Of Mice and Men

like most fifteen year olds nowadays, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a compulsory read, to prepare you for your GCSE's. Its set in California during the Great Depression in the 1930's and is told from a third person point of view in order for the narrative to access the mind of any character within the story. The book was first published in 1937.

I first read Of Mice and Men back in November last year and was quite impressed- the imagery used to describe the hillsides of California drew my attention and kept me intrigued. The use of foreshadowing to suggest to the reader what was to come built suspense but still left an spark of mystery until the ending.

however..as we had to analyse the book for an assessment, I felt like we over-analysed it and dug too far into the story that it stopped being enjoyable, although it did help to grasp all the themes such as the desire but failure to achieve the American dream and the tragedy of the depression.

I would recommend this book to young teenagers right through to adults of any age for an easy read with deep hidden meanings and to anyone interested in tragic or mystery stories.