George has been given the responsibility of looking after Lennie. As we do not know about Lennie’s family (other than Aunt Clara) we assume that George is the only person that Lennie has. George is a smart man compared to Lennie and he is always looking out for him, “You never oughta drink water that ain’t running”. George and Lennie both have a dream that they both think can be realized if they just work one more month. They both want to live on a farm and grow crops. They want to see all their hard work flourish into a field of colour. Lennie really wants to tend rabbits and give them an alfalfa patch. This dream is the only thing that keeps them going, even though this is the dream of most of the men at this time. Due to the unpredictability of Lennie they are constantly between jobs and one step away from their dreams. Lennie has lost every job for them, for example, they were forced to flee from Weed because of a mistake made by Lennie. This makes me feel really bad for George as I believe that he could go places if it were not for Lennie holding him back.
There are many other people on the ranch:
- Candy, the good-natured old gossip
- Curley, vicious little bully
- Curley’s wife, a lonely, nameless woman
- Slim, a fair respected supervisor
- Crooks, lonely victim of racial prejudice
- Carlson a typical macho ranch hand
These people are very important to the book, they all have different views on the people and the times they live in. Crooks is cold as he is a victim of racism and Curley’s wife is sad because she believes that she could have made more of herself in the pictures.
The most important link that all the people have in common is that they are all very lonely. None of them have anyone, this is a real problem of the times. The people on the ranch are all jealous of George and Lennie. They are firstly suspicious that George is taking Lennies pay cheque but then they envy the bond between them. Loneliness is the main theme of the entire book.
During a game of ring toss, Lennie and Curley’s wife are sitting in the barn talking. Lennie tells her that he likes pretty things and she tells him that she was almost in the movies. After this quite intense conversation Curley’s wife lets Lennie touch her hair. As Lennie cannot control his strength he was holding her hair too tight and she started to panic. Lennie then froze and grabbed even tighter and she started to scream. He put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming and accidentally broke her neck. Lennie panics and becomes very worried. As he does not want to upset George he hides the body and runs off to the place George told him to go to at the start of the book after he suspected trouble. After the others realise what has happened George deliberately tells them that he would have gone south when he knows that that the spot they were told to meet at was north. During this time George uses the Luger that he stole from Carlson to shoot Lennie in the back of the head.
I think that this is a very good ending to the book. George takes responsibility for Lennie unlike Candy who gets Carlson to put his dog down and subsequently regrets it. I think that it is a very clean death. Lennie dies with dignity whilst he is happy thinking about the ranch and tending the rabbits. The fact that Lennie is completely unaware of his death it makes this the kindest thing that George could have done. It is however ironic that George’s act however brave would probably look as though he took the coward’s way out by shooting Lennie in the back. In the closing act the only comfort that George has is the friendship of Slim. Curley and Carlson are so deficient of compassion that they are surprised to observe the sadness of George and Slim. The last comment by Carlson “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ those two guys?” is just a note on the ignorance and the reality of the world they live in.
This book is more than just a story, it is an accurate depiction of the times, a time where people are very quiet, lonely and self involved which are demonstrated throughout the book and encapsulated at the end. The ending is more than satisfactory. It is a perfect example of the harsh world that they live in.
