When I first saw the title of "Between Mice and Men", I couldn't guess what the book would be about without reading the synopsis, but when I finished reading the book, I had to admire the author for the title being so apt.
"Between Mice and Men" is the representative work of the American Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, which has been praised continuously since its inception, although this ** is short, but the story is very touching, and its connotation is enough to cause many people to think deeply.
There are many editions of this classic, and I choose the illustrated collector's edition published by Hou Lang, this series adheres to the publishing concept of "famous artists translating famous paintings", aiming to let readers better feel the charm of classic literary masterpieces. That's why I chose this series, whether it's from the translation of the text or the design of the book's binding, this series is worth reading and even collecting.
The story told in Mice and Men is not complicated, it takes place in the context of the Great Depression in the United States, and countless people are forced to embark on a wandering journey, trying to survive while also holding a similar unrealistic fantasy of owning their own land and living a free life.
George and Lenny are two of these countless people, they are at the bottom of society, with dreams of belonging to the little people, but life is not always as people want, fate is always very harsh on the little people, and accidents always happen from time to time.
The friendship between George and Lennie is touching, but also sad. Lennie is not bad by nature but often misses and gets into trouble, although George is smart, but in the face of Lennie, who often gets into trouble, he can't save him in the end. That feeling of powerlessness makes people feel distressed. This also reflects the social status quo at that time, and individual efforts often do not play a big role, and are eventually swept forward by the torrent of fate.
At the end of the story, George says, "I think I knew it from the beginning. I know we'll never own that piece of land. He used to love to hear about it, and I couldn't help but think that maybe we could own that land. "That land represents the dreams of all the low-level wanderers in the story, so anyone who has heard the story of that land can't help but yearn for it, and ignite the dream of owning that land in their hearts. But we can also see a lot of opposition, with those who have assets taking their dreams as a joke, and those who have succumbed to reality taking their dreams as wishful thinking.
Fate is so cruel, and this is also the cruelty of society at that time. The book describes George and Lennie's plan for the land many times, which is also their hope for a better life in the future, and in the end, with Lennie's next trouble, the land becomes their unattainable fantasy, which seems to hint at the tragic end of the people living at the bottom of that social background.
In this era, it may be difficult for us to understand the situation of George and Lennie, but from another perspective, every era and every society has the sorrow of the bottom, and after reading their stories, we will have more thoughts about the world in front of us.