Of Mice and Men - March 14th, 2011

          The poem "To a Mouse and" the book "Of Mice and Men" have a lot of the same messages.  They talk about how the future is always uncertain.  I think that this book was called Of Mice and Men because the poem is about how plans are ruined easily.  This book talks about the same things.  Some other contributing factors to this book title is that it was written during the Great Depression.  Because it was written during the Great Depression many people could easily relate to this story.  Most people probably didn't kill someone but they had lost everything from homes to financial security.  Their plans were destroyed and people had a hard time regaining what they had lost.  When Lennie killed Curley's wife it destroyed any chances of George and Candy being able to achieve their goals of owning some land.  Steinbeck is saying that life always takes unexpected turns and that you have to deal with them the best that you can.  People's lives take turns everyday and they deal with it the best that they can.

My Ending of Mice and Men

It was all quiet in the barn.  No animals were squeaking, no wind was howling and no doors opening and closing.  Candy was sitting beside Curley's Wife's dead body wondering what could have been.  Wishing that Lennie hadn't killed Curley's Wife and thinking about what it would be like knowing that he would still be useful even after he was not.

The farmers were all getting irritated.  They had spent hours wandering the cities like animals devouring them like the wolves they were.  They were on their 5th town when Curley yelled,"where is the son of a bitch" and slim said, "don't worry we'll find him." They were in the bushes now taking a break and many rabbits were wandering about.  "What the hell are these things" said Curley and he was about to shoot one but George, Carlson and Whit stopped him. 

Lennie was sitting out in the bushes waiting.  He had been there for hours and didn't know where or when George would come get him.  Suddenly he saw a bunch of rabbits and chased after them.  He ran off in the distance chasing them southward.

The farmers had retraced their steps and returned to the barn.  After a hard day and night of searching they knew that he wasn't south.  Curley and Carlson were starting to question whether George had been telling them the truth the whole time and decided to go north with Whit.  They were going to go the next day but wanted to wait a day.  When they entered the room there was a heated argument going on already between Slim and Whit about something else.  Then Whit slapped Candy in the face and everything stopped.  Slim fell to his knees and crawled away.  No one said anything after that. 

Lennie had followed the rabbits back toward the farm and was almost there.  When the sun broke the next day Carlson, Whit and Curley came out of the barn.  They were only a few hundred yards away when all of a sudden Curley yelled, "there he is, shoot that son of a bitch!"  Quickly Carlson took his new gun out and shot a bullet.  It missed but it was Lennie's turn.  He shot Whit in the arm and he fell down and ran away.  It was just Carlson and Curley.  Curley took out his gun and hit Lennie in the stomach.  Carlson ran over and started to wail on him.  Curley took aim at him one more time and this time he killed him.  George ran out and he was ecstatic why did you shoot him and Curley had no more bullets started to beat him to.  Slim came out and shot Curley and it was all over.  Candy never got his dream and he walked off the farm never to be seen again.

Character Traits: Lennie

Lennie is a quiet guy that is not very smart but is a good person to have as a personal body guard or someone else to have for protection. He is a friendly guy that only means good things but gets into bad situations some times even though he is innocent in a lot of the time.  He depends on other people a lot and they may not always have his best interests at the forefront of their minds.

On the inside it is basically the same thing as what is on the outside.  With Lennie there is not a lot of other emotions on the inside like you see with other characters like Crooks or Candy.  I think that on the inside he is afraid of what it would be like without someone to help support him. 

There are no real big differences with Lennie from what you see on the outside or inside.  I think that this is because Lennie is more or less a simple-minded person.  This is partly due to him having a mental condition which we do not know of at this moment but other reasons include him being a dependent person and needing someone to tell him what to do.

Dreams and Ambititions

When I grow up I want to be a professional athlete. I want to because I would be working in a job that I love.  They also get paid very well and can retire pretty early.  As well they can become famous if they are really good at what they do.  Although being a professional athlete requires one to be training all year even though I would only play for part of it, it is very beneficial to the later years of my life.  I am required to be in great shape because I need to be able to play at a high level for a long period of time.  My perfect life would be that I am a professional athlete and make millions of dollars.  Then I could buy my parents a new house and go on nice long vacations.  My perfect life would allow me to visit the biggest cities in America and potentially places in Asia.  Those would all be paid for by the team and I would be able to explore the foreign countries and new cities.  I would be able to explore the world on my retirement and I would be able to retire at an earlier age than a normal average working person.   

