Reading Log Of Mice And Men 51p2j

Of Mice and Men Reading Log

RAHINA LARASATI 2201409044 Literary Appreciation 403-404

SEMARANG STATE UNIVERSITY 2012

READING LOG Of Mice and Men A novel by John Steinbeck

A.

Content

Two men, a small smart guy and a big, strong, but helplessly stupid one, are on their way to their new work at a farm. On the way they speak about their past, how they had to run from the last city after the bigger guy, Lennie, had been falsely accused of raping a girl, while he was only touching her nice dress, and panicked as the girl had flinched, which caused him to squeeze his hand into fist while still holding the dress. Lennie and George, the smart little guy, dream about buying a farm one day when they have gathered enough money. Lennie seems especially fond of petting fluffy things, and dreams of petting rabbits in their dream farm. The couple decide to spend a night on a resting place just quarter of a mile from the farm, before reporting to work. George finds Lennie petting a dead mouse. He throws the mouse away and after a small talk he proposes Lennie to get a dog, so that they wouldn’t die as easily in his strong hands.

The next day the duo reports to work, and soon they met a bunch of interesting people. Curly, boss’s son, a lightweight boxer who seems to having a quarrel with everyone he meets. George tells Lennie to stay away from him, but this proves harder than it sounds as Curly is constantly picking on him and trying to get him to fight Candy and his old dog. Candy has had the dog since he was a puppy, but now they are both old. Candy has lost his hand on the farm, and his dog is blind and limbs badly. Slim is the farms skinner. He’s a most honoured man in the farm. Finally they meet also Curly’s newlywed wife. The husband and wife seem to be searching each other all the time, wife socializing with the men, and Curly trying to control his wife. Slims’ dog is having puppies. When Lennie hears of this he immediately asks George to get him one of the puppies. Lennie gets his puppy, but he must wait till they can leave their mother to take him home, but patience is not his biggest virtue. Candy’s old dog on the other hand starts to bother some men in the farm with his smell, and finally the men convince Candy to put him down. Farmer named Carlson does the dirty work, while Candy stays in his bed, in a very touching chapter. Although Candy doesn’t say a thing, you can feel his sorrow Rahina Larasati 2201409044

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though the text. Soon after Candy over hears George and Lennie talking about the farm and he offers his money and his help to make this dream a reality. Candy is afraid that he is getting useless at the farm and might very soon face his dogs’ faith if he doesn’t do anything.

Curly rushes in to the workers quarters searching for his wife. Nobody has seen him, but Curly thinks she’s with Slim. Curly runs out to find Slim, but comes back soon frustrated after finding Slim, but not his wife. Curly tries to pick fight with everyone out of frustration, and finally he comes to Lennie. Lennie takes the beating a while, but after George gives him permission, he takes Curly’s hand in his fist. Lennie panics and squeezes his fist tighter and breaks Curly’s fist. This time Lennie and George are saved from being fired, since Curly regrets his frustration and doesn’t want men talking about events that night any more than they want him talking about how he got his fist broken. They agree that Curly got his hand stuck in a machine, which broke it. Curly’s wife doesn’t buy this story, but keeps the secret anyways.

Lennie Pets one of the puppies too hard and accidentally kills it. When he is in the barn thinking of how to tell George, Curly’s wife appears and sees the dead puppy. Lennie tells her how he likes to pet soft things, so Curly’s wife suggests he touch her soft hair. Lennie’s hand gets stuck in her hair and he panics again. Soon Curly’s wife panics too and starts to scream, but Lennie doesn’t want George to know, because he could forbid him from petting the rabbits on their dream farm, so he closes her mouth. Soon things get worse and Lennie ends up breaking girls neck accidentally. George had told Lennie to run to the bush near place where they rested before going to work if anything went wrong, so Lennie runs straight there. When the rest of the farm community finds out about the dead wife they start hunting the killer. Story ends in sad scene where George finds Lennie in the bush tells him to look far into the horizon and tells him about their dream farm, at the same time shooting a gun to the back of his head, just like Candy’s old dog.

B.

