Of Mice and Men

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George and Lennie have escaped from the farm where they used to work because Lennie scared a woman there. Now they need to get new jobs and they do. They end up at a new farm where the boss’ son, Curley seems to be the one with the social power. He has got a wife too, the only woman there.

“Of Mice and Men” is the story about two friends, George and Lennie.
Lennie is kind of retarded and in great need of George, who is the only friend he has got and the only person he listens to.
Lennie has a desire for touching soft things but because of his mentally handicap, he can not control his strength and this often causes trouble for the two of them.
They work wherever they can and they always travel together.

The story takes place in the 1930’s in California, USA, and the main characters are as mentioned George and Lennie, two farmers without permanent home or employment, working here and there.
George is like Lennie’s big brother, he looks after him all the time and George knows that without having him around, Lennie would not make it through the day.
Lennie makes George’s life a lot more complicated than it could be, although George has no intentions to leave him. He has even promised Lennie’s aunt to watch over and support him, and I believe that he has developed a strange, but strong, love for him. Similar to the one between siblings.
Lennie is a man of few words and generally he lets George speak for him. His memory is not the best, and his mind is not the clearest of minds, but he has got a heart twice the size of a normal man. He is very strong as well, but he has got some trouble controlling his strength which often leads to tragically mistakes and misunderstandings. Those little mistakes are the reason why they keep travelling around.
But they have a dream. They dream about buying their own farm and finally settle down together. For Lennie this dream means everything and he wants George to tell him about the dream every day, even though he knows every word George will say.
I guess Lenny believe more in George than in himself and he wants this dream to be more than a dream and if George tells it to him, then he can believe that it is the certain future.
There is an old man living at the farm called Candy. He shows great interest in this dream of theirs, and George, who slowly has accepted the dream as just an unreachable dream, gets really excited and starts to believe in it as a possible coming.
I think everyone needs to have a dream or some kind of goal. And I even think it is for the better if the dream does not come true, because if it does, there is no dream anymore and the thing is that it is actually the dream itself you want.
However, there are other people with dreams. Curley’s wife for example. She doesn’t really like Curley because of the way he treats her. She dreams of herself as an actress.
But she will never be able to live that dream…
One day when the men were playing around and relaxing after a long day of work, Lennie made something terrible.
He was in the barn trying to collect himself after accidentally had killed one of the farms puppies. He knew that he had let George down and he was worried that he would not get to tend the rabbits they were going to have at their own farm.
While sitting there Curley’s wife came into the barn. Since she was the only woman around and she was seen as Curley’s “property” George had told Lennie to stay away from her.
Lennie was trying to hide from her bet she easily talked him over and finally she got him to touch her hair, but now Lennie’s desire for soft things woke and he could not control himself.
The woman got scared and began screaming which made him scared and anxious too, and with the intention to calm her down, he by mistake killed her.
When the others realizes what have happened they ride out to hunt down and kill Lennie who has taken off.
George knows where to look and he finds him in their “secret” place.
He tells the dream to Lennie who immediately forgets the girl in the barn and listens closely.
George can not stand it any more, so he tells Lennie to turn around and in the middle of the story he shoots him.
It is at first a very sad ending, but when you think about it, you realize that this was the best ending of their friendship.
He killed him so that he could not hurt himself or anybody else again and so that Curley’s men would not catch him.
Earlier, the old man Candy’s dog was shot because he was old and suffering from rheumatism. But the dog was shot by another man, Slim, and Candy really regretted that he had not shoot his dog, his best friend, by himself.
Now George shot his dog by himself…
Lennie got to die thinking of the place he loved most in the whole world and be together with the person he cared most for. If you ask me, that is the way I would like to die.

The book “Of Mice and Men” was a lot better than I expected. Its warmth and depth really attracted me, and the wonderful story of Lennie and George was touching.
Since I have a little brothe...