The Significance Of Lennie In John Steinbeck's Of Mice And Men

In the book, Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck, the mice are shown to be the main “symbol” throughout the story. The main characters, George Milton and Lennie Smalls, go through a lot in this story. Each time Lennie does something bad, it always comes back to the mice and their symbolization. Some things to know about the mice is how they are killed, their significance, and their relationship with the poem relating to the story. Throughout the book, the mice have a lot more relation to Lennie than some people may think. As chapters go by, this “big dream” the two friends have is mentioned quite often. That big dream is not only filled with George’s dream of owning a ranch, but it is also made up of many small dreams that Lennie has. The mice in this story represent the smaller dreams Lennie has. Lennie is known to be kind of mental, not the brightest type of person, but big and strong. He’s got a soft soul on the inside, but doesn’t know his own strength. The softness of his soul is shown by his constant love for soft things. One of those soft things are mice. He always wants to have something soft he can pet, like mice, but with him and his “blind strength” he always crushes

The reason being, Burns was ploughing in the fields and accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest. In one of the poems stanzas, Burns says, “But mouse-friend, you are not alone in proving foresight may be vein: the best-laid schemes of Mice and Men go aft awry, and leave us only grief and pain for promised joy.” This is where the book, Of Mice And Men, got its title. It’s saying that no matter what happens, humans never end up happy. That they can’t have nice things because they always get destroyed. This is what the mice really represent in this book. Something “nice” that Lennie wants. Mice. Except, they always get killed. Which leaves Lennie unhappy. Which symbolizes Lennie killing his own dreams. That’s what all of this comes down