Paige Gallagher

Paige Gallagher

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

Realistic Fiction

Just Right

Just Finished 107

1) In the end of Of Mice and Men, Lennie is in the barn with the puppies. He is also with the puppy he just killed. Lennie is ashamed that he killed it so he tries to hide it. Deep down he knows that even if he hides it, George will find out and won't let Lennie tend to any rabbits. He throws the dead puppy across the room ashamed. As he turns away from the puppy Curley's wife comes in, quietly so Lennie doesn't hear her. In panic as he saw her he started to cover the puppy with hay again. Curley's wife starts to ask what Lennie has under the hay, but he stops her and tells her that George said not to talk to her because George thinks shes trouble. Curley's wife seems unaffected by the comment and laughs. Their conversation continues, then she asks Lennie if he wants to touch her hair. Lennie likes to touch things that are attractive to him, so he says yes. He strokes it, and then he strokes much harder and Curley's wife starts yelling and jerking her head back and forth telling Lennie to let go. Lennie is frightened by this and holds on tighter and since he is so strong he ends up breaking her neck and killing her. When Candy comes into the barn looking for Lennie he finds Curley's Wife dead on the floor, he ran out of the barn and when he came back he was with George. George took one look at Curley's Wife and knew it was Lennie who had killed her. He ran out to get the rest of the workers. When everyone was gathered over Curley's Wife's dead body, they all agreed to get Lennie and kill him. George went first and found Lennie in their hiding spot. He knew all the other guys were gonna do much worse to Lennie so he decided to put him in a safe state of mind and shoot him in the back of the head so he wouldn't feel it. After George shot him the other guys found him and Lennie who had just been shot dead, and they commended him. Slim was the only guy who saw what actually happened, all of the other workers thought George had killed him out of cruelty and out of punishment. But George did it out of love knowing that this was the most humane way of doing it. In the end he and Slim left town to travel and find a new job together.

2) This book was not one of my favorites because of the language. The language in the book could get very confusing and I couldn't make out what the character was trying to say. There was a lot of confusing dialogue that didn't make much sense to me. The book overall I didn't enjoy either. Almost all of the characters were not relatable. I like to read books where I can relate to the character and feel like I was there. In this book I couldn't picture where it was taking place or what the characters were feeling. I haven't read another book by this author, but I felt like the author was pushing me away as reader because there were a lot of sad parts. When George killed Lennie was sad and I disagreed with that fact that George may have been doing it out of love because if George really loved Lennie he would have done something for him. He could have had him run and protect him or do something other than give up and kill him. I also was sad when the workers killed Candy's dog. Even though the dog may have been old was on the verge of dying I think they should have let him live out the rest of his life and die of natural causes. 

3) One theme I notice in the book is Isolation. One example of Isolation is Lennie. With his disability of a slow mind he is isolated from everyone else. He wasn't allowed to go to town with all of the other workers. No one really wants to have to take care of him all of the time. Another character there is isolation in is Candy. Candy's dog isolates him because no one likes his dog and since the dog follows him wherever he goes no one wants to be around him. Another reason Candy is isolated is because of his hands. He lost his other hand and it makes it harder for him to work as hard. One last example of Isolation is in Curley's wife. She is isolated because Curley never lets her leave the house. She told Lennie about how she wanted to become an actress but never did and ended up marrying Curley. She is not allowed to talk to any of the other men because Curley doesn't trust her.

4) My favorite character was Lennie. He was my favorite because he was so unpredictable, you never knew what he was going to do next. Lennie was creative, he stopped by Crooks' room and tried to make friends with him even though Crooks was black. At the time black and white people weren't equal. I liked the fact that Lennie did it anyway. Another thing I liked about Lennie's character was the fact that I always felt like I was rooting for him. I always wanted him to succeed and have George be proud of him and to finally have George trust him. Even though this would have been hard to do because of Lennie's metal disability I always found myself rooting for him and wanting it to happen even if it was unrealistic. Lennie was always kind. Even though he did some bad things to animals and humans he wasn't doing it to be mean or cruel. He had a love for animals and wanted to care for them but because of his strength he had hard time doing that.

5) My least favorite character was Curley. He was my least favorite because he always picked on anyone who was bigger than him. Curley was very insecure about himself because he was very short and he picked on anyone bigger than him. One example is when he and Lennie got into a fist fight. Lennie was smiling because he was thinking about the rabbits he was going to tend to and Curley thought he was laughing at him so they got into a fight. Curley didn't actually fight him because he though he was laughing. Curley fought Lennie because he was upset that Lennie was the new and he was big and strong. I also dislike him because he treats his wife as property not as his wife. He won't let her leave the house. When she does, he spends his time trying to look for her and making sure she doesn't talk to any men.

6) The ending was not what I had expected. I thought Lennie, George and Candy were going to save enough money and buy a house together and own their farm. the plot twisted once Lennie killed Curley's wife. I had not expected it would lead to George killing Lennie. Although there were many things that foreshadowed Lennie's death. First when Lennie and George were still in Weed, Lennie was accused of raping a girl. But he just liked her dress and wanted to touch it. He didn't mean any harm. Another example would be when Lennie killed a mouse. He didn't mean to kill it he just liked the feel of it and his strength was too much for the little mouse to handle. The last example is when Lennie killed Curley's wife. he just likes to touch things that are soft or appealing to him and when he held on too tight he broke her neck. This lead to George realizing Lennie was too much to handle. George couldn't watch for him for the rest of his life.