Reaction to Of Mice and Men

Tanner L.
Of Mice and Men Reaction

I thought Of Mice and Men was a very interesting but weird book. I don’t
understand much of it. It talks about the American Dream at that time, but basically explains why no one can achieve it. It talks about how great it is, but yet is diminished to nothing by the end of the book. I don’t understand what is significant about the deaths of the characters, and why the story went that direction. It makes me wonder why Steinbeck made Lennie and character, just to kill a woman and be killed himself. If his goal was to talk about the American Dream, what does George and Lennie have to do with it? Yes, they both wanted to have the dream together, but why did he have to make Lennie a character, like he was, so he could kill someone? Why did he then have to die? How does that relate to the American Dream? Steinbeck talks about how the American Dream was to get your own land and live on it. Lennie just wanted to tend the rabbits, and live of the fat of the land. He wants to live with George, in their own house, and work whenever they want, and do whatever they want. This is how Steinbeck is describing it. However, he seems to also not like the dream. He says that it doesn’t work out for everyone. He makes the dream seem like it’ll never happen. It makes me wonder if he doesn’t think the American Dream is real and thinks it’ll never happen. He seems to have a negative view on it, because of how the story ended. I don’t really like the ending, because it seems abrupt and kinda weird. It makes the story depressing and like there is nothing good with dreams.