On the Of Mice and Men Ranch

Coursework - Candy

Chris John

The last few days have been among the most exciting and eventful ones I have ever lived at the ranch, but as well as this they have been the most disappointing and saddening. There have been strange happenings and they were triggered by the arrival of those two workers, George and Lennie. That young lass has been murdered. Curly has had his hand crushed, and not to mention my dog was killed. Now I am just a lonely old swamper doomed to be canned and sent away from the ranch with nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

On Friday morning too late to go out to work, George and Lennie turned up. They should have come the evening before. The boss was mad with them not being able to go out to buck the barley in the morning. I was pleased to see them, it's nice to see new faces on the ranch even if you do not see them for very long. I was the first rancher to meet them and I greeted them in a friendly manner and chatted to them for a while explaining about the people who live on the ranch and what I thought about them. I have been here most of my life. So I know everything about the ranch and the people who live on it.

My first impressions of George were that he was a fairly clever man and suspicious. He did not like his bed because he thought it was infested with grey-backs. Lennie is very childlike and I think George assumes a father role over him.

He is a hell of a nice fellow is George, very protective over Lennie though. Would not let Lennie say anything for a while. I thought they both were mighty odd the first time I saw them, workers like them don’t usually go around together. I understand now why they go everywhere in company, they need each other. Lennie especially needs George because he's stupid. Nice fellow though, not a drop of evil in Lennie, shame he turned out the way he did. I wish I had some one like that though, some one to be close to.

On Friday evening, I came down into the bunkhouse with my old dog and went to my bunk. When Carl came in, he noticed the smell of my old dog and starting shouting at me telling me to get him out. Nasty fellow is Carl. Then he proposed that we should shoot my dog, my old companion.

Who gave him the right to tell me that my dog should be shot, he has been with me ever since he was a pup. We both have grown old and decrepit together and a stranger like Carlson wanted to separate us. How dare he propose such a thing. If he was to shoot my dog for being old, smelly, having no teeth, and not working properly then why doesn’t he shoot me. I am just the same.

Carlson then pursued the argument and didn't let it drop despite my reluctance for him to shoot my dog. I was full of fear and desperate for assistance. Then he managed to bring Slim into the argument and Slims opinion is law around the ranch. Slim agreed with Carlson, but not for the same selfish reasons. Slim thought my dog was in pain and it would be merciful. Still I thought Slim would understand and stop Carlson, he knew how much I loved that dog. I will never have the same respect for Slim again now he decided to ...

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I had to agree and I let that stranger, that selfish evil man take my dog outside and murder him. Looking back now I know I should have shot him myself. I should have been there for my dog in his death like I was at the at his birth, when I cradled him in my arms. Unlike the men at the ranch who are always coming and going, my dog remained with me. He was my best friend. I'll never forgive myself for not shooting that old dog myself. And I'll never forgive Carlson for taking my old companion away from me. I am filled with sadness and anger whenever I think about my dog now, and I doubt those feeling will ever go away.

After my dog was led out with that nasty man, I lay down on my bunk staring at the ceiling, and thought about what I'd just let Carl do. I was full of sorrow and anger. I lay there very quiet for a long time, and eventually the other ranchers ignored me. When Carlson came back from shooting and burying my dog I just wanted to leap up and shoot him, like he shot my dog.

After laying there for what seemed like minutes but actually was hours, I noticed all the ranchers had left except George and Lennie. I listened in on their conversation, being the nosy fellow I am. They were talking about a dream, a dream they both thought of and believed in passionately. It seemed they were going to buy a small house with a plot of land and live off it. After they talked to each other and George vividly described all of their dream. I suddenly had an idea, I could join them. I was overcome with excitement for I knew soon I would be canned and I wouldn’t have anywhere to go. And my old dog was dead, so I leapt at the opportunity desperate to be part of it and offered all my savings into the buying of the dream. After considering this for a while George suddenly realised that the dream with my help could become a reality, so he let me into their dream.

This was the best thing that could have happened. I was so happy and excited. The last couple of months before hand I had been desperately worrying about where and who I could turn to after I had been canned. I had come to the conclusion that there was nowhere or nobody. The ranchers wouldn’t shoot me when I became useless but would just tell me I had to leave the ranch. I was full of grief and worry when I thought about this. So the dream solved all of my worries and fears.

We resolved all our thoughts about our dream, and it had really become a viable reality. By the end of the month we would be able to buy the house and live off the fat of the land.

On that same evening after we had finished planning our dream Slim, Curly, Whit and Carlson burst in. Curly and Slim were having an argument because Curly suspected something might be going on with Slim and his wife. Slim reacted very angrily to this accusation and Curly shrank back down and apologised to Slim. I don’t like Curly and no one else does either he's a handy bastard. He likes picking on big guys because he is so small.

