Raffi Barsamian

 Raffi Barsamian

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

Historical fiction

Just right

Just finished





1.   The book ended when George shot Lennie in the brush. It all started when Curley’s wife entered the barn to find Lennie upset about what he had just done. Lennie was upset at the fact that he had just killed the dog Slim had given him. Also that George will be upset and won’t him take care of the rabbits. Curley’s wife asks why he cares about the rabbits so much and he replied, that he likes the way they feel. She then offers to let Lennie touch her hair because she thinks it will cheer him up. After a while if feeling her smooth hair along his fingers, Curleys wife had enough. She told Lennie to stop but he wouldn’t. She started to scream and wraith but Lennie still wouldn’t let go. She continued to pant and yell but then she fell limp. Lennie had killed her. He did not intend to do so but is strength was to over powering. George knew that Lennie would go to jail for this. He can’t imagine how Lennie would act or feel in prison so he results to death. He knows exactly where Lennie went after killing Curley’s wife. He was in the brush. This is where George told Lennie to go if anything bad happened. So he went beside him and told him to imagine happy thoughts, and then George pulls the trigger.

2. Throughout the book I felt mixed emotions. At first I was a bit confused about with Lennie’s character. He came off as a big strong mentally ill man who is obsessed with soft things. But towards the end you realized he is kind and alone, with George as the only one taking care of him. I also had mixed emotions about George. When I first read the scene when hi killed Lennie I was mad and upset. But when I thought about it George only did it out of love. He knew that Lennie would suffer in jail, that’s the only reason George killed him. Which made me not happy, but accepting of the fact that he killed his friend for the right reason.

3. The theme I choose for this book is desire. This came up many times throughout the book. Lennie and George are always in a constant desire to own their own land. Every thing they do is to be able to one day have a farm and own a parcel of land for them to share. A time when I saw this theme was when Curley’s wife always wanted attention. She just desired attention from every man she laid her eyes on. She would always try to seek attention to herself no matter where she was. Another time I saw this theme show is when the character Crooks was introduced. Crooks is a black man with no friends and no joy. He is a black man who lives in a barn. All he ever desired was to have a friend and to not live in a place where animals live. Every time someone comes near him he becomes very angry. He is upset all the time and is always unsatisfied.

4. My favorite character is George. His character is one like no other. His caring and compassion towards Lennie is so immense. George never had to take care of Lennie in the first place but since he has such a big heart he does it out of love. Also no matter how hard it gets George is always loyal. He could have easily let Lennie go somewhere else after he had that incident with the girl, but he didn’t. He felt like it was his obligation to stay faithful to Lennie no matter what. Although in the end he takes Lennie’s life he does it with the knowing that it is the better thing to do, and that Lennie will be happier.

5. My least favorite character is Curley’s wife. She is the most ungrateful, mean, most undeserving person in this book. Curley is a nice man with no harm in his intentions, but all his wife is, nasty nasty, nasty. She tries to arouse any man she can find and not even care about Curly. She doesn’t respect or care that Curley is her husband. All she cares about is herself.

6. When Lennie kills Curley’s wife I think that the author is trying to show Lennie’s character. Here I really saw that Lennie is a nice and kind character and everything he does wrong he feels bad for and he regrets. I think Lennie is hard on himself and he tries his very best to do what George tells him but sometimes he does the opposite. I feels like all throughout the book the author is trying to hint at Lennie's true character but in the end you really start to see it.