Outside Reading Project Blog #1

The author that I chose for the outside reading project is John Steinbeck, writer of (among others) "Of Mice and Men" and "Cannery Row". "Of Mice and Men" is the story of two ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small trying to achieve their dreams. George is trying to work for independence, to save enough money to be able to buy a small ranch of his own. Lennie has an insatiable love for soft things, so he is working to help George buy the ranch so that they can breed rabbits. Just when it seems that the dream of owning a ranch could become a reality, Lennie takes his love for soft things too far and accidentally kills the ranch owner's son's wife. It is George's duty to take care of Lennie, but after the accident he is no longer able to protect Lennie from the mob so he shoots him to spare him the pain. The story is very much about how the Great Depression kept people down. Just when they seem to have a way out everything collapses.
Another theme in the novel is that shortcomings and handicap's somehow have a way to negate strengths. For example, Lennie is much stronger than any of the other ranch hands, but he is mentally somewhat disabled. It is his mental handicap together with his physical strength that lead to his unfortunate death.
Curley's wife has no name in the book, and has absolutely no personality other than that she is seductive and is not trustworthy. In this way she is a only a symbol for an object of desire, and a supplement to the shortcomings of many men.
The story takes place on a ranch near Soledad, California. Most of the characters have a similar southern way of speaking. Everyone in the book has a character-defining way of talking, for example Curley has a violent edge to the things he says. Everything that Lennie says is very simple and generally involves recurring ideas. The things that Lennie says almost always involve rabbits and "living off the fatta' the lan'".