History YMMV / OfMiceAndMen

* MemeticMutation: George's love of rabbits sprung from this novel, with PopCultureOsmosis thanks to BugsBunny.

** Curly's wife, to an extent. She's married to a badly-tempered man who is extremely possessive of her, and keeps her as a trophy wife. She's obviously lonely, but all the workers are too scared of her husband to speak with her. She later tries to chat up Lennie, [[spoiler:which ends with her panicking when he won't stop stroking her hair and, when she starts to scream, him killing her by accident.]]

* JerkAss: Sure, George has some justification, putting up with Lennie can't be any picnic. But there were times when he outright verbally abuses him throughout the novel.

* TearJerker: Has its own [[TearJerker/OfMiceAndMen sub-page]].

* WeirdAlEffect: George and Lennie are far better known to modern audiences as characters regularly spoofed in WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes and TexAvery cartoons ("Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?") Tex Avery even made a cartoon based on the character Lennie called "Lonesome Lenny".

* Jerkass: Sure, George has some justification, putting up with Lennie can't be any picnic. But there were times when he outright verbally abuses him throughout the novel.

* {{Squick}}: Curley's glove. It's not the Vaseline, it's [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar what he's using the Vaseline for.]]

* JerkassWoobie: Arguably Curley's wife.

* HeyItsThatGuy: [[ForrestGump Lt.Dan]] or [[CSINY Mac Taylor]] is George in the 1992 movie.

* JerkAss: ''Nobody'' likes Curley.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:"And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering."]]

** Lennie, too. However goofy it may be, the scene in which he gets internal dialogue (with the aunt who raised him and with a [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment rabbit]]) is utterly heartbreaking; he blames himself for everything that goes wrong in George's life, and his biggest fear is being abandoned. And all he really wants to do is [[ChronicPetKiller hold little animals]].

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:Lennie dies.]]

* {{Squick}}: Curley's glove. It's not the Vaseline, it's [[{{GettingCrapPastTheRadar}} what he's using the Vaseline for.]]

* WeirdAlEffect: George and Lennie are far better known to modern audiences as characters regularly spoofed in LooneyTunes and TexAvery cartoons ("Which way did he go, George? Which way did he go?") Tex Avery even made a cartoon based on the character Lennie called "Lonesome Lenny".

* Jerkass: ''Nobody'' likes Curley.

* TheScrappy: ''No one likes'' [[JerkAss Curley.]]

* TheScrappy: ''No one likes'' [[JerkAss ''Curley.'']]

* TheScrappy: ''No one likes [[JerkAss ''Curley.'']]

* TheWoobie: George. The man constantly loses his job and seems like he actually is a pretty nice guy, but he has to endure a lot of pain since he travels with Lennie. He causes George to frequently lose his job and be on the run and George can't have a social life because he always has to take care of Lennie [[spoiler:AND [[TearJerker he forced]] [[MercyKill himself to]] [[ShootTheDog shoot Lennie]]]]. You gotta feel a LITTLE sorry for him because of that.

* TearJerker: [[spoiler:"And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering."]]

* DownerEnding: C'mon, [[TearJerker you know you cried]].