive, avoiding extensive subordination or complex hypotaxis. The prose is straightforward and easy to follow throughout.
Abstraction: 30 out of 100
The narrative is highly concrete, focusing on the physical environment of the ranch and the tangible experiences of its characters. While themes of loneliness and the American Dream are central, they are conveyed through direct character interactions and simple expressions rather than philosophical digressions.
Information density: 35 out of 100
The narrative maintains a linear progression, focusing on immediate events and the dynamic between George and Lennie. There are no complex subplots, extensive historical details, or dense symbolic layers that demand intense tracking. Information is presented clearly and steadily.
Narrative indirection: 30 out of 100
The narrative explicitly states events, dialogue, and character emotions without requiring significant reader inference. Steinbeck clearly presents characters' thoughts and motivations. The plot unfolds chronologically with little ambiguity, making meaning readily accessible.
Symbolic density: 50 out of 100
The novella employs significant yet generally straightforward symbolism. The dream of owning a farm with rabbits serves as a central motif representing hope and independence. The fate of Candy's old dog clearly foreshadows Lennie's ultimate demise, providing a direct symbolic parallel. Symbolism is present throughout but rarely requires abstract interpretation.
Ironic distance: 35 out of 100
The novel maintains a relatively low ironic distance, engaging the reader directly with its tragic events and character emotions. Dramatic irony exists regarding the doomed dream and Lennie's fate, but the author's voice is consistently earnest and sympathetic. There is no significant gap between what the text presents and what the author intends.
Resolution withholding: 30 out of 100
The ending is definitive and tragic, providing clear closure to the central conflict and character fates. Lennie's death and the shattering of the dream are explicit, leaving no ambiguity about the plot's outcome. While emotionally impactful, the narrative does not resist closure or leave major plot points unresolved.
Structural complexity: 25 out of 100
The novella adheres to a linear, chronological narrative without significant formal experimentation. Steinbeck structures the six scenes like a stage play, each anchored to a single location. The story is told from a consistent third-person perspective, lacking multiple viewpoints, fragmented timelines, or unreliable narration.

How Of Mice and Men is regarded

Of Mice and Men holds a literary regard score of 89 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where Of Mice and Men sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (57 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Of Mice and Men scores 72 out of 100. A second mythos, tragedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.25. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic (shading toward Ironic)
Lennie ain’t no fighter, but Lennie’s strong and quick and Lennie don’t know no rules.
Symbol: Formal
On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them.
Mythos: Irony phase 4 (tragic pathos) (irony iv)
And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head.
Genre: Novel + Romance
In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on.

Where the story of Of Mice and Men takes place

  • Depression-era California, the 1930s (1930 to 1937), the main setting
  • Salinas Valley ranch near Soledad, California, Depression era (1929 to 1939)

5 things that are true of Of Mice and Men, with the passage for each

  1. The dream farm costs $600, and Candy offers $350 of it.

    “Well—I could get it for six hundred bucks.

  2. George and Lennie arrive at the ranch with only ten dollars between them.

    George spat on the floor disgustedly. “We got ten bucks between us.”

  3. Lennie kills Curley's wife by breaking her neck.

    And then she was still, for Lennie had broken her neck.

  4. The novella ends where it began, at the deep green pool of the Salinas River.

    THE DEEP GREEN POOL of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon.

  5. George shoots Lennie with the Luger that Carlson used to shoot Candy's dog.

    He reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson’s Luger; he snapped off the safety

Scenes in Of Mice and Men that Frye would name

21 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Pathos, untitled
He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. The mercy killing of Lennie at the pool is the sacrificial death scene that closes the story.
Agon, untitled
Curley’s fist was swinging when Lennie reached for it. The next minute Curley was flopping like a fish on a line The bunkhouse fight is the central contest, in which Lennie crushes the bully's hand.
Anagnorisis, untitled
I think I knowed from the very first. I think I knowed we’d never do her. George recognizes that the dream was always unreachable, and this pivots the story toward the ending.
Pharmakos, untitled
He saw Lennie lying on the sand. “Got him, by God.” Lennie dies as the community's scapegoat, hunted by the lynch party.
Pathos, untitled
A shot sounded in the distance. The men looked quickly at the old man. Candy's old dog is shot offstage, a rehearsal of Lennie's death.
Analogy of innocence, untitled
“We could live offa the fatta the lan’.” The dream farm of rabbits, alfalfa and cream is a pastoral paradise of innocence imagined within the dust-bowl economy.

Books that share these scenes with Of Mice and Men

About the author

John Steinbeck