Rachel Hall

Rachel Hall

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

Historical fiction

Challenge

Finished

1. In the end George ends up killing Lennie with a gun. Lennie earlier on in the book accidentally killed Curley’s wife. George said that whenever something bad happens to come to the river and hide in the brush to wait for him to meet him there. So, that’s what Lennie did. When George came to meet him, he had other thoughts than thinking of trying to escape with Lennie. After he killed Lennie, Slim showed up and asked him if he wanted to go get a drink with him to help him get his mind off of loosing the closest thing that he had to a family member. You know that in the end of the book George isn’t going back to work at the ranch, he also isn’t welcome there. Since Curley found out that it was Lennie who killed his wife neither of them have been welcome back.
2. I liked the book. I really liked how you didn’t know what was going to happen. It was kind of suspenseful in a way. Like take the end for example. I thought that the ending was just going to be them going off together on another adventure to find more work where hopefully Lennie wouldn’t get into such trouble. It was kind of out of no where and he just killed him. When I read it my jaw dropped, I was really surprised that George would turn on Lennie like that. I knew that it wasn’t because he thought he was annoying and didn’t deserve to live anymore. It was just his time to go. When it said his hand was trembling as he held the gun I thought that he would chicken out and not do it. So when he pulled the trigger it made me shocked that he had the courage to do it. I also liked how the author made the characters personalities vary so greatly. Like how George was small but fierce and was in charge. But Lennie, his partner was big and sort of on the passive side. This variety in characters made the book very interesting because they clashed together.
3. The main theme is definitely family. Throughout the whole book you saw that there were separate families. George in Lennie was stressed the most though. From beginning to end they were together and they protected each other and stood up for each other, and that’s what you do in a family. You have each others backs no matter what happens. Along the way, George always said he could leave him and have a farm of his own. But he never did because he knew that if Lennie didn’t have him and he didn’t have Lennie there would be a place in each of their hearts missing. Another example of family would be Candy and his dog. They were a family because they were always together until the last moment. When they had to put his dog down Candy wouldn’t talk to anyone or even look at anyone. He lost his closest family member, who was irreplaceable. 
4. My favorite character is Lennie. I liked him because his personality was much different than all the other characters. He relied more on George to protect him, and was more shy than the rest of the characters. The other guys at the ranch were much more hard core and tough. But Lennie had more of a girly personality compared to the rest of the men. Maybe this is the reason why I liked him, because we both like the feeling of soft things. Lennie was also very loyal to George. Even though he said he could leave George if he wanted to, he never did though. When he was told to do something, he would do it.
5. My least favorite character is definitely Curley. He is a very cruel and unkind man. He picked a fight with Lennie because he was jealous of how big and strong he was. He never treated Lennie as his equal, and he always looked down upon him. Curley is also inconsiderate to his wife. He and his wife have been married for only a short two weeks, but he isn’t fair to her. Curley will leave her in the house for the whole day, while he goes to work. He often neglects her and makes her feel incredibly lonely. 
6. I didn’t expect the ending to be what it was at all. Throughout the entire book George and Lennie were a family, they cared and look after each other. So, it surprised me greatly when George murder the closest thing that he ever got to a family. I thought that they would end up traveling to a different ranch to hopefully get a long term job again. I think that he murdered Lennie for the same reason that the men had to kill Candy’s dog. Candy’s dog was living in pain and suffering every single day. Even though Lennie wasn’t in pain everyday, if he kept living then he would’ve had a miserable life and wouldn’t have been able to achieve his American dream. His dream was to own a farm and tend to the rabbits. But since he was physically unique people looked down upon him, especially because he wasn’t all that smart and used too much force when coming in contact with objects.