Comments on Parts/Sentence

Whenever Lennie and George get to argument, afterwards Lennie tells George to describe their future farm:

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Lennie spoke craftily, "Tell me- like you done before." "Tell you what?" "About the rabbits." George snapped, "You ain't gonna put nothing over on me." Lennie pleaded, "Come on, George. Tell me. Please, George. Like you done before." Candy’s love for his dog can be read between the lines. When Carlson takes the dog out Candy goes silent for a long time, and the author keeps mentioning his apparent ignorance:

From his pocket Carlson took a little leather thong. He stooped over and tied it around the old dog's neck. All the men except Candy watched him. "Come boy. Come on, boy," he said gently. And he said apologetically to Candy, "He won't even feel it." Candy did not move nor answer him. He twitched the thong. "Come on, boy." The old dog got slowly and stiffly to his feet and followed the gently pulling leash.

C.

Sketch/Picture of The Main Characters 1)

George Milton: small and quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp,

strong features. Every part of him was defined: small, strong hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose.

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2)

Lennie Small: a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, and wide,

sloping shoulders

D.

Questions and Answers 1)

What are the names of the main characters? Lennie Small and George Milton

2)

What town did the two men escape and why? Weed, Lennie was accused of raping a local girl.

3)

Why does Curly need to go to a hospital after trying to pick a fight with Lennie? Lennie broke his hand when defending himself and panicking.

4)

Why did Curly’s wife marry Curly? She was mad at her mother for not letting her the travelling show. She also expected her mother was hiding a letter from a movie producer from her, so she decided to marry Curly to get away from her mother.

5)

Where does Lennie run to, after he accidentally killed Curly’s wife? "I done a real bad thing," he said. "I shouldn't of did that. George'll be mad. An'... he said... an' hide in the brush till he come. He's gonna be mad. In the brush till he come. Tha's what he said." He runs into the bush near place where they spent a night in the beginning of the story. George told him to run there if he did anything so bad that they had to run away.

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E.

Missing Information

Some gaps in Lennie’s and Georges’ past are still uncovered. Also history of many of the side characters, like the black crippled stable buck used to live on a farm, but now is working in a farm owned by another man, white man whose kind he seems to dislike heavily.

F.

Letter about Excitement

Dear friends, I just read a novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. It was very touching and made me think of what I have and especially what I have to lose! It’s about two workers, smart and dumb, small and strong, classical brains and muscle pair. I cried in the end and I’m sure you will too. I recommend strongly that you read it!

G.

Imagination of The Film

There is a film made of this story. I haven’t seen it, but I can imagine this story having vivid enough images and twists and turns, not to mention the length is not too much, to produce a fine movie. Many other movies have also been clearly influenced by this novel. For example in movie Green mile, the main character, big black man convicted of murder and rape of two small children even though he is innocent, reminds me strongly of Lennie. Also having friends like George and Lennie, Strong stupid man for muscle and small but smart guy for brains, is very much used in movies.

H.

Give Opinion

I liked this story. The friendship between Lennie and George felt so profound it brought tears to my eyes in the end when it had to end the way it did. Poor Lennie who only wanted to pet pretty things, also got his part of pity, and Curly got my blood boiling with his arrogance. In addition to vivid characters there were also lots of descriptions of the surroundings. This was not that interesting, but it built the mood nicely, without even noticing it. The people in the story talked with uneducated American slang, which was hard to follow from time to time, and some of the words were from outside my vocabulary, but the main story still got through.

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I.

Cultural Aspects

This story was written in 1930’s and describes the culture of that time quite well. The life of the working men: always moving from town to town after a job. The stable buck enlightens the oppression of the black men and the resulting loneliness he had to face. Status of the woman at early 1900’s comes also up in the story. His husband is trying to control her and even the workers tell her to stay in the house, like she is supposed to. The language that the men use is something I would think uneducated workers at that time use. Simple English, but difficult for foreigner used to formal language. "We'd just go to her," George said. "We wouldn't ask nobody if we could. Jus' say, 'We'll go to her,' an' we would. Jus' milk the cow and sling some grain to the chickens an' go to her."

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