Mūshʹhā va ādam'hā Persian 2021

Of Mice and Men is a short novel by John Steinbeck (1937), set against the backdrop of the Great Depression in the United States, portraying the harsh lives of migrant workers. The story follows two friends, George Milton and Lennie Small, who move from one farm to another in search of work, sharing a common dream: to buy a small piece of land and live independently, where Lennie can take care of rabbits.

George is intelligent and responsible, acting as Lennie’s protector; Lennie, though physically strong, is simple-minded and intellectually disabled, and his fondness for touching soft things repeatedly leads him into trouble. On the ranch, they encounter other lonely and broken characters, including Candy, an aging worker fearful of the future, and Curley’s wife, a restless woman whose presence unintentionally sets the tragedy in motion.

The novel reaches its climax with a tragic incident when Lennie accidentally kills Curley’s wife. To spare Lennie a more brutal fate at the hands of others, George makes a heartbreaking decision, bringing their shared dream to an end.

The novel is a powerful portrayal of shattered dreams, loneliness, injustice, and the collapse of the American Dream, offering a deeply human and compassionate depiction of the suffering of the marginalized in an unforgiving society.