English 10 Period 3

Then ending was really sad and overall I enjoyed the novel. I really didn’t expect it coming. I thought that Steinbeck’s purpose was that the American Dream could always be accomplished in some way if you tried hard enough. When George was about to shoot Lennie he told him, “ ‘Look acrost the river, Lennie an’ I’ll tell you so you can almost see it’ ” (105). George was describing to Lennie about the dream about what they were going to have accomplished once the whole mess was over. I thought that what George meant was that Lennie was almost to heaven and that Lennie’s dream about tending the rabbits were going to happen only a few seconds away. That Lennie’s American Dream was already going to be accomplished in some way.
When Carlson said, “ ‘If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head--- right there, why he’d never know what hit him’ ” (45). Do you think it was a foreshadowing when George shot Lennie?
 

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John Steinbeck, author of the novel Of Mice and Men, ends his story in a rather unusual way. The last action of the book is George killing his best friend Lennie. Lennie has done a very bad thing. He has killed Curley’s wife and is now on the run as a murderer. Curley plans on finding Lennie and killing him. Lennie has run away to George’s and his “secret” spot. George knows that Lennie is eventually going to be caught and killed. George does not want to see Lennie go through this since he didn’t mean to kill Curley’s wife. George finds Lennie at the “secret” spot and he begins to talk to him. He reassures Lennie that everything is going to be fine and that they are still going to get a place of their own. Before George ran ahead from the rest of the ranchers, he took Carlson’s gun with him. After talking for several minutes, the ranchers and Curley find George and Lennie. George slowly grabs the gun and shoots Lennie in the back of the head, killing him. George meets up with the other ranchers after killing his best friend, and only Slim truly understands what he did. George was not angry at Lennie, instead he killed Lennie out of mercy and love.

The ending was very effective to the story as a whole. In the opening of the sixth and final chapter, Steinbeck describes the “secret” spot as Lennie returns. “A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically” (99). In the beginning of the book, the “secret” spot is described as a calm and peaceful place. When Lennie returns, a snake which may resemble the devil in the Bible story of Adam and Eve is killed silently by a seemingly harmless heron. This is foreshadowing Lennie, who could be perceived as evil for being a murderer, becoming surprisingly killed by his best friend George.

Why does Lennie see and talk to his Aunt Clara and a giant rabbit?
 

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men ended with Slim and George walking away from Lennie’s dead body. The ending was effective because it left you with a sad but meaningful story that summed up the American dream. I think Steinbeck ended Of Mice and Men in this way because he wanted to show the brutal reality that many had to go through to achieve their dream. People were lost and people had to make sacrifices just like George. The word that I chose to represent the ending was “dream”. I thought this word summed up the chapter because George and Lennie lost their dream and Lennie also dies listening to George talk about their dream coming true someday. One question that I would like to discuss more is why George sent Candy’s money earlier in the novel if he didn’t really think that the dream was going to be achieved?
 

The end of the book completly suprised me. I did not see it coming that George was going to kill Lennie. I really didnt like it either it just didnt seem to fit with the rest of the book.
What will George do now?
 

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Steinbeck's ending in Of Mice and Men was very creative and moving to me. Though, throughout the book, it seemed like George didn't care about Lennie, he really did. That is what made this so heartbreaking; the thought of killing your best friend. The diction Steinbeck used was very powerful, especially when he describes George shoots Lennie. "And George raised the gun and steadied it, and 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. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and roled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering." (106). The way George's hand shook, shows how difficult it was for him to shoot Lennie. The description of the shot echoing shows how the choice George made will linger on forever and stay with him.
A question I would like to address is do you think it was right for George to shoot Lennie?
 

After reading "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, I was very surprised by how the book ended. I never would have thought that George would have the heart to kill Lennie. However, I do think that George was pressured into shooting Lennie in the back of the head. Even though the book doesn't say it, George would have lost his job again and maybe even would have been killed. I think George had to go along with what the other men said.
I think this ending was very effective because it was something that I would never do in life. It showed a different point of view. Although George didn't get along with Lennie all the time, I think he truly did love him at heart. He just couldn't show it on the outside. Slim had a big influence on George by saying, “ ‘You hadda, George. I swear you hadda’ ” (107). This was referring to after George shot Lennie and like it was a good thing to have done. It illustrates how easily George could make a life and death situation just as Candy's dog was put into.
One question I had was that I didn't understand the last sentence of the book, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" (107). I’m not sure why Carlson said that.
 

