Published in 1937 in the aftermath of the Great Depression and produced as a play that same year, John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men remains one of the most keenly perceptive examinations of the American dream of individual liberty.

At the core of the story Steinbeck wrote as a play-novella are the well-known characters of Lenny and George, migrant workers, lifelong companions, the one hugely strong and mentally deficient, the other small, wiry, and quick-minded. Hadella offers a complete analysis of these characters and their relationship, bringing to bear both Jungian and biblical mythology and comparing them with figures in other Steinbeck works.

In their hope to someday secure land of their own Hadella reads not only the American dream of independence but the desire to return to an Edenic garden of innocence and safety.

Hadella devotes a good deal of attention to Steinbeck's literary experiment: to write a novel that with little adaptation could be performed for the stage, the idea being that this would make the story more accessible to working-class people unlikely to read a long, complex book. As a result of this construction, development of character and theme depends largely on the dialogue and actions of the characters, just as it does in a play.

In the final chapter of this study, Hadella discusses the stage and film history of Of Mice and Men. To arrive at a more complete understanding of the original story, she analyzes the changes made to it for various stage and film productions; the addition of a scene, a new emphasis on some aspect of a character is examined to shed light on the nature of Steinbeck's initial creative choices.

Hadella's assessment of the text's literary and dramatic underpinnings is complemented by background information on the history of agribusiness in America, on Steinbeck's experience working with migrant workers in California, and on the philosophical and political influences that helped to shape his work.