Of Mice and Men, Why It Is a Good Book for All Readers

Jonah Johnson

Hoffecker

Hour 6

Sep-25-2015

Of Mice and Men: A Book Review

        “Of Mice and Men”, by John Steinbeck is a great book for young or adult readers because it shows the values of friendship, it teaches the reader about sacrifice, and is a short, easy read.

        This book surely shows the value of friendship through an unlikely pair, George and Lennie. George and Lennie may be quite different but they stay together and protect each other. Lennie uses his extreme strength and intimidation to keep people from hurting the both of them, and George protects Lennie by telling him what’s right from wrong and not letting him unnecessarily hurt other people or animals on accident. Also, in this time period it is very easy to become lonely and not have anyone to turn to. Lennie and George stay together preventing loneliness.

        “Of Mice and Men” also teaches readers about sacrifice in a relationship. Since Lennie has a mental disability, he doesn’t know when he is hurting something until after he does it and he has done it to multiple animals he has come into contact with. To prevent further deaths, George tries not to let Lennie have any pets. Another example of sacrifice is when Candy puts his old sick dog down because he wants it to be out of it’s misery. Also, at the end of the book Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife while trying to pet her hair, George then decides that to prevent Lennie from killing more people, the thing he should do is kill Lennie. So George sacrifices Lennie’s life by shooting him in the back of the head to protect other people.

        This book is also very short and an easy read for classrooms or people pressed on time. The book is only 6 chapters, and 107 pages. On average it can be read in about two hours of reading time. It is good for classrooms because it can be read by all of the students in just a few days and gets the point of the story across quickly. Also, the language is fairly easy to understand and follow along with the story.

        I give “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck a 4.5 of 5 stars because it shows the values of friendships, teaches the reader about sacrifice, and is a short, easy book to read.