At the beginning of this novel, John Steinbeck depicts paradise and the American dream. By the end, one man broke his hand, one woman was killed, two dogs are dead, and Lennie is dead from a bullet in the head. In my opinion, that isn’t anything like the American dream. Death, pain, and suffering are not what I would want to go through. There was a dream. “Lennie giggled with happiness. ‘An’ live on the fatta the land’” (105). And there was a way to achieve it. But being strong made Lennie weak, and George shot him in the head. I don’t think that Steinbeck ended the story well. I don’t believe that every story needs to end in a ‘happily ever after’, but to kill a man is truly disturbing. Steinbeck pulled a three-sixty in his novel. The idea of paradise draws the reader in, but death makes a reader never want to pick the book up again.
 

The ending to John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men was very effective. It illustrates loyalty and friendship. When Lennie accidentally breaks Curly’s wife’s neck, it flashes back to all the times that he killed the mice and the little puppy he just got from Slim. Lennie remembers that he needs to go to his “secret place” where George told him to go. George finds Lennie and tells him the story of the rabbits. George shoots Lennie in the back of the head just like they did to Candy’s dog. Curly was going to torture Lennie and kill him. George wanted to End Lennie’s suffering instead of having someone else do it. He is loyal to Lennie till the end because Candy was upset that he didn’t shot his own dog and George didn’t want that to happen to him if Curly killed Lennie. Steinbeck relates Lennie to an animal at the end of the novel. “Suddenly Lennie appeared out of the bush, and he came as silently as a creeping bear moves” (100). He compares Lennie to an animal because mentally he has the mind of an animal.

Why is Curly’s wife never given a name?
 

The novel,"Of Mice and Men", by John Steinbeck ended on a powerful note. After reading the ending, I had to reread it a few times to fully understand what had just happened. At first I was dissappointed in George, but after a few times of rereading it, I realized that he killed Lennie to save him from a worse consicence. I believe Steinbeck ended the novel this way to prove that the American Dream can not be fulfilled. Together, George and Lennie where going to make their own American Dream, but something went wrong and the dream was shattered.

In the last scene of the novel Lennie ran away to hide in the bush where him and George slept the first night. As he arrives a snake slithers up the river and gets eaten. Soon after another snake come along. Why do you think this scene represents?
 

The ending to Of Mice and Men was unexpected, but not surprising. George seemed like one of those ranch hands that would just "blow his jack" on some "cat house" or in the local saloon. My first impression after the first chapter of the novel was "Why is George even with Lennie?" It makes me wonder whether George had planned to kill Lennie in the first place. It seemed strange that a good ranch hand like himself would be wandering around with a retarded person like Lennie. It seems that Steinbeck ended this book to show the reality of the situation. It was evident that Lennie "was not any good to himself" as Carlson would say, and he was doing nothing but bringing George down. George had to find some way to get rid of Lennie, and to him this was the best way. In all, the story seemed to be set up for an unfortunate ending and George killing Lennie fulfilled the plot.
 

I think the ending was very effective in bringing out the emotional conflict George must have felt. When I read the ending I was feeling like I was going through the same thing George was. I believe that Steinbeck ended “of Mice and Men” in this way to convey man’s cruelty and compassion. Even though these emotions seem very separate they are often connected in this story. An example of this is when George was describing to Slim how one day he told Lennie to jump into a river but then did everything he could to pull him back out. The most important question I would like to discuss further was, does George feel that it is his responsibility to shoot Lennie? I think that he feels that what Lennie did was in some part his fault because he was not with Lennie when it happened.
 

After finishing Of Mice and Men I had no idea that the ending would be this powerful. I wouldn't have ever thought that George had this in him. Which is part of my question; do you think George fell into the same idea of obeying everything Slim says? I thought the ending was effective but it was greatly unexpected. I think that Steinbeck had the idea of ending this story as powerful as possible, and he did. "The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering" (106). I guess it wouldn't have been as powerful if it ended bye George and Lennie running away from their latest mistake. It would have brought the story full circle but it wouldn't have had been so powerful.
 

