Steinbeck eventually settled on the title Of Mice and Men, from the lines in a Robert Burns poem: "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/ Gang aft a'gley" (Parini 184). The book tells the story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two itinerant ranch hands who share a lifestyle and a set of dreams but little else. George is "small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features" (Steinbeck 16), while Lennie is "his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes" (Steinbeck 17). Lennie is unaware of his physical power, the strength which makes him an excellent farmhand but which causes him to kill every small, soft creature he takes as a pet, simply by petting each one too hard. George, for reasons he cannot explain even to himself, has become Lennie's guardian, protecting him and trying to keep him in line, while sharing a dream with him of eventually getting their own place and settling down.

Steinbeck lays out their story in six succinct chapters, each starting with a description of a specific location and then carrying the narrative along primarily through dialogue. He introduces the two men as they arrive at a riverbank "a few miles south of Soledad," California (Steinbeck 15). In Spanish, Soledad means a lonely place, and loneliness is an important theme in the novel. Georg

St. Pierre, Brian. John Steinbeck: The California Years. San Francisco: Chronicle, 1983.

Steinbeck builds foreshadowing into the structure of his story. The dead mouse that George forces Lennie to surrender at the start of the story, for example, prefigures the puppy and the woman that Lennie's strength will later kill. The riverbank that, at the start of the story, provides a haven for the two men, ultimately becomes the scene of the story's tragic ending. The simple story and highly theatrical presentation helped make it an instant bestseller and obvious material for a play.

Milestone's film version adheres more closely to Steinbeck's novel than have any other attempts to dramatize this simple, powerful story. Yet Sinise's, despite some weaknesses, does manage to portray the book's lyricism and drama. Each conveys a powerful sense of time and place, including the time and place in which each was filmed. Milestone's film is very much a product of late 1930s' Hollywood: filmed in crystal-sharp black and white, using exquisite studio lighting. Sinise's version is both richer and less refined: the landscape is richly colored, while the characters and their costumes are more authentically seedy. That both can effectively tell Steinbeck's story in different ways is a tribute to a remarkable, enduring book.

Parini, Jay. John Steinbeck: A Biography. New York: Holt, 1995.

Despite George's warnings, Lennie has a run-in with Curley and, eventually, accidentally kills the girl when he becomes frightened by her struggles. George recognizes that he cannot protect his friend from a lynching or a l