Arts

The story Of Mice and Men was written by John Steinbeck in the year of 1937, during the depression and before World War II. At that time, the unemployment rate was very high and there were more poor people on the street than before. Those people were dealing with the combination of hunger and homeless. The story is about two migrant workers, George Milton, and Lennie Small. Both men travelled from farm to farm looking for work. George was a small man but very smart, while Lennie was very strong but had a mental disability. 

George had to deal with Lennie’s mistakes every time Lennie did something wrong. Lennie was nice person who loves to pet anything soft. At some point, he used to hide dead mice in his pocket and George asked him many times to get rid of them. Lennie was very strong, and he did not know how to control his strength. Although he never meant to harm anyone, anything he touched got destroyed, because he was unable to control his strength. George was always thinking of his friend and how he could help. One day, he took his friend to the river where it was nice and calm. Then he asked Lennie to return here if anything bad happened with the new job. Lennie promised his friend not to cause any trouble and not to talk with anyone. 

George used to cheer up Lennie to dream about what they were going to have in the future. They dreamt about a small house with a little farm and some animals. Lennie always dreamt about taking care of rabbits; he loved those rabbits. Their dream was simple, but the problem was reaching it was almost impossible. 

George and Lennie started working on a new ranch. The boss was suspicious as to why George is answering all the questions. George explained that Lennie is not bright, but he is a hard worker. The boss’s son Curley had a bad temper and was also an amateur boxer. He didn’t like Lennie because he was stronger than him. Curley’s wife was there when one day Lennie laughed by mistake while Curley was telling a story. Curley got angry and beat Lennie. Lennie defended himself and ended up breaking Curley’s wrist. Since then Curley’s hate increased toward Lennie. 

Curley’s wife was pretty and always around the workers. The first time Lennie saw her he couldn’t take his eyes off her. George warned him to stay away from her because she will cause him trouble. One day, she was having a conversation with Lennie, and he explained his issue. He told her what happens whenever he touched something soft. She asked him to touch her hair to see how soft it was. Lennie was so pleased by the softness of her hair and could not stop petting it. She asked him to stop and take his hand off, but he didn’t. She started to scream, and he could not control his strength. He tried to stop her by putting his hand on her mouth and ended up breaking her neck. Lennie was so scared and realised what he just did. He ran to hide where George had told him to go if anything happened to him. When everyone found Curley’s wife dead, they started looking for him. George knew where his friend would be, but he couldn’t leave because they forced him to go with them to search for Lennie. 

During the search George found a way to separate from the group and went to find his friend at the river. At that time, Lennie was sad and upset. George reminded him of their dream and asked him to look down in the river while dreaming. When Lennie looked down, George killed him. He did not want anyone else to harm his friend. George knew that they would hurt Lennie and so he did what he thought was best for his friend. This was a beautiful story that teaches patience and kindness even if the story did not have a happy ending. I would recommend this book to everyone.