I believe that the ending of the novel was very powerful, and it shows a bit of the cruel reality of our world. I think that Steinbeck chose to end the novel in this very abrupt and shocking way to show that sometimes death is the only way to save someone. In the case of Lennie, he would have been forced to suffer if George had not shot him. This is an extremely controversial way to end a story, because even the topic of putting animals down can be very controversial, and when applied to human beings, it grows even more controversial. And Lennie was not killed because he had outlived his welcome, or because he was no longer of use, but simply because he would have been forced to suffer, and George couldn’t stand to force Lennie to suffer, because he cared so much about him. Although ironic, George had to kill Lennie because he cared so much about him. On page 103, there is a passage that illustrates how difficult George’s decision was, “Lennie got up on his knees. ‘You ain’t gonna leave me, are ya, George? I know you ain’t’ ” Lennie trusts George with everything that he is worth, so George has to do what is best for Lennie. One question that I had was, why didn’t the men, other than Curley, want to save Lennie and simply put him in prison instead of killing him?
 

I didn’t like the ending of this book at all. I still don’t understand why they couldn’t have just run away. I understand the reference between candies dog and George shooting Lennie but the big difference is that Lennie is a human and candies dog is a dog. They didn’t just shoot Helen Keller in the back of the head, so what gives George the right to shoot Lennie?
I think John Steinbeck decided to end the book this way in order to show how cruel humans can really be. In the ending of the Book after George kills Lennie, Slim and Geroge are walking away sulking and Carlson says to Curley “Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin’ them two guys?”(107). Carlson and Curley show how truly evil humans can be and how uncompassionate. I think that Lennie symbolizes the innocence of man, and when George shot him it is like the end of all good and innocent in the world, but the fact that George and Slim are remorseful shows us that there is at least some compassion in the world.
 

After I read the ending of the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I was shocked, but I thought it was effective. I think Steinbeck’s purpose of having George shoot Lennie was to show that retarded people don’t make it in our world. At the beginning of the book, George supported Lennie by helping him out of the problems he kept creating for himself, such as when he grabbed the woman in Weed. However, after Lennie killed Curley’s wife, George couldn’t defend Lennie anymore. George, who was Lennie’s best friend and care-taker, chose to shoot Lennie. George said, “I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know” (Steinbeck 106). This shows that George shot Lennie because he wanted to put Lennie out of his misery of being different. In out world today, people often band together against retarded people and make fun of them or tease them. In Of Mice and Men, the ranch workers set out to kill Lennie. George killed his best friend mostly because he cared about him so much that he wanted to prevent the pain he would go through if Curley tried to hurt him.
 

I didn’t really like the ending to the book. I thought it was really sudden and needed to have a little more to it. If Steinbeck had added a little more to Lennie running away and him hallucinating what he feared most, the ending of the book would have been really great. But, I did like how Steinbeck tied in the killing of the dog to the killing of Lennie though it was unnecessary to kill him. The book could have ended with George and Lennie having to run away or something. A question I have about the book is if George and candy will still be able to manage getting that little farm even without Lennie?
 

After I read the ending of the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, I was shocked, but I thought it was effective. I think Steinbeck’s purpose of having George shoot Lennie was to show that retarded people don’t make it in our world. At the beginning of the book, George supported Lennie by helping him out of the problems he kept creating for himself, such as when he grabbed the woman in Weed. However, after Lennie killed Curley’s wife, George couldn’t defend Lennie anymore. George, who was Lennie’s best friend and care-taker, chose to shoot Lennie. George said, “I ain’t mad. I never been mad, an’ I ain’t now. That’s a thing I want ya to know” (Steinbeck 106). This shows that George shot Lennie because he wanted to put Lennie out of his misery of being different. In our world today, people often band together against retarded people and make fun of them or tease them. In Of Mice and Men, the ranch workers set out to kill Lennie. George killed his best friend mostly because he cared about him so much that he wanted to prevent the pain he would go through (if Curley tried to hurt him). Steinbeck shows that no matter what(even if they had a best friend who took care of them), retarded people will have a tough time in the world.
After Lennie kills Curley's wife, George and Candy abandon the hope of building their own rach. Why does Lennie's mistake crush the ambitions of Candy and George? Couldn't they run their 'dream ranch' without him?
 

