The Walking Dead and Of Mice and Men

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There have been some quite obvious Of Mice and Men connections in The Walking Dead-namely The Grove. I thought upon further inspection there might be more. I didn’t want to find exact connections or pretend to make literary analysis. Just some real thematic connections and interesting observations if I can find them. And I think there are quite a few.

I’ve always thought that post-Otis-killing Shane looked like Lennie in Otis’s oversized overalls and his newly shaved head along with his lowered chin and reluctant sob story telling at Otis’s funeral.

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The idea that a bunch of guys and in the case of The Walking Dead, guys, girls and children are put together and become a group is common to both stories. In one, the situation is the work that brings them together, in the other, the work comes from the situation. But they both need to do hard work and work together– cook and clean together, sleep together and find entertainment together .

Alone. Loneliness. We need people. That has been a big theme in The Walking Dead from Bob to Daryl and Andrea. You can’t do things without people anymore. Never could. Loneliness was a big theme in Of Mice and Men. Curly’s wife was isolated and lonely. She didn’t even have a name in the book. Candy was old and lonely. And Crooks expressed his loneliness for all of them:

"S’ pose you didn’t have nobody. S’ pose you couldn’t go into the bunk house and play rummy cause you was black. How’d you like that? S’pose you had to sit out here an ‘ read books… Books ain’t no good. A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain’t got nobody. Don’t make no difference who the guy is, long’s he’s with you. I tell ya, I tell ya a guy gets too lonely an ‘ he gets sick."

The famous dream and story that George told Lennie over and over was a rebellion against that loneliness. It was the hope that you need in a hard world like the working world of Of Mice and Men or the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead. The rabbit story is the Of Mice and Men version of the We Are The Walking Dead speech. It’s what they tell themselves everyday to keep themselves going so they can survive one more day and eventually get to live again.

"“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place… They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”~George“But not us. Tell about us now…We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us.” ~Lennie"

Then The Grove. The most obvious connection. The twisting of two Of Mice and Men biggies. A crazy person of sorts. A loveable crazy person, Lennie loved soft things. Loved to pet rabbits, mice, hair. Lizzie loved walkers. Wanted to believe they listened, wanted to be pals, needed to be fed. Confused. Strong. Crazy. Loving, Lovable. Dangerous.

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Candy’s dog. The lesson for George and Carol. “I shouldn’t ought to let no stranger shoot my dog.” The job needed to be done by someone who cared about them. In one case because he would have been killed by strangers and George could protect him from torture and control his peaceful end. In the other case because she didn’t and wouldn’t understand the danger she posed to others and Carol could control her peaceful end and protect the others.

The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, Gang aft agley

The name of the book comes from the Robert Burns poem, To a Mouse. In both Of Mice and Men and The Walking Dead this is often the case. One must plan and hope and dream, but those plans won’t always go exactly the way we expect. We must know there will always be variables. People are going to die. Other people in our lives aren’t always going to follow our scripts. Life takes twists and turns we can never prepare for, but that doesn’t mean we should stop preparing.

The best laid plans. …

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