Of Mice And Men Comparison Essay

John Steinbeck’s novel, Of Mice and Men, is a book about two friends, Lennie and George, with a dream of owning their own land during the Great Depression in California. Steinbeck tells a story full of themes relevant to the time period it was written in, including the need for companionship, the loneliness that plagued so many people in the 1930s, and the American dream of getting a place of one’s own and taking control over their life, utterly failing. Because of the relatability of the book, the story was a hit across the country and even in Europe, and its popularity sparked the making of many adaptations in the forms of stage productions and radio plays, as well as more well-known types of media like movies. A recent adaptation was made by Gary Sinise, his film Of Mice and Men, hitting the theaters in 1992. Sinise’s film stayed fairly true to Steinbeck’s original story, but as can be expected from most book to movie adaptations, there were quite a few differences as well. …show more content…
Gary Sinise clearly stayed true to the original setting throughout his movie, and many of the important plot points of the novel were depicted in the film as well. For example, at the beginning of the movie, Sinise included shots of signs that said ‘Soledad’, and since most people don’t know where Soledad is, he also included a bus that said ‘Los Angeles’ to give a general idea of where this story was taking place. The book accomplished this in a much simpler and straightforward way, by beginning the novel with, “A few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green”, to give a sense of where the bulk of this story will take place, and then continuing to describe the surrounding area until introducing the main