What’s Up With the Title?

John Steinbeck takes the title of this novella from the poem "To a Mouse [on turning her up in her nest with the plough]," written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785. In the poem, the speaker has accidentally turned up a mouse’s nest with his plough, and takes the opportunity to wonder at man’s separation from the world of animals. Still, the speaker thinks both mice and men suffer from being mortal, so no matter how different "thinking men" and "unthinking animals" seem, they really aren’t that different after all – everybody suffers in the end. This thought isn’t too far off from what ends up happening to our "thinking man" (George) and his "unthinking friend" (Lennie).

Most critics talking about Steinbeck point you to the seventh verse of the poem:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought [leave us nothing] but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.

The seventh stanza is relevant, but you’ve got to read the whole poem to understand why it relates to Steinbeck’s novella. Actually, the last stanza of Burns’s poem is probably the most relevant to Steinbeck’s novella:

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But, och! I backward cast my e'e [eye]
On prospects drear! [dreary]
An' forward, tho' I canna [cannot] see
I guess an' fear!

In the above stanza, the speaker realizes the poor little animal is only touched by the present, as she can’t think about the past or the future. It’s the thinking man, who can look backwards and forwards, that suffers the most from the awful things he’s done. This last verse is a nice way to think of Lennie and George’s respective fate. Whatever happens to Lennie is done, but George is left to spend the rest of his future thinking of his past deeds.