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PODENCE Sarah.
Of Mice and Men is a story about two men, George Millton and Lennie Small. Those two men who wander on the Californian roads, work as day labourers from ranch to ranch. One day, they found job in a ranch owned by Tylor and his son, Curley. However, Lennie had always have a passion for sweet things. That is what caused him problems later with Curley's wife...
Foremost, I really love this book even if I read it for school, five years ago. It is not only a beautiful story but also a life's lesson thanks to the way the characters evolve. Besides, the themes of this book are not trivial. I really appreciated the theme of friendship through these two men relationship. But actually, it was the first book I read with a mentally deficient character. Throughout the book, the plot was there and gave me the impression that every time there would be something new that will happen. Indeed, I also learned that Black people were really treated as slave at the time of this book. So, I really liked this dimension. On one hand, I was moved by the character of Lennie that I found silly and useless at first, but I've ended up having a lot of sympathy for him. On the other hand, I wanted to know more about the relationship between George and Lennie that was not enough developed.
My favourite passages, in this book, are when, in the beginning of the story, they are talking about their dream of their own ranch "we'll have a big vegetable patch and a rabbit hutch and chickens". This passage is really nice because even after having a quarrel, they become friends again and it's very touching to see Lennie so excited about having a "rabbit hutch". The second passage that I found really amazing is the end, when George told again the story of the ranch and rabbits to Lennie and he brutally killed him by shooting him. As a matter of fact, I was initially shocked and then, I read the scene a second time and I understood he had done it out of love for Lennie and he did not want him to be lynched by Curley and the others. Nevertheless, I like less the way of Steinbeck describes where the action takes place. Indeed, he describes it with many terms but feelings are not really depicted in the story. I think it is a shame that he did not even more go further into feelings of the two characters. As regards the style of the author, I noticed that the dialogues were written in a familiar language doubtless to show the social status of the two main characters. However, I think that this language gets closer to the one that us, the young generation use. Otherwise, it is a book written in English rather simple to understand it makes the story even easier to understand.