My Bedroom

A box with four white walls.  A rectangular prism that has a bed and a few other accessories.  I have a drawer and a rocking chair and a few bookshelves.  Other than that I don't really have a lot of other interesting things.  Everything in my bedroom is made out of wood.  I also have a hook to hang up my uniform.  I have my PYP diploma hanging above my bed and a window.  Other than that I have nothing else in my bedroom.

Lennie and George's room is a rectangle of white walls that they have to share with other workers that are there. They have very few objects that are theirs.  They have an apple box that is stapled to the wall on it's side.  They do not even have a mattress that is soft.  Their bed is a burlap bag and a pile of hay.  The last owner of the bed that George and Lennie owns left a bottle of lice killer and the old man that showed them around says that the last guy didn't like it there.  The old guy will not tell Lennie and George what is wrong with the bedroom.  Other than that there is nothing in their bedroom.

George and Lennie's room is not that different than that of my own.  We both live in a rectangle that is white.  We don't have a lot of our own items that is in our own rooms.  We differ, however, because I have an actual mattress and they just have a pile of hay and a burlap bag.  They also don't have a lot of personal belongings unlike I.  That is about it when it comes to comparing the two bedrooms.

Of Mice and Men Section 1 - Review

My personal expectations before I started to read this book was that it would be a fairly fast paced book with a lot of characters introduced within the first part of the book.  I thought that it would have more introductions and more explanations as to how Lennie and George got to where they were.  After reading this first section my thoughts have changed.  I think that it will be a slow type of book with a lot of Lennie don't you remember from George. It is similar to my expectations because it has mainly centered around Lennie's problems and George's struggles to reach their goal.

Lennie's dreams are to have some sort of pet animal like a dog or mouse or rabbit. George's dreams are to have a house and some land with animals so they won't have to worry about going into town all the time and buying food.  I think that at the end they will come very close to finishing and accomplishing what they set out for but will not complete it.  I say this because it is a fictitious book and even though it was based on real problems during the 30's I don't think the author would have made it so they get their wishes.

I like how they are always thinking toward the future.  I think that it is providing a great challenge and that it is already laid out in the first section makes it easier to understand why they are doing what they do sometimes.  I don't like how there are a lot of questions that are put forward in the book and how there are no supporting characters so far.  It is set in a mid-coast Californian town and it is good because it is a place that I don't really know about and it will enhance my knowledge.  The plot seems to be an interesting one that is based around the struggles of two men and it will be interesting to see how it goes.  The characters are rather interesting and how they are two exact opposite people and how they have bonded.  All of the dialogue that has come out of George's mouth has been damn you Lennie.  Lennie doesn't say much.  John Steinbeck uses a lot of imagery to describe the scene.  He describes the places that they are in quite well and it is very realistic.

Three questions that I have for this are:
1. What did Lennie do to have them run out of the last town?
2. What is Lennie's mental condition?
3. Why is Lennie attracted to petting even the dead mice?

What Caused The Great Depression?

The Great Depression was a period of economic turmoil in the 1930's.  It affected many countries in Europe and North America.  Most countries in Asia were largely unaffected; however. It started in 1929 due to a number of factors and the latest countries got out of it was in 1940. 




Many factors contributed to the Great Depression. There was no biggest factor but a bunch of smaller ones.  The biggest belief was that the crash of the stock market caused the start of the Great Depression.  After that then other factors started to come into play.  The deflation of assets and goods prices were one of the reasons.  Because they were down, countries had more exporting items than the demand was.  Because the demand was down the governments had to lower the prices on those items to get countries to buy them the governments earned less money and had to get out of their debts.  Then the U.S decided to make all  imported goods have to pay a tax.  This was to discourage buying imported goods and buy American made goods, but that backfired on them.  Countries elsewhere put a tax on American made goods which also brought down the demand for American made goods and slowed down world trade.  Without world trade the economies of many countries fell even more and became even more entrenched in debt.  Many of the factors that were present during the Great Depression were there during the recession of the late 2000's.  The stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression also precipitated the recession.  Once countries changed the way that banks could charge interest and loan money.