Of Mice and Men Review

Title: Of Mice and Men

Author: John Steinbeck

    

"Of Mice and Men" was definitely one of the saddest, most interesting, and unexpected-ending books that I have ever read. The story takes place at a farm in California, where two best friends George Milton and Lennie Small struggle to find a long-term job. Within the first few pages, I was surprised that these two were so close to one another. George is a "small and quick", intelligent guy, whereas Lennie is a huge man with a gentle mind of a child. As kind as Lennie tries to be, he still always gets into some kind of trouble due to his super strength. After an incident in Weed, California, George and Lennie are always on the run for a mistake Lennie made. Further into the book, you learn more about George and Lennie’s relationship, and how it came to be. Throughout the book, as George looks after Lennie, he has to keep making decisions on what’s best for Lennie. In the end, the results were very dramatic.

At the beginning of the book, one of the characters, Candy, owns a blind, “stinky”, “old”, and “crippled” dog that everyone (expect Candy) hates. Candy has had this dog “since he was a pup”. Even though the dog is blind, can hardly walk, smells, and has no teeth, Candy still takes care of him.  After a lot of arguing, the other guys at the farm convince Candy that it’s useless to try to keep the dog alive in its poor condition. In the end one of the guys at the farm takes away the dog’s life, to keep it from having to “suffer any longer. At first, I was upset that they decided to kill the dog. Candy had such a strong relationship with the dog, so it seemed sad and wrong for them to kill him on the spot and not let it just die naturally.

But after finishing the book, I realized why the dog incident was put there. As a symbol, John Steinbeck wanted to show the relationship between the two deaths. Like Lennie, the dog is barely getting by. Without George looking after him, Lennie is always getting into trouble. If Candy didn’t keep taking care of the dog, he wouldn’t still be alive. So without George or Candy, neither one has the capability to take care of themselves.

After reading this book, I realized started thinking about how these kinds of decisions are made almost every day. Because people care about someone so much, it’s painful to see them suffer, so sometimes you have to do what you think is best for them. Sacrifice. Deaths. Misunderstandings. In our world…Everywhere. As hard as it is to let go, we have to think about what will happen if they were forced to keep living after all the suffering they have to go through every day.