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Indeed there has been nothing quite so good if the kind in American writing since Sherwood Anderson’s early stories.” –Saturday Review of Literature John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is the story of two friends, George and Lennie and their journey to start the ‘perfect’ life; a farm with rabbits, pigs and cows, where Lennie can tend to the rabbits. Set in the late 1930’s George and Lennie continuously run from the law due to George’s mishaps with things that he loves to touch but always ends up hurting. At this particular point George and Lennie are running because Lennie hurt a young girl unintentionally. Lennie became frightened when the girl started screaming and instead of letting go of the girls’ dress; he gripped it tighter, ripping it. George and Lennie can no longer stay where they are because Lennie cannot control his own strength and continues to get himself into trouble. (41) While they are on their way to a new town George gives Lennie instructions to hide in the brush until he comes for him if he gets into any trouble. (17) At this point I think George begins to loose confidence in his and Lennie’s dreams of owning a farm together and living happily without any worries. It’s almost as if he knows Lennie will never be able to control himself. When George and Lennie arrive at the ranch they establish themselves fairly well with the other workers and fit in as well as they can, with the exception of the boss’ son Curley whom almost no one gets along with. (26) From the beginning Curley doesn’t like George or Lennie, but is not the type to start anything unless he deems it necessary. As the story continues George warns Lennie of Curley and his intentions toward Lennie one day when Lennie can’t draw his attention away from Curley’s wife. George tells Lennie to stay away from her because she’s looking to start something with one of them, and Curley is looking for any reason to start anything with Lennie; and even looking at his wife would set him off. (32) As time passes George and Lennie befriend Candy, a little old man who isn’t of much use around the ranch, and decide to go into business with him. George tells Candy of his and Lennie’s dreams, to “live on the fatta the lan’..” (58) The simple fact that someone else has dreams and aspirations to improve their life excites Candy out of a light slumber because he feels lost and useless around the ranch, especially since they killed his dog. Being that none of them have any family left except for each other, they plan to save up their money and buy out the ranch so they’ll have something they can call their own and be proud of. In the middle of their conversation Curley comes in with Carlson and picks a fight with Lennie for laughing at him. Lennie, not knowing any better, is simply laughing because the others are laughing at Curley and proceeds to let Curley beat on him until George steps in. Under George’s orders Lennie defends himself and ends up breaking Curley’s hand. Everyone in the room swears to only say that Curley got his hand stuck in one of the machines, for Curley’s embarrassment and Lennie’s safety. (64) However, everyone on the ranch knows about Lennie’s unusual strength and people become suspicious and I believe they will look for anything to get rid of Lennie for their own safety purposes. During these times, people were very ignorant and did not seem to understand that Lennie did not know what he was doing. In all reality he was a five-year-old trapped in a grown man’s body. He wanted to take care of things, play and work without harming a fly, but didn’t know how to go about doing it without getting into trouble. From that day forward Curley’s wife begins to peruse George and Lennie much more avidly as her next ‘victims.’ I believe Curley’s wife to be an attention-seeking woman who didn’t understand how to go about being friendly without using her body. Deep down inside all she really wanted was to be loved and adored by everyone, but having a disapproving mother, being lied to all her life, and marrying an abusive husband whom she didn’t really love, kept her from all of those things. Curley’s wife figured out that Lennie broke Curley’s hand and that they were involved in some sort of fight. She asked George about it, but he simply ignored her, and when she asked Lennie about it, he tried to do the same, but couldn’t because he didn’t know any better. He gave her the same answer George gave her, yet his excuse was much less believable because of his mannerisms and the bruises that mysteriously appeared on his face. (76) One day Lennie is in the barn tending to the pup that George gave him until they could get their rabbits and he ends up killing it. (83) Lennie feels so bad about this that he tries talking to the pup to get it to wake up. He simply cannot understand what he did and wants so bad to live his dream with George and Candy that he tries to hide the pup under the hay in the barn. Yet, in the middle of his hiding the pup Curley’s wife comes in and asks him what he’s doing. She proceeds to open her heart to Lennie and tell him things she has never told anyone before. She tells him of how she wanted to be an actress in Hollywood and how she wanted to be known and loved by everyone, but instead she married Curley who, ‘ain’t a nice fella.’(86) She feels closeness to Lennie because of the way she knows both of them have been treated throughout their lives. However in her feeling sorry for Lennie, she mistakenly lets him touch her soft hair for too long a time and he begins to get rough with her. Curley’s wife becomes frightened and begins to scream, which only allows Lennie to hold onto her tighter as he becomes frightened. In the struggle Lennie breaks her neck. Knowing he has done something bad he remembers where George told him to hide if he did anything and he runs away. (89) Candy is the first to find Curley’s wife and immediately goes to find George. George tells Candy to stall the other men for a while so he has time to find Lennie in his hiding place. When Candy tells the others that something has happened to Curley’s wife they immediately go after Lennie and plan to kill him. (94) George finds Lennie first and ends up putting him out of everyone’s misery in the middle of retelling him the story of their dreams. The only friend Lennie ever had, and the only one Lennie ever trusted shot him in the back of the head. (104) I enjoyed the overall story of the book. It was heartwarming to know that George would promise Lennie’s aunt that he would take care of Lennie after teasing him as a child. They grew up together and lived and worked together for so many years that it was hard for me to grasp why Steinbeck would let George’s character kill Lennie. Perhaps it’s because the time period and lifestyle is so much different in the 1990’s, but I cannot imagine killing anyone of my friends for whatever reason; especially a friend I’ve had for such a long time. I enjoyed the story and the friendships throughout the book but I did not enjoy the ending, which in turn ended up ruining the entire storyline for me. Bibliography: Word Count: 1340
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