The title of Of Mice and Men, a novella written by John Steinbeck, is based off a line in a poem called “To a Mouse” written by Robert Burns. The line reads, “[t]he best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men often go awry”. Mice are perceived as helpless, insignificant, and incapable of choosing their fate; are humans the same? Based off the characters and their actions in Steinbeck’s story, it seems to be so. Both mice and men need social interaction, can be powerful in groups but are weak alone, and sometimes
ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living with them.’ (Mel Brooks) How have Harper Lee and John Steinbeck created believable characters in the novels you have studied? Who made their novel more believable than other? Is it Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ or is it Steinbeck’s ‘Animal Farm’? To compare and contrast the two similar but very different novels in the introduction, firstly both novels share the same country background and