Full of Relevant Life Lessons

Having seen this movie and read the book several times, I feel Of Mice and Men is full of life lessons through the characters that are still relevant today. With Candy's poor old dog, it was an emotional scene but it bought home that sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind by ending the dog's suffering.

George and Lennie shared a strong bond in the book and film, it's all about their travelling together and working together throughout the story, and their dream to one day have a house and live off the fat of the land, which was the American Dream.

Curley's wife married Curley young but she wasn't entirely happy with what she'd done, in truth, she married Curley to get back at her mother who said she could not act as she was just 15, too young.

Lennie was a gentle giant and a "nice fella," and a guy don't need no sense to be a nice fella. Lennie's character throughout this story is innocent, and obsessed with animals, mainly mice, and a puppy, who he accidentally smothers to death when he cuddles him too tight. This is what happens to Curley's wife unfortunately when he strokes her hair in the barn. Lennie probably wasn't aware of his own strength and didn't know what he was doing until it was too late.

Curley and the others go to look for Lennie on horseback to have him "lynched," but George knows it's going to be a horrible ordeal for Lennie, and sets about finding him himself. George finds Lennie in a body of water. George tells Lennie to look ahead while telling him a familiar story about guys like them, and then calmly shoots Lennie in the head. This concludes the film Of Mice and Men. In the book, Slim tells George he did what he had to do to stop Curley and his lynch mob getting to him, an ending which would've been much worse.

Sometimes the best laid plans of Mice and Men, don't always go how you imagine them to go, and life isn't a rehearsal.

I went to our local thrift store the other day as I always do to look for new (to me) books. They had a great sale on books and all soft covers were 25 cents. I managed to grab a bunch and I noticed "Of Mice and Men" and the name sounded vaguely familiar. Turns out there is a movie. I had never seen the Movie nor read the book, so I started off not knowing anything about what I was about to read.

I grabbed it as a quick read. Something to read in between reading everything else I am in the process of.

It was a great story. Sad, but great, none the less.

As the final scenes were unfolding I couldn't help but look back on Candy's dog and realize the lesson learned in his final moments........Sometimes the thing you feel you cannot do yourself, is the one thing that only you should do.

And George, he did what only him should do.

Great read!