Not quite sure what prompted me to read this. It seems I’ve been going on a nostalgia tour lately, re-reading many of the classics that’s part of the K12 school curriculum.
Of Mice and Men is a story about two displaced migrant ranch workers, George and Lennie, who are traveling throughout California trying to survive during the Great Economic Depression of the 1930s. George is an uneducated but quick-witted man, while Lennie is a gigantic, physically strong man but is mentally deficient. The two had been close friends since they were kids.
The story begins with the duo on their way to another farm for work. They had fled their previous employment after Lennie was falsely accused of rape when he grabbed a woman’s skirt and refused to let go. Despite having good intentions, Lennie is somewhat obtuse. George, being his close friend and caretaker ever since they were young, always had to intervene and bail him out of difficult situations.
Lennie had another quirk where he loved touching and stroking soft animals, but due to his immense physical strength, he always ends up killing them in his fist.
Life is hard for George and Lennie, but they remain hopeful and optimistic for they dreamed of one day owning their own farm.
“Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. They come to a ranch an’ work up a stake and then they go inta town and blow their stake, and the first thing you know they’re pounding their tail on some other ranch. They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to.”
George went on. “With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us.”
Lennie broke in. “But not us! An’ why? Because… because I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that’s why”
They would then break into a much repeated dialogue about all the wonderful things they will do once they have their farm, which George can supposedly acquire at a very cheap price from one of his relatives, provided they can save enough money for a down payment. They will build a little house, raise some cows and pigs, live off the land with plentiful meat, milk, and eggs. They dreamed of building vegetable patches, and hutch for chicken and rabbits. They fantasized about building a fire in the stove when it rain, listening to the quiet nights and the raindrops on their roof, living without a worry in the world.
The next day, they arrive at the farm to begin work. They meet several new characters, each with their own themes and mini-plot lines which I will not dive into.
As evident from this cast of characters, especially Curley and his wife, the situation is tenuous at best….
Things were great for a few months, but one day, Lennie accidentally kills a puppy he was given to take care of. Curley’s wife enters the barn and tries to comfort Lennie. She admits to him that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star was crushed after marrying Curley. In her flirtatious ways, she offers to have Lennie stroke her hair but panics when she realizes how strong he is. Lennie freaks out and accidentally kills her by breaking her neck.
Lennie then flees to the riverbank they camped at in the beginning of the story; which they agreed to as a rendezvous point in case anything goes wrong at this new farm. By now, a lynch mob has formed at the ranch and they’ve sent the police to search for Lennie
George arrives at the riverbank and Lennie apologies profusely about what happened. George assures Lennie that everything will be okay. They sit next to each other and retells their beloved dreams of owning their own farm.
“But not us” Lennie cried happily. “Tell about us now.”
George was quiet for a moment. “But not us,” he said.
” Because I got you an’ —”
“An’ I got you. We got each other, that’s what, that gives a hoot in hell about us” Lennie cried in triumph.
[…]
“Look acrost the river, Lennie, an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it.”
Lennie turned his head and looked off across the pool and up the darkening slopes of the Gabilans. “We gonna get a little place,” George began. He reached in his side pocket and brought out Carlson’s Luger; he snapped off the safety, and the hand and gun lay on the ground behind Lennie’s back. He looked at the back of Lennie’s head, at the place where the spine and skull were joined.
“Go on,” said Lennie. “How’s it gonna be? We gonna get a little place.”
“We’ll have a cow,” said George. “An’ we’ll have maybe a pig an’ chickens… an’ down the flat we’ll have a … little piece of alfalfa—”
“For the rabbits,” Lennie shouted.
[…]
“You … an’ me. Ever’body gonna be nice to you. Ain’t gonna be no more trouble. Nobody gonna hurt nobody nor steal from ‘em”
Lennie said, “I thought you was mad at me, George”
“No.” Said George. “No, Lennie. I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know.”
The voices came close now. Goerge raised the gun and listened to the voices.
Lennie begged. “Le’s do it now. Le’s get that place now.”
“Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta.”
And george raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie’s head. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger.
My initial reaction was one of betrayal and disgust. I thought of George’s killing of Lennie as an act of cowardice, an abandonment of the dreams and ideals that they treasured so much throughout the story. It felt to me like George is “giving up” on Lennie, especially since it was paralleled with the killing of Slim’s old dog earlier in the story.
After more thoughts and reading through some online discussions, I’ve come to realize that George’s final act can also be interpreted as mercy-killing, and that a gun to the back of the head is much better than anything else at the hands of the lynch mob.
Whatever your interpretation may be, it doesn’t make the story any less downbeat and pessimistic. With the murder of Curley’s wife, regardless of it being accidental, a line has been crossed from which George could no longer protect Lennie. As Innocent Lennie as may be, is it more ethical to protect him and run away? To leave a murder unpunished and live the life of fugitives? George loved Lennie and has protected him since they were young. Perhaps he was forced to do what is best given an extreme circumstance.
With the pulling of the trigger, George not only killed his life-long best friend Lennie, but also their shared dream of owning a farm, their rare and idealized friendship. With the cruel economic depression comes the death of idealism. It turns out they are not special or lucky; and they don’t have each other after all.