Sophie Van Riet

Sophie Van Riet

Of Mice an Men

John Steinbeck

Historical Fiction

Holiday

Just finished- 107 pages

1. I loved this book! It was fast and easy and the characters were very intriguing.  At the end of the book, a guy named Lennie who is a very simple minded big man who never tries to hurt anyone accidentally kills a girl without meaning to. This book is set in the Great Depression, so a big industry is farming at the time. Lennie travels with his friend George, a very smart and protective man, to different farms where they can find work. They settle down on a farm where they get to know their fellow workers: Slim, a nice man, Crooks, a negro stable buck, Candy, a harmless old man, and Curley, a mean guy who really has something against Lennie. The girl Lennie accidentally kills at the end of the book is very flirtatious around the men, even though she is married to Curley. George warns Lennie all throughout the book to stay away from the girl. One day, while the others are outside, Lennie sits in the barn petting his dead pup that he gripped to hard and by accident killed. The girl walks in and has a conversation with Lennie. She tells him how soft her hair is and urges him to feel it. Since Lennie's brain has trouble comprehending things, he doesn't know what to do when she's yelling at him to let go. He tries to get her to stop screaming at him so he won't be in trouble with George by covering her mouth. He's so strong he unintentionally snaps her neck. He knows he's done a really bad thing, so he goes off to hide in the brush like George tells him to do when he's in trouble.  Once the men find Curley's wife dead in the barn, they know Lennie had done it because he is missing. George and the men head off to find him, but George gets there first and has a conversation with Lennie. They talk about the house they will have someday, and at the end of their conversation, George shoots Lennie in the head without him knowing. It was for the better for both of them, and of course George still really cared about Lennie so he's very upset. When the men find George right after he shoots Lennie, they just think he did it because Lennie killed the girl. Slim is very understanding towards George and tells him he did the right thing.

2.  I felt that this was a great book, but I think if I hadn't discussed this book in class, I wouldn't have liked it so much. This is because it doesn't exactly seem so exceptional when you just read the book to finish it, but if you think about it and really grasp all that is happening, it's hard to put down. One thing I especially liked about it was the characters. They all expressed different emotions. Some you loved, some you despised, and some you felt sorry for. I also really liked the different themes and messages incorporated in the book. Plus, I don't think there was one point in the book that I thought was boring There was always something going on. I also really liked how it was in a different time period. I love the similarities and differences between 2013 and The great Depression. I feel that Steinbeck did a very good job with this novel. It is vivid and has a lot of detail.

3. This book had many many themes, but one big theme I noticed was family. Even though it wasn't your typical family, Lennie and George had a bond just as strong as one. I think that Steinbeck was trying to show how much better it is to have a family than to be lonely. Lennie and George traveled, slept, ate, and worked with each other, practically did everything together! they also cared a lot for each other. George was always making sure Lennie would be okay, and George was everything to Lennie. They had been through thick and thin together and even though they might have said at times they didn't want to be with each other, they would never really leave one another.  

4. My favorite character was Slim. I thought he was a real gentleman. He was always kind, never rude or mean. He also looked out for George at the end. I wish he could have played an even bigger role in the book, because I would have loved to seen more of him. He also is a great listener and would never tell someone else's secrets to anybody.  I also feel he is in a way a little quite, but not really shy. He doesn't always have to speak his opinion and tell others they are wrong, but he does contribute to the conversations in a nice way. 

5. By far, my least favorite character was Curley. He was just plain old mean. I found him to be arrogant and selfish, and never thinking about how others felt. He also didn't have a good reason for not liking Lennie. I felt he caused a lot of unnecessary fights. I also felt bad for his wife because she said being with him made her so lonely because he was the only man she could talk to. If he had explained why he was this way or maybe had a hard background I would think of him differently. In a way he did add to the book, because he was an interesting character and I felt he livened the book up, but I really wish he became nicer.

6.  I definitely did not expect George to shoot Lennie in the end. I guess I know why George shot him, but I felt that he wouldn't be able to do something like that since they were so close.  Plus, I didn't feel Steinbeck gave any hint that was going to happen. However, I did have a feeling that something was going to go wrong, because George was always saying to Lennie that if something bad happens to him, he should go hide in the brush. I also had a feeling that something might happen with Curley's wife and Lennie because there was a lot of foreshadowing on that as well. George was always warning him to stay away from her, and she was always thought of as "bad news".