Of mice and men is the story of two opposites that attract. They are two very different people Lennie and George, yet they stick together like glue. These two characters have a lifetime to tell, while John Steinbeck articulately and so well detailed, makes the place, the characters and the situation come alive. The book is about two men, Lennie and George off to make their dream of fortune come true. I think it is important to explain their characters as to get a brief picture in your mind.
Lennie is a big man, with horrendous strength, unfortunately he doesnt know how to use it properly to his advantage. The problem is hes dumb, and not just dumb, he hasnt got a mind of his own, it is like the other part of his body is George, they cannot do without each other. Which brings me on to Georges character. He is a small, skinny, quick and clever sort of guy, who leads Lennie around by the nose. He makes it look like he doesnt need Lennie, but he does, to make him feel secure he needs Lennie. Anyway, where was I ?
Oh thats right, they go from place to place, to ranch to ranch, making a bit of money here and a bit of money there. Their one lifelong dream is to one day make enough money, to get a ranch of their own. So they one day come across a ranch where they plan to work, and work they do and this is where the story begins. They meet lots of people in this ranch, friends, nobodies and people they know they have to stay away from, in order to avoid harsh consequences, such as Curley and his wife, of whom I will talk about in my perspective of the book. They have friends, all of different characteristics.
So heres what happens very briefly: Lennie gets in a fight with Curley, Lennie gets scared and crushes Curleys hand. While George and friends take Curley to the hospital, Curleys wife talks to Lennie about her unfair life- blablabla. Lennie strokes her hair, she scares Lennie, Lennie gets scared and accidentally breaks her neck. He hides, George finds him and kills him to protect him from the others. (Sorry for the briefness but there is so much to say about the book, that I have gone overboard already in words. ) My perspective of Mice and men
I think this book is really excellent, not just the story but the way it is written, it is so well detailed, and Steinbeck describes it so incredibly, you feel as if you were that certain person, as if you were in the peoples minds, speaking as they were speaking, talking like they were talking and feeling how the characters were feeling. The book is so psychological, he knows what to write, where to write it and at what stage he should slowly uncover the truth. Even though the book is fairly straight forward and doesn’t hide much, Steinbeck puts in little hidden secrets here and there.
Not so much as if you were about to bellow “oh, I get it now! “, but little things to make you feel closer to the character. The language that he uses just makes it more vivid and puts a movie in your mind. Besides themselves, they made friends on the ranch, but they also had people they knew they should stay away from. There friends were Candy, Slim and Carlson. Candy is a friendly man, a little eager to please, who is very attached to his dog. Slim, a very nice man, generous and warm hearted.
Carlson, who doesn’t really show up much in the book, but strikes me as one of those people who always looks behind his back, as if he doesn’t trust anybody. I don’t know where I got this impression from, probably from something I read about in the book, but I can’t find where I read it now. They stay away from Curley and his wife as to not jump into any trouble. Curley sounds like the typical mean man, wants people to think of him as strong and fierce, and goes around with his head high. But inside, he is a bit of a wimp really, scared to make a fight, even though it seems like he’s always looking for trouble.
I got this impression when Slim was accused of being with Curleys wife, and Curley got scared, not wanting to make a fight. They stayed away from Curleys wife because she was dangerous. They could be kicked out of the ranch, or worse, if they were found with her. As Steinbeck unravels in the end, she wants to be seen as a normal person, not a s-l-u-t. She hates her life and thinks she had a chance of being in the movies, but now she threw that chance away. The author tells you about her real character in the end, so you feel closer to her, know what she’s feeling, and feel sorry for her.
Another thing they stayed away from was Candys dog, as presence around the hurt, old sheepdog may lead to future problems with your olfactory sense Poor Lennie, he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he did, he’s such a simple person, doesn’t know what he’s doing, I think he deserved a better life, because he was such a nice person, couldn’t communicate very well, but had a heart of gold. But Lennie really was Georges friend and George loved him, that is why he killed him, he knew that the best thing for Lennie(like it was for Candys dog) was to die in the arms of his best friend.