~ Final draft of our Of Mice and Men Essay ~

The story “Of Mice and Men” written by the author with the name of John Steinbeck's. This man wrote a fascinating article that is the in the basic times during the Great Depression. “The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s.” (more info and link that could be found in the following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression). The two main characters in this novel happen to be both George and Lennie. George is shorter in height than the average male, although he may be small, George maybe able to fool people for his character includes him being clever and quite a worker. Lennie on the other hand happens to have an unknown mental illness and the way he received his illness so also unknown. Although, he may be ill but he happens to be a big fella' with human and uncontrollable strength that he is unaware of. these characteristics that guide Lennie in being an excellent worker. Their story all begins with George and Lennie walking off to a ranch where their expecting a new job.

The Central conflict in “Of Mice and Men” is in my opinion Character Vs. Self. The reason why I choose this central conflict, is because through-out most of the story, all Lennie was ever doing was struggling and fighting against himself, trying to keep and not lose control of his body and actions due to his “unknown illness”.

Lennie's explanation of why he has an urge to tend things like rabbits, mice, and even soft dresses to soft curly hair is quite unique. Curley's wife finds Lennie in a barn by himself finding her perfect chance to get close to him. As she begins to try and start a conversation with Lennie, she finds that all that is on his mind is the rabbits. So she asked him “What makes you so nuts about the rabbits”? And he crawled up next to her and responded:

“I like to pet nice things. Once at a fair I seen some of them long-haired rabbits. An' they was nice, you bet. Sometimes I've even pet mice, but not when I could get nothing better.” (90)

The reason why this quote really seems to catch my attention, is because this is the moment where Lennie finally opens up in emotion wise. He starts to describe his urge of why he must touch and tend things. His illness isn't truly the reason why he acts as a child, however his illness is a major part of it but it isn't the main conclusion. He acts and likes to tend rabbits because as a child he never got to live a normal life for a child at his undeveloped age. He was taken from home to home, not having any family. By the time his Aunt Clara had taken him in he had already developed an illness caused from stress and child desegregation and stress causing him to have struggled against himself even as a child.

After Lennie's terrible accident with Curley's wife, Lennie realizes that the cause of Curley's wife's death was something that wasn't suppose to happen, and shows his sorrow. Realizing he has done a bad thing, Lennie remembers what George had told him if something bad happened, just like what had happen. George told him to “hide in the brush and wait for George to come get him”. As Lennie waited his conscious started to eat him up! He started to have thoughts of George leaving him, and even to were Lennie would tell him self he would run and live in a cave. Slowly Lennie begins to hallucinate more and more getting deeper into his emotions.

“And then from out of Lennie's head there came a little fat old woman, She wore thick bull's-eye glasses and she wore a huge gingham apron with pockets, and she was starched and clean”. (100)

The fascinating idea about this passage is not just how Lennie starts hallucinating. Although the reason why and the idea of what it represents is truly important. However, based on my resources of what causes Lennie's emotion to be so hurt rather than being scared is that George is the general conflict. Lennie wasn't trying to do the right thing all through-out the story just to stay out of trouble, but everything he was doing was all for George. Keeping George from becoming mad at Lennie was indeed Lennie's biggest accomplishment and goal he set for himself. During his hallucinations, Lennie starts to see the major characters in his life that give him joy and hope where the big rabbit, and Aunt Clara herself. If you didn't notice at first, pay great attention to how two major events and characters in Lennie's life/mind only led to one major character who must show a major sign of importance not just to Lennie and his friendship, but more to Lennie's struggle against him self to keep George satisfied.

This quote here takes place before George and Lennie reach the ranch, they camp for the night in a nice and unique clearing and George assures Lennie of their special relationship. Showing how they out of all the other people in this story, they have a bond that is impossible of being broken unless one in the bond brakes it himself.

“ Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place. . . . With us it ain’t like that. We got a future. We got somebody to talk to that gives a damn about us. We don’t have to sit in no bar room blowin’ in our jack jus’ because we got no place else to go. If them other guys gets in jail they can rot for all anybody gives a damn. But not us. An' why? because.......“(14)

What really catches my attention in this quote here, is how this exactly shows Lennie's need for understanding and friendship. Although Lennie and George's friendship may or may not be real, it still shows how George just being there for Lennie made him feel happy with him self. After these few quotations Lennie points out how they have each other, to me that shows even though Lennie has some sort of mental illness, he still struggles hard against himself, just to keep a good friend like George along his side. Although, Lennie may seem to have the struggle; it is truly both Lennie and George who struggle towards their goals in the end.

Conclusion

The whole point or more like main idea of this reflection is to get the idea of why Lennie does what he does. Through out my reflection, I explain how Lennie continues too grow more ill and ill until he gets in a process where his time has come. Whats so important about this, and why it all really matters is that although I set the thesis as Lennie Vs. himself. The final idea that comes to mind, is that the central conflict that leads to the reason of why Lennie is just Lennie; all comes down to his faith being planned. All of his moments where he faces himself and especially because of his illness all leads up to “Character Vs. Faith”.