Where did the author get the name of the novel, Of Mice and Men?
mstultz72 Teacher High School – 12th Grade Editor Expert Educator $(document).ready(function() { $(‘a.toggle_expert_titles’).click(function() { $(‘#show_expert_titles’).toggle(); return false; }); }); Steinbeck quoted a 1785 Robert Burns poem entitled, “To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough” in which the speaker says, “The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry.” The action of the poem deals with a mouse painstakingly building a home, only to have it plowed by a farmer. Steinbeck, somewhat socially-Darwinian in his view of man during the Great Depression, saw this relationship between the weak (the mouse, or Lennie) and the strong (the farmer, or Curley). In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck–a moonlighting marine biologist himself–depicts a biological, animalistic view of man during economic duress. No matter what lengths George goes to to protect Lennie, whether it be simple companionship or economic support, external forces greater than them will usually always pr