The ending in Of Mice and Men was shocking. I don't think anyone could guess that Steinbeck would have George kill Lennie in the end. I think it was an effective ending because it proves the point of that the american dream can not be acheived by everyone. It shows the reality of life and that 'happily ever after' rarely happens. A passage that depicts this idea well is, "A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shawdows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically." (99). I think this quote shows this idea well because it seems as if everything is well, but there is always something that can go wrong in an instant.

I don't understand why Carlson says at the end of the book, "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" (107).
 

The ending was really surprising. I think it was effective. I think Steinbeck's purpose in the ending was to "move" you in a specific way that I don't know. "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. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering."

I still don't know why George shot Lennie.
 

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When I read the ending of the book, Of Mice and Men, I was surprised, but not shocked. Lennie was not evil for what he did to Curley’s wife but George was not evil for killing Lennie either. This was an effective ending for the book because it tied everything up in a sad but good way. The ending related to Steinbeck’s theme that each character is ultimately destroyed by his own limitations. Lennie is destroyed by his mental limitations when he kills Curley’s wife. As the book says, “ ‘Let go’ ” she cried. “ ‘You let go!’ ” Lennie was in a panic. His face was contorted. She screamed then, and Lennie’s other hand closed over her mouth and nose. “ ‘Please don’t,’ ” he begged. “ ‘Oh! Please don’t do that. Georg’ll be mad.’ ” (91) Lennie is not smart enough to know he should let go of Curley’s wife. Lennie is also destroyed by George’s limitations. George has always made Lennie follow exactly what he told him to do. Lennie following what George tells him to do and not wanting to talk to Curley’s wife, leads to his demise. Steinbeck ended Of Mice and Men this way to prove a point that sometimes a man has do what they have do and this does not necessarily make them evil. When George kills Lennie, he is not evil, Lennie is going to get killed no matter what. George just wants to be the one to kill him because he is his friend and in a way, his parent. This relates to how Candy had wanted to kill his dog instead of letting someone else do it. When George kills Lennie, he is actually saving him from a worse fate. Steinbeck is proving that in life, there is no such thing as paradise. It doesn’t exist because in life problems always arise and nothing is ever truly perfect. A question I have, is why doesn’t Curley care if he is the one who kills Lennie? One would think that since Lennie killed his wife, he would want to kill Lennie but he doesn’t seem to care who does it.
 

Immediately when I read where George shot Lennie, I thought back to where Candy’s dog was shot. Candy should have shot his own dog, so George shot his own friend. I believe you are not forced to do anything, it’s your choice to obey or not. I think killing off Lennie was an ineffective way to end the story. George should have helped Lennie in some other way rather than shoot him. That seems cruel. I think Steinbecks purpose was to give Lennie that paradise in a quicker, more effective way.

- In the previous chapters, the word “manger” came up a lot. What is its significance?
 

I think the ending of the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was very effective. I think he used a very contoversial topic to end the book which really caught the readers attention. I never thought that George would hurt Lennie in any way but I guess he did what he thought he had to do. I think Steinbeck ended the novel how he did because he had to show that the American Dream does not always turn out how you want it. He showed this because Lennie's dream was to live on the farm with George but he never got his dream because of George.

What do you think happened to George and the rest of the workers after George shot Lennie?
 

I think that even though the ending was sad it was effective. It was effective because it got the readers attention and the ending was very controversial so it made the reader think twice about what they were reading. The ending was controversial because people are either pro euthanasia, for animals, or against it and that was in a way what happened to Lennie. People also didn’t want it to happen because they liked Lennie and they wanted it to be a “fairy tale” ending and for everyone to live happily ever after. Steinbeck’s purpose for ending the book like this is to bring up questions and for people to really think about what happened. He also might have wanted people to know that things don’t always end happily and sometimes people don’t accomplish there dreams and that is the harsh reality of life. “ ‘Guys like us got no fambly. They make a little stake an’ then they blow it in. They ain’t got nobody in the worl’ that gives a hoot in hell about ‘em’ ”(104) This is the harsh reality of life. Everything doesn’t work out exactly as planned and people don’t always live happily ever after. