Scott Nichols

Scott Nichols

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck

Historical Fiction

Holiday

1. A lot happend in he ending of Of Mice and Men. Lennie had just killed his new puppy and was sobbing about it when Curley's wife entered the barn that Lennie was in. She tried to comfort him, and it eventually turned into Lennie feeling her hair. When Lennie wouldn'y let go, Curley's wife started screaming, and Lennie accidentally broke her neck trying to make her stop. Lennie knew he did something wrong, so he fled the scene of the crime and went to a lake near where he was. When the rest of the men found out that Lennie killed Curley's wife, the group, led by Curley, decided to kill Lennie. George, however, unknown to the rest, had stolen Carlson's Luger and planned to go ahead of the group so that he could kill Lennie painlessly and so that Lennie was happy as he died. Meanwhile, Lennie was having hallucinations of his Aunt Clara and rabbits, telling him he was no good, and he started yelling for George. George found him, and they started talking. George told Lennie about their plans to have their own house and rabbits, so that Lennie would be happy, and when George heard the rest of the men coming to kill Lennie, George stood behind Lennie and shot him in the back of the head. When the men arrived, George convinced them that Lennie had had Carlson's gun and that George had stolen it from him and shot him. Then, Slim comforted George as they left for a drink, noever to return to the ranch.
 

2. After finishing the book, I think that it was ok. It was a good book, but it could be confusing and boring, and the ending almost killed the entire story. The book had some good moments, and could be gripping, not to mention that it was a time period I've never read about, which was interesting. However, this led to a boring book with very little action or any incentive to keep reading. The book had quite little occur until the very last pages, and was almost all dialogue of random things. The dialogue was difficult to understand because of Steinbeck trying to showcase their accents, which made the reading almost painful. The characters can also be dull at times. Lennie really only cared about the rabbits, Curley was always mad at something, and Candy was frequently sad and didn't talk much. The ending was also poor and random. While the hints were there that something like what happened would happen, the ending was surprising, and not necessarily in a good way. The ending didn't really provide a resolution either. George shot Lennie, and the book ended, with no epilogue or any indication that things got better or worse for George or any of the others for that matter.

3. A theme for this book would be hope. Hope is all around the characters and affects them all in one way or another. Hope is also the driving force behind most of the characters doing anything. for example, if Lennie didn't hope that he would get his house and tend for the rabbits, he would just be a sad, disabled man with no drive or reason. Lennie's hope had an incredibly large impact on his life, and kept him alive, because if he didn't have this dream, he wouldn't be willing to work. Candy and Crooks both have the same hope as Lennie, that they will all have their own house and can dictate their own lives. However, for Carlson, his hope is much simpler. He just wants to get the paycheck at the end of the month, and live as a rancher on Curley's father's field. All the character in the novel, and hope is what keeps them going and makes them do whatever they do.
 

4. My favorite character is Slim. Slim is constantly the voice of reason among the ranchers, and will always do the right thing. Slim's responsibility can rub off on the others, and he can keep them out of trouble. Slim is noble and willing to help people, like when George killed Lennie, Slim comforted him and told him that it had to happen and it was ok. Slim, for these reasons, is essentially the leader of the group and keeps everybody together. Slim carries an authority and a sense of comfort and power. Slim is the final decision-maker and, because of his responsibility, usually makes the right decision. Slim is overall a great person, and makes sure that the right thing is always happening.
 

5. My least favorite character is Curley. He is a cruel person who is always itching for a fight, and resorts to violence to prove himself.  Curley tries to fight and beat up anybody who is larger than him, which is almost everybody because of how short he is, for no reason other than that they're bigger and he wants to prove how strong he is. Curley's violence leads to him wanting to actually torture and kill Lennie at the end of the book. Curley is also cruel and potentially abusive. Curley's wife was forced to stay in their house, and when she left, Curley would be very upset and think that she was trying to flirt with the guys. Curley is also socially insecure and struggles to have a conversation without getting angry and throwing punches.
 

6. The ending of the book was pretty poor in my opinion. I expected something of the nature of what happened, but I didn't expect George to be the person that killed Lennie. I expected that Lennie was going to have something bad to happen, like get arrested or even die, but having George kill him was unexpected, as I expected either Curley, for revenge, would kill him, or Slim, in a turn of events and Slim was secretly the bad guy. Steinbeck left many clues that something terrible would happen to Lennie throughout the entire book. For one, when Lennie felt the girls dress in Weed and was driven out of the town, because almost the exact same thing happened to get him killed at the end of the book. There were also many different parallels. For example, when Candy's dog died, Candy let Carlson do it, like how George killed Lennie, and the reason that both died was because it was the most humane thing to do.