Facts about Of Mice and Men

1. 06

   Lennie's character was partially inspired by Steinbeck's own experiences with his mentally disabled friend, whose name was also Lennie, during his youth in California.

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2. 05

   Steinbeck originally titled Of Mice and Men 'Something That Happened,' before changing it to a line from Robert Burns's 1785 poem 'To a Mouse.

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3. 04

   A central theme in Of Mice and Men is the American Dream's futility, embodied in George and Lennie's recurring fantasy of owning a small farm with rabbits.

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4. 03

   Steinbeck drew inspiration for Of Mice and Men from his 1936 travels through California's San Joaquin Valley, where he witnessed migrant workers during the Great Depression firsthand.

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5. 02

   The novella's tragic ending, where George shoots Lennie to spare him from a lynch mob, was considered so dark that some American schools banned the book throughout the 1950s and 1960s.

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6. 01

   John Steinbeck published Of Mice and Men in 1937, and the novella was adapted into a Broadway play that same year, becoming one of the fastest theatrical adaptations of an American novel.

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