Julia Medoff

Julia Medoff
Of Mice And Men
John Steinbeck
Realistic Fiction
Just Right
107

1.  The ending of Of Mice And Men was very suspenseful. George and Lennie, the main characters in the book, had just recently arrived at the ranch and were patiently waiting for their pay day so they could hit the road and buy themselves a piece of land. George is always looking out for Lennie but, one day, while George was in town, Lennie goes to his pup. Lennie is a large man who is not aware of his strength. While they are playing, the pup lunges towards him, and Lennie smacks him, killing him accidentally with his force. Sitting there stunned, Lennie fears George's reaction. As he tries to cover up the dead pup, the wife of the ranch owner's son Curley walks in. She sees what he has done and tries to console him.  Lennie shares his dream with her of buying a piece of land with George, while she shares her past experiences about going on the road with a previous boyfriend and how he was going to make her a star. Lennie claimed he did not intend to kill the pup, he simply just enjoyed the softness of its fur and hugging it. Curley's wife says that she also enjoys the feeling of a soft surface, and that her hair is very fine. She tells Lennie he may touch it. While Lennie strokes her hair, he begins to stroke harder and harder. Curley's wife got scared and Lennie panicked. He grabbed her, and told her to hush, but his grip got stronger. She started to cry beneath his grasp. Lennie told her to stop yelling, but would not release her. Suddenly, her body went limp. Lennie had broken her neck. He panicked, for he knew this was a very bad thing. He decided to flee to the brush. When the boys from the Ranch arrived back from town, one of the men found Curley's wife dead. They knew the culprit and Curley was out for revenge. The men split up and all grabbed guns, including George. He gave them false directions to buy himself time to find Lennie. He headed toward the brush and spotted him. George knew at that moment that their plan of living together was shattered. Although they talked for a while about what their future plans had been, ultimately George slowly creeps up behind him and shoots him in the back of the head. George knew what he had to do, although killing his friend was the last thing he wanted to do.

2. I thought the book was very well written. The author used detail, dialogue and excitement  to pull the reader in.  The dialogue between the characters helped the reader understand the relationship between each of them. For example, I liked how George and Lennie were paired together as friends because they made an odd relationship work. Also, I noticed that some of the characters had a friend and others were more alone. For example, Candy and his dog, and Lennie and George were pairs, while Crooks was alone.  I think that contrast worked well because it illustrated the importance of friendship. For this book, I thought many themes worked because so much was always going on throughout the book that it made for a story with multiple life lessons. The author uses a lot of suspenseful techniques like foreshadowing to pull the reader into the book. For example, at the beginning of the book, Lennie kills a mouse and a puppy with the force that eventually leads to the killing of Curley's wife. This is a new author for me, and I definitely am interested in reading more of his stories because I really enjoyed his style. Overall the book stood out for me as one of my favorites.

3. There were many themes that I found throughout the book, but one overall theme I noticed was family. I found this theme to be very recurrent. I noticed it in the dialogue between the characters, and in the plot. George and Lennie are a non-traditional family, and so are Candy and his dog, but they stick together and treat each other as if they were truly related. Throughout the plot, the situations that occur always relate back to family. For example, when George at points gets irritated with Lennie they always forgive each other because, in the end, the power of family overcomes their differences. I thought this theme stood out the most and was a noticeable attribute throughout the characters and plot.

4. My favorite character is George. He is my favorite character because he looks out for Lennie and was a role model to him. He is kind and very responsible regarding his work ethics and his obligations toward Lennie. What made me really learn to love George as a character was when he stands up for Lennie at the ranch. I think that proves to the reader that he is a true friend that will protect Lennie against harmful remarks. It was a true surprise to find out that George killed Lennie, after all they have been through.  George is a mindful person and can make his own decisions and, as I read along, I sensed George thinking about his next moves and the pain it caused him in making his final decision. It was George's complexities and flaws and the impossible situation he faced at the end of the book that made him my favorite character.

5. My least favorite character is Curley because is a nasty person in every aspect of his personality. He shows little respect for anyone and has a short temper. For example, Curley is very jealous of Lennie's strength and height. One day in the ranch he picks a fight with Lennie. Lennie is somewhat of a gentle giant so when Curley attacks him he does not know what to do. George yells to Lennie and tells him to fight back. Lennie does not know his own strength so when Curley throws a punch at him, Lennie grabs his hand and crushes it. Lennie did not mean to cause so much damage but Curley provoked the situation. While it appeared that Curley had friends, they were not true relationships.  Unlike the other characters in the book, Curley had no endearing qualities. 

6. The ending of this book really shocked me and gave me a true taste of John Steinbeck's writing style. I think the ending for each character was unique, some parts were unexpected while others I  predicted earlier in the book. At the end when Lennie killed Curley's wife it was not much of a shock to me because there was so much foreshadowing in the earlier stages of the story that this event could have been easily predicted. Clues I was given was when Lennie killed the mouse, dog, and hurt the lady in Weed, all because of his urge to feel softness. I assumed an event like that would reoccur in the story. What was a surprise was to find out that George kills Lennie in the end. George was always there to support Lennie and would take care of him. For example, when Lennie's aunt Clara died, George took Lennie in and looked out for him. I found their special moments in the story very touching and would never have thought that one of them would kill the other. I also had an assumption that Curley's wife would reappear in the story because in the ranch when she walked in she was clearly being flirtatious towards the men, and I predicted that she would come back and easily manipulate Lennie's innocence. Overall the ending of this book was fantastic because of both the expected and unexpected twists and turns.