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Justin Clay Period 1&2 Am. Lit. Of Mice and Men The novel Of Mice and Men, by
John Steinbeck, is about two ranch hands, George and Lennie. George is a small,
smart-witted man, while Lennie is a large, mentally- handicapped man. They are
trying to raise enough money to buy their own ranch, by working as ranch hands.
During the setting of the story, they are at a ranch whose owner’s name is
Curley. It is in this setting that the novel reveals that the main theme is
death and loss. Lennie accidentally killing all of his pets establishes that the
theme of this novel is death and loss. These pets consist of mice, dogs,
kittens, etc. Lennie loves to feel and pet animals, but he does not know his own
strength. He kills them without really noticing what he has done, until George
tells him that he did something wrong. After being scolded, Lennie is very
remorseful about what he did. Once, after being yelled at Lennie says, “I
pinched their heads a little and then they was dead- because they were so little
(13).” Lennie’s remorse is probably more for upsetting George than it is for
actually killing the animal. Another way that death and loss is evidenced by
this novel is when Lennie killed Curley’s wife.
When Lennie is in the barn
(after killing his new puppy) Curley’s wife came into the barn and came on to
Lennie. Lennie not knowing what was happening let her lull him into touching her
hair. To Lennie it was like petting any other animal. Curley’s wife became
flustered when Lennie became scared and would not let go of her hair. She
started to scream and Lennie tried to cup her mouth, which concluded in him
killing her. Lennie was truly remorseful after this action. Soon after killing
her Lennie can be heard saying to himself, “I done a bad thing. I done another
bad thing (121).” The final confirmation of the death and loss theme occurred to
George, not Lennie. After going to the place where George had told him to go if
anything went wrong, Lennie lays and waits in the brush for George to come get
him. What Lennie wasn’t expecting was George to come with a posse of ranch hands
with him. The ranch hands were not quite there, when George shot Lennie in the
back of the head to save him the pain the posse would do to him. After he shot
him “the brush seemed filled with cries (140)”, which symbolizes the loss of
George after shooting Lennie. This was a truly great loss for him since Lennie
was his best friend. Of Mice and Men is a very sad and depressing story that
contains many deaths of many living creatures. Many people had a loss from these
deaths, especially George. He had to shoot his best friend. This can possibly be
the greatest loss of all, because without friends, where would we be?
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