Ben Browne

Ben Browne
Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
Historical Fiction
Just Right
Just Finished

1. In the end of the book Of Mice and Men, George ends up killing his friend and companion Lennie. They both were living on a farm, working all day, but one night Curley's wife goes into the barn and starts to talk to Lennie and Crooks. They talk for a while, but then Curley's wife asks Lennie to feel how soft her hair is and he does, but since he is so strong Curley's wife is not expecting to be petted by a man of his strength. In fear she panics and starts jolting back and forth and because of that she scares Lennie and he panics and without knowing his immense strength kills her. Lennie knows that he has done something wrong but he also knows he did not do it on purpose. In fear he goes and hides where at the start of the book George tells him too. Later on when Curley finds out that Lennie has killed his wife he gathers all the men together and they go and try to find Lennie, but George comes along with them. Curley is so enraged that he just wants to shoot him because since the start of the book he has felt threatened by Lennie because of his immense size and strength. The men all go and try to find him, but in the end it is George that places the bullet in his head and kills him. Then Slim tries to comfort him and offers to see if George wants to go get a drink to try to get off losing the closest family member that he had.
2. At the start of the book I found that it was a bit confusing with all the strange stuff happening, but when you finished the book it all really came together to form the different characters.When the book started I wasnt sure how it was going to go with the strange title and the picture of two men sitting by the water with a rabbit. But around page 50 I started to enjoy the book much more because alot more interesting stuff was going on. The book really had so much detail with all the characters and the animals. But I also found that it was hard to identify the different characters at times and what they were like and if they were trying to help and trying to cause bad things. So yes, I did enjoy the book as a whole but not as much as if you split it into small chapters.
3. A major theme that I noticed throughout the book would have to be loyalty. An example is how even though George was exceedingly smarter than his friend Lennie and he could leave him and make most likely quicker, easier and more money but because he is so very loyal to Lennie he never does leave even though he knows he could do a lot more much quicker and easier. Another place where I can see loyalty is with Candy and his dog. There is not much in the book about him and his dog but the parts show a non-traditional family and loyalty. Candy spends all his time with his dog even though he knows that the dog has got little time left. With all the talk that the dog must be shot, he gets very sad and when he hears the gun sound he knows that part of him is dying, but throughout his life he never left the dog because he was loyal.
4. My favorite character would have to be the kind soul of Lennie. Even though he was accused of raping a girl by tugging on her dress to hard because he liked the touch and for also killing Curley's wife, he did not know what he was doing. He is very kind to everyone, and he never meant to hurt anyone. But since he is so strong and he is slow-minded he does not understand what he is doing to some people. His personality is very kind too, he always tries to be the nicest he can and also he tries to always listen to what people are saying, but when he is told to do something he usually can not remember because of his disability.
5. My least favorite character would have to be the cruel and mean character of Curley. Throughout the book you don't see him much but in the parts that you do he is always angry and cruel to others. I think that he thinks he is better than everyone else because his father owns the farm and the land. He is also very intimidated by other people that are stronger then him and bigger than him because he is very small and not very strong like Lennie, so he tries to make fun of him to make him feel bad because he is insecure about himself. You can see that no person in the book really likes him, his wife wishes she could go to the city and become famous and everyone on the farm really dislikes him because he thinks he is all that when he really is not.
6. In the end I was not really expecting that George would be the one that was going to kill Lennie. I thought that instead of killing him that he would try to run away and find Lennie before everyone else found him and try to save themselves and run away. I thought that it would be just like what happened in Weed with the girl in the dress, but I think that George just thought that all Lennie could really do is harm others with his immense strength. The author lead you to think that Lennie was going to die because of all the men grabbing there guns and going to try to kill him and that instead of running away with Lennie, George went with the other workers, who were trying to also kill Lennie.