Lennie was busy smiling to himself due to the wonderful dream, and Curly thought he was laughing at him. So Curly pounced on Lennie and starting swinging big punches at his face. Lennie ended up crushing his hand. This frightened me, if George and Lennie were canned because Curly's the boss's son, the dream would be over. Slim managed to sort it out though, he told Curly to tell people his hand got crushed in a machine. He's very cunning is Slim and usually finds a good solution to problems, no wonder he is respected so much on the ranch.

The following night everybody went out to town, accept me, Lennie, Crooks, and Curlys wife. They always leave me behind because I'm old and crippled, Crooks because he's a nigger and has a bent back, and Curly's wife because she's a girl and not very popular among the ranchers either. She's always wandering around saying she's looking for Curly but she's really wanting to flirt with the other men. She's got the eye already even after being married just a couple of months ago.

I suppose George left Lennie behind because he's stupid and childlike and he would probably end up getting into trouble. I used to go-out to the town before I lost my hand and my youth, its not that exciting the men just waste their months wages in the cat house and on shots of whisky. It's usually alright because I have my dog so I don't get lonely when I'm left behind, but I don’t have my dog anymore.

So that night I decided to go and see Crooks and Lennie who were in the barn. I found them both engaged in conversation, Crooks was philosophising on companionship. Lennie didn’t really understand, he was trying to explain about our dream to Crooks. When I revealed myself I was nervous about entering Crook's room, because I'd never been in there before and no one else had either apart from Slim. I'm not a raciest kind of fellow, this is due to being old and crippled, I have learnt that it's whats inside that is important. Sadly this is not the opinion of many other people at the ranch and elsewhere.

I'm sure Crooks was glad to have mine and Lennie's company even though he pretended to be a bit angry and bitter. He's alright is Crooks despite his bitterness, I would be the same if people treated me like they do him. He must get very lonely. Everything was going quite nicely, myself and Lennie were telling Crooks all about our dream. He was being quite sceptical though, then Curly's wife came in. Curly's wife is jail bait and a tart. I don’t like her at all but I didn’t want her to turn out the way she did. We greeted her sourly and weren’t very friendly, she got very annoyed about this and flared up, saying nasty things to all three of us. She threatened Crooks. It cant be very nice being married to Curly, so I have some sympathy for her.

Nothing prepared me for what happened on Sunday afternoon. We were all playing horse shoes apart from Curly's wife and Lennie. When I went into the barn to find Lennie, instead of finding him I found Curly's wifes body. I thought she was asleep in the hay at first, so I called her and told her she wasn’t meant to be in there, but she didn’t reply. So I went closer I realised she was dead.

I knew it was Lennie who had done it instantly. This was because her neck was broken and he was the only one on the ranch capable of such a thing. I didn’t think it was Lennie's fault about her death, he was so stupid and probably did it by accident. I didn’t really feel any sorrow for Curlys wife I just felt sorrow for Lennie, George and myself. Our beautiful dream was ruined and probably our lives as well.

I went to get George first because he would know what to do. George also instantly knew it was Lennie, and blamed himself for not looking after Lennie better. He was worried that the other ranchers would suspect he had some part of it so he told me that I should go fetch the others and he would pretend he had just found out. I agreed with him about this. Some of the other ranchers probably would suspect George especially Curly, seeing him and Lennie were so close.

So I ran to the other ranchers and they all hurriedly came including George. They were all shocked like myself and after a quick debate it was decided it had to be Lennie who killed her, so armed search parties would be sent to find him. George went with them. I had to stay at the ranch.

When they returned it became apparent George had shot Lennie himself, just like I should have done with my dog. George was just like the other ranchers after that, but with a horrible mental scar knowing that in some way Curlys wifes death was all his fault.

George will be alone now just like the other ranchers. He will now have to drift from ranch to ranch and then at the end of the month spend all his money at the cat house or on whisky. I suspect he will never be the same man again. I am sorry for him and the lonely life he will have to lead, struggling to exist and not really wanting to any way. He will always be thinking back to what might have been, always thinking of Lennie and their unique dream.

The dream has been destroyed by Lennies death. I knew deep inside it was too good to be true and something would have to go wrong in the end. I have no hope now, nothing to look forward to, I may work a couple more months at the ranch before I get canned and sent off like driftwood. These last few days I have been full of sorrow, then excited and happy that my end will not be a horrible one, and now once more full of sorrow. After being canned I will be left with a little money, but that money won't last for very long. Why cant they shoot me now like they did my dog? I have become just a empty shell of a man, alone, afraid and bitter.