Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck, follows the path of long time friends, Lennie and George, on a ranch in California. These friends are trying to earn money so that they could eventually have land of their own. This book is filled with life great description, irony, and good plot development.

John Steinbeck has great description. His descriptions are very detailed, and they make the mental picture very real. When he described the characters, it felt like they were alive and standing in front of me. “The first man was small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features…small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose.” Lennie was the opposite of this. The author described the setting, and it was as if I was standing in the middle of the scene.

There was a lot of irony in this story. It is hard to believe that such opposites could be friends. George was small, quick, and smart, whereas Lennie was big, slow, strong, and he wasn’t very smart. Lennie always did what George said. In addition, because George was in control he always looked after Lennie and made sure he didn’t get into too much trouble. This story is also ironic because Lennie is very big but he is also very gentle and is almost never angry. Lennie would never hurt anything, but he ends up killing many mice.

The author develops the plot very slowly and takes the plot little by little; because of this, the plot is very simple but very detailed. The plot only covers a couple of days but the plot is very detailed so the plot is very interesting. Overall, this book is just a great book to read.