A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice And Men By Thomas Scareth

In “A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice and Men” by Thomas Scareth, the author’s purpose is to show the reader that Of Mice and Men is great tragic literature that provides the reader with many complex ideas through a simple story. One point Scareth makes is that sometimes tragedies are needed to show a positive about humanity when he says the story is,”but a tragedy in the classic Aristotelian/Shakespearean sense of showing humanity’s achievement of greatness through and in spite of defeat.” Scareth explains humans can do good things through seemingly bad things. Achievements can be made even through turmoil. I agree with this point because while George does something horrible, killing Lennie, it is done out of love and his need to protect him.

Scarseth states,”Theme is Slim, calm, reasonable, compassionate, the real leader of men.” Scarseth is trying to show that even though the ranch workers may seem like stereotypical characters, they have depth and complexity. Slim appears as a nice guy, but it isn’t until later that the reader realizes how much of a good friend and leader he is and that he is willing to help anyone. I agree with this point because Slim is there for George through hard times,”Slim twitched George’s elbow.”Come on, George. Me an’ you’ll go in an’ get a drink.”(Steinbeck 107) Slim was there for George when he killed his best friend. George went through a horrible event and Slim offered to get a drink with him instead of doing nothing like the other ranch workers. All the other people just stood there and wondered why Slim was being sympathetic with George after he had just killed someone. This shows Slim understood the complex situation. He wasn’t just a nice guy, he was a sensitive and smart person. All of Scarseth’s points show that even though Of Mice and Men appears to be just a simple story of two workers working on a ranch, the book shows the reader many complex themes and ideas about life, death, and