Of mice and man the pony

He was born on February 27th, 1902 in Salinas, California.

There he grew up and much of his work draws on his knowledge of life on the farms and ranches of the West. He worked as a reporter, chemist, and bricklayer until his first novel Cup of Gold (1921), was published. In 1930 Steinbeck married Carol Henning and they lived near Monterey. He was still a struggling, unknown writer and they were very poor, till he wrote the novel Tortilla Flat (1935) and The Red Pony, which at least brought Steinbeck a degree of fame and success.

The novels In Dubious Battle (1936) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939) were typical for the realistic proletarian writing in this era. In 1940 he was awarded with the Pulitzer Price. The novel Of Mice and Men deals with migrant workers in a California ranch background.

He was attracted to the theatre a number of times. In 1942 he made a play of his novel The Moon is Down, a stirring melodrama about the Nazi s occupation of Norway. Burning Bright (1950) also appeared as a novel, but it seems to have been conceived as a play from the start.

His second wife gave him two sons. They were depicted in East of Eden. This marriage also ended in divorce and in 1950 Steinbeck married his third wife, Elaine Scott. By this time he had left California and settled in New York.

Shortly after cpmleting Cannery Row, Steinbeck began work on The Pearl (1947), based on a shot story he had heard on a expedition to the Gulf of California.

To overcome his sense of loneliness and frustration because he had divorced his second wife and lost his best friend, he involved himself in many projects. He did a lot of travelling and wrote filmscripts and articles for magazines, but had produced no major work since The Pearl.

In 1962 Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Price for litterature. On December 20th, 1968 John E. Steinbeck died in New York and is burried in Salinas, California, where he was born.

THE STORY: On their way to a new job, George and Lennie stop to spend the night on a riverbank. They have been moving together from one ranch to the next for many years. Lennie is unhappy at the loss of his dead mouse, but settles down to George s coaching on how he should behave the next day: he is not to say anything when they are interviewed; he is to avoid trouble and if he does something bad, he is to return to his place they are and hide in the bushes. Lennie promises to be good and wants to know something about their future.

George describes the little farm they will have as soon as they save some money. Away from bosses and orders, they will have their own piece of land and if Lennie continues to be good Lennie will be prmitted to tend the rabbits.

Next morning they arrive at the ranch in Salinas valley and George and Lennie are shown their bunks in the bunk house. During the morning they meet a lot of guys: the boss, his son Curley, Curley s young wife, the swamper Candy, Slim, Whit and ...