First read this when I was 11 and found it in my grandfather's house. I didn't really know what it was about, but I loved it. Then in high school I had a teacher, Mrs Hawley, who temporarily ruined it for me and made a number of people I know hate Steinbeck for life. How? By making us find symbolism on every damned page. I kid you not. We did like 3 pages a day, for ages. Ugh. But I still love Steinbeck. I started unknowingly reading classics way before teachers starting beating me over the head with them and making me analyze them. It was too late for teachers to ruin literature for me.