Of Mice and Men gets its name from the poem "to a mouse". The poem says "the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a glay" which means - the best planned out plans often go wrong. This links to the novel as many characters have the American Dream. None of these come true e.g. George and Lennie have a dream to own a ranch. This goes wrong when Lennie accidently kills Curleys wife which leads to Lennies downfall. The poem says "o' mice and men", this is where Of Mice and Men gets its name.
'Of Mice and Men' by John Steinbeck takes its title from the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns. Both works explore themes of fate, loneliness, and the fragility of dreams. The title serves as a metaphor for the characters in the novel who, like the mouse in the poem, struggle against forces beyond their control.
I think what is even more telling than the likenesses are the dissimilarities between LENNIE and a mouse. LENNIE - big, bulky, ignorant, and bumbling - is the opposite of a mouse, that we imagine as coniving, premeditating, tiny, quick on its feet, et cetera.
I think that Steinbeck was playing with irony when he chose this particular title.
The title was mainly influenced from a poem by Robert Burns. The line reads "The best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry". Steinbeck alludes to this line to show how Lennie and George's dream will never be accomplished and this is representative of many of the ranch workers at the time who shared a common dream of owning land etc.
Although Lennie is physically opposite to a mouse, his personality is similar: meek-mannered and mild. Also, Lennie carries a dead mouse at the beginning of the novel to 'pet' because he likes soft things.
It's an allusion to a line from the poem "To A Mouse" by Robert Burns: "The best schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley". This means that the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray. This is a very cynical statement, saying that nothing is ever easily done, or plans never will work out.
Of course any phrase, saying or quote is context specific, thus for the sake or argument I will answer as treating the phrase context free (in terms of any authors who used it or larger phrases that it is pulled from).
The earliest known popular use of the phrase came from the poem "To a Mouse" by Robert Burns. In this the phrase is modified as being the "best laid plans of mice and men" which simply refers to how even the best of plans made can be flawed.
John Steinbeck also made use of the phrase (likely drawing it from Burn's poem) in his novel "Of Mice and Men".
As to what the phrase actually means, I can think of two different albeit very similar interpretations of it. The first is that Mice and Men is referring to all of human kind, collectively denoting some of us as being "mice" (people who are perhaps weaker, cowardly, limited by some nature of their being) and some being "men" (people who are strong, who impact the world, who are brave, who have power). In this way the phrase would simply be referring to all of humanity, no matter how weak (absence of power) or large (presence of power). Whatever is being used as the topic of the phrase is then compared to being owned by all of human-kind.
The second way one could look at the phrase is to look at "mice" representing the non-human world and "men" representing the human world. In this sense the phrase takes on a more worldly sense and denotes some sort of association or ownership between some idea external of this specific phrase and the phrase ("of mice and men"). Taken this way the external attribute being associated is compared to being owned by all of the living earth.
In both cases, it is simply making a reference to the idea or attribute which falls outside of the phrase (the external modifier) and says that it is held (owned or possessed) by both "mice" and "men".
It suggests that it's going to be about mice and men. Only one of those things is true.
It does also refer to a poem in which the best laid plans of mice and men are said to "gang aft agley", which is certainly true of the plans of George and Lenny in the book.
The story "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck has a strong reference to the Cain and Abel story in The Bible.
The title of the novel 'Of Mice and Men' comes from a poem called 'To a Mouse' by Robert Burns
No: "Mice" is the plural form of mouse. Possible pronouns for "mouse" are "it", "he", or "she".
The song Vanilla Twilight is about someone you love who you are no longer with. It has no relation to 'Of Mice and Men'. The themes are completely different.
In "Of Mice and Men," Lennie does not have a rabbit in his pocket, despite his strong desire to have one. He often dreams of tending rabbits on their future farm.
The word mice is the plural form of mouse. (one mouse, two mice)
The plural of mouse is mice.
The plural of mouse is mice
Mice. One mouse is a mouse. Mice is more than one. The lady had mice in her house. The cat caught a mouse.
No, Mice is a plural noun. Mouse is the singular noun.
mouse is singular, mice is plural
mice for 2-infinate mouse for 1 For example i added my MOUSE to my friends group of MICE.
The title "Of Mice and Men" is derived from a line in a poem by Robert Burns called "To a Mouse." Steinbeck found inspiration in this line to convey the idea of vulnerability and fragility that both small creatures and marginalized people share in a harsh world.