Chapter 6 Response

Chapter 6 of "Of Mice and Men" was a sad chapter. At the beginning of the chapter Lennie gets visions of his Aunt Clara and a giant rabbit. When we finish reading the conversation between Aunt Clara and Lennie we change our views on Aunt Clara. Throughout the story we thought that Aunt Clara was a nice caring woman since Lennie talked about her in a positive way. At first I was a bit confused with the visions. I knew that he was disabled, but since he has visions and talks to them, he's rather insane. The visions help Lennie in a way. They tell him that something bad is going to happen to him; obvious enough for Lennie to ask George how much trouble he's in. I thought that George shooting Lennie in the back of the head reminded me of Candy and his dog. I think that George wanted to be the one that killed Lennie, because he didn't want some random man, or even Curley to hurt him. He also promised Lennie that he wouldn't let anyone hurt him, but he never actually said that he would never hurt him.
I thought that "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck was a great book. There was a lot of symbolism and foreshadowing. The author was innate with describing scenes.

Loneliness

What's Up - By 4 Non Blondes

Twenty - five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination
And I realized quickly when I knew I should
That the world was made up of this brotherhood of man
For whatever that means
And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
Ooh, ooh ooh
And I try, oh my god do I try
I try all the time, in this institution
And I pray, oh my god do I pray
I pray every single day
For a revolution
And so I cry sometimes
When I'm lying in bed
Just to get it all out
What's in my head
And I am feeling a little peculiar
And so I wake in the morning
And I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream at the top of my lungs
What's going on?
And I say, hey hey hey hey
I said hey, what's going on?
Twenty - five years and my life is still
Trying to get up that great big hill of hope
For a destination

Chapter 5 Response

In chapter 5 "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, Curley's wife dies and Lennie runs away to the riverbed. I think we can blame some of the characters for the tragic events. Firstly, we can blame how Curley's wife acts on Curley. If he were not such a terrible husband, then Curley's wife wouldn't talking to numerous men on the farm, and going into the barn with Lennie alone. We cannot really blame Curley's wife, because her actions are Curley's fault. We cannot blame George or Lennie. We cannot help that Lennie is mentally disabled, or George for leaving Lennie alone in the stables. For the reason that George doubted that Curley's wife would even join Lennie in the barn alone. Even though people have control of their actions, how other people act towards one another have effect on everything you do. The book and movie were very similar in this section. I couldn't spot a huge difference.

Chapter 4 Response

In chapter four "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck Lennie, Candy, and Crooks converse a lot. In this chapter we see a lot of racism and how lonely Crooks and Curley's wife is. Crooks is very lonely, we see this when he confuses and plays with Lennie's mind by telling him George might not come back. He tells Lennie that he was just talking to himself once he sees Lennie really angry at him. Crooks explains how it is hard to be alone and have no one to talk to. In some ways Lennie is like Crooks, but instead of being racially discriminated, he's discriminated because of his mental disabilities. Curley's wife is also lonely. Through out the story she asks all the characters why none of them will talk to her. As readers we know that the men don't want to get in trouble, but Curley's wife doesn't see the problem; she wouldn't get in trouble and the men would just lose their jobs. Apart from Curley's wife being lonely, she is extremely racist. When she comes into Crooks room while the three guys were in there, she completely shuts off Crooks when he asks her to leave by threatening him. I noticed that the book Steinbeck concentrates more on the racism, than Curley's wife's loneliness. I think the director of the movie wanted to concentrate more on the Curley's wife's loneliness because she is a woman, and very pretty. The audience would want to get to know her better, and relate to her better than Crooks.

Chapter 3 Response

In chapter 3 "Of Mice and Men" there were a lot of important events. The first big event was that Candy's dog was shot by Carlson. I was first quite surprised how badly Carlson wanted to kill Candy's dog because of how bad it smelt, as well as how he would not drop the topic of how he could do it right now. I thought that was rather cruel of him, since he knew how Candy and his dog have been together for ages and he would not let Candy just spend one more day with him. What surprised me the most was how Carlson told Slim to tell Candy about killing his dog. How he said if Slim were to tell Candy to do it, Candy would allow it, but if he were just to tell him to, he would not. I was also expecting the fight between Curley and Lennie. Knowing that Curley likes to pick fights, and that he would not pick a fight with Slim, Lennie would be his last option. What surprised me was how Lennie did not fight back until George told him. This shows how strong their bond is, and how much Lennie trusts George, and how he listens to him no matter what the situation. I think that the author reveals how strong the bonds through the actions of the characters. Lastly, you can see the rankings of the characters by how other characters talk about them. For example, we can tell that everyone looks up to Slim. He is good looking, people listen to him, and see him as a good role model. The characters whom are in lower rank would be Candy and Crooks. Candy, because he is old and not important. Crooks, because he is colored and is the stable guy. This is what I thought the rankings were of the characters.

Chapter 2 Response

In this chapter we were introduced to many new characters. The Old Swamper, Curley, Slim, Carlson, and Curley's wife. What is surprising is that in the movie the Old Swamper in quickly introduced as Candy, but in the book he is known as the Old Man or Old Swamper. I think this is because in the book the author wants him to be known as not an important character. Once the Lennie and George get into their shared room they meet Curley. Who is a small guy, who picks on big guys. I think I can relate to him since he is small and I'm small in size too, and how both of us can big on people who are taller than us; knowing that nothing bad could happen to us. Curley's wife seemed to be quite flirty when she went "looking" for her husband and met George and Lennie. I think that she and George will have a connection of some sort because Lennie seemed to be really interested in her. In the movie we still have not seem what Curley's wife looks like; the same with Carlson and Slim. I foreshadow that something bad will happen, because Lennie is already not liking where he is and wants to leave. As well as the story is like "The Scarlet Ibis" how the brother was pushing Doodle. Only in "Of Mice and Men" George is like the brother and Doodle is like Lennie. Both Doodle and Lennie are handicapped, and I predict something bad will happen to George and Lennie or just Lennie.

Chapter 1 Response

Chapter one "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck introduced the setting and main characters. The story begins with a short description of a riverbed in the state of California, soon after Lennie and George are introduced. We discover at Lennie has slight mental disabilities, and George is looking after him. Both characters are running away because of a mistake Lennie had committed, and are now going to a farm for work. In collaboration, they have the same dream, and want to follow through with it. The movie and story are more alike than contrasting. One section I found contrasting was when the beginning of the story and movie. In the movie it shows a woman running across a field, while in the book a beautiful scene is described. The language is exactly the same in both book and movie. There is a southern type of slang that is spoken through the movie and text. The events in the book are also found in the movie, and they are in chronological order. I noticed that in the book it is easier to see that Lennie is being compared to animals. At first he was compared to a horse, then bear, then dog. In the movie it is less noticeable then it being written in text. Other similarities are how the characters were described in the book and how they appeared in the movie. George being angular and small, while Lennie being tall and broad. As readers we can relate with George's struggles with Lennie. How he is frustrated that Lennie keeps forgetting and is disobeying him. Even though Lennie does this things, George still loves him because he is like his younger brother. We go through these types of problems as well in our everyday lives. Our vexation with our younger siblings, parents, friends, students and colleagues. Even though we get infuriated, we still love these people.