Comparing Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men And To A Mouse

Of Mice and Men and “To a Mouse” were two completely different works, with similar titles and themes. Both works were very enjoyable to read...and in once case “decode”. Either way, they both kept me thinking at all times, and I couldn’t put the book down. The similarities between to two pieces of literature include failure, mice, and farming. Failure, believe it or not, was of the many presented themes discussed in both the book and the poem. Well, not failure...but being able to accept things. Both readings deal with plans that don’t always work out. For example, Lennie and George had a plan to one day obtain a huge farm, and live out the american dream; Did that turn out as planned? In the poem “To a Mouse” a man messes up a mouse’s home with his gardening tools. The mouse thought
Mice, mice, and more mice. Clearly, there were going to be mice involved in each of these pieces because of the titles. In Of Mice and Men, Lennie ends up killing a mouse. He never intended to kill it, he just enjoyed petting things. His lifelong partner, George, suggested, and then got angry when Lennie refused this proposal to put the mice down. In “To a Mouse”, we have a mouse that is basically the main character. The mouse’s house gets destroyed by a gardening tool, the mouse isn’t prepared for winter, and the mouse doesn’t have enough materials to build another house! (One thing the mouse does have though, would be a lot of support from the man that ruined her house!) In both stories, a mouse is presented, and dealt with. The final theme that I’ve seen make itself present throughout each of these pieces was farming! In Of Mice and Men, Lennie and George are living during the Great Depression. This information helps us to understand that jobs are very limited. Therefore, it is easy to understand why Lennie and George can no longer keep a steady job. They go from farm to farm, trying to make enough money to meet ends meet, and to maintain their working