From the poem To A Mouse by Robert Burns, John Steinbeck names his book Of Mice and Men. The poem To a Mouse tells the story of a man who, while plowing his field, encounters a mouse that he accidentally killed. The mouse was in a small house that he built to stay warm during the coming winter. Likewise, the man plowed his field to prepare for the winter months. After all, the mouse and the man were both carrying out their normal tasks as mice and farmers. However, the man, when he encounters the dead mouse, is very shaken and upset that this event happened. Similarly, in the book Of Mice and Men, when George has to kill Lennie, George is also shaken and upset that this event had to happen. Both events were unplanned and uncalled for. Therefore, the title of this book is appropriate for the characters and events, because life is never the way you plan it and things will happen in unexpected and unforeseen ways. In the book, the example of an unforeseen event is when George has to kill Lennie for accidentally killing Curely's wife. One day Lennie was in the barn petting an already dead puppy. Lennie got the puppy because he liked to pet soft things. “Lennie looked at it for a long time, then he reached out his huge hand and stroked it, stroked it from one end to the other.” (85) He accidentally killed the puppy by petting it too hard. Lennie was slow and didn't fully understand things. Since he wanted to take care of the rabbits even though he and George had their own farm, he feared that if George found the puppy dead, George would no longer let him take care of the rabbits. "Now George won't let me take care of the rabbits. no rabbits, if he goes out you get killed. (85) At this point Curely is in the middle of a paper.... .. thinking about the future, life often goes wrong and leaves only sorrow and pain. Similarly, when George kills Lennie, even though Lennie had planned not to talk to Curley's wife and. of having his own farm, life is derailed when Lennie kills Curley's wife and George is left with pain and sorrow when he has to kill Lennie and be alone The reader can see how in the poem the farmer did not know. that it would be a day when he would kill a mouse and destroy his house and, in the same way, George did not know that he would have to kill Lennie in order to save him from his own fate In conclusion, this title is appropriate for the characters. and the events of this novel as the poem emphasizes the concept of life throwing curve balls and no matter how much one plans for the future, one can never predict what will happen..