ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Steinbeck chose the title Of Mice and Men after reading a poem called “To a Mouse” by Robert Burns, in which the poet regrets accidentally destroying a mouse’s nest. The poem resonates with several of Of Mice and Men’s central themes: the impermanence of home and the harshness of life for the most vulnerable.

Detailed explanation-2: -To A Mouse depicts Burns’ remorse at having destroyed the nest of a tiny field mouse with his plough. He apologises to the mouse for his mishap, for the general tyranny of man in nature and reflects mournfully on the role of fate in the life of every creature, including himself.

Detailed explanation-3: -Robert Burns wrote the poem To a Mouse in 1785. The speaker of the poem is a farmer who has accidentally destroyed the nest of a mouse while plowing his field.

Detailed explanation-4: -Robert Burns wrote “To a Mouse” because he had a guilt feeling. He was rinsing in the fields and accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest that the animal would use as a shelter to survive the winter. It happened when he was working as a farmer. That experience led him to write the poem as a kind of apology to the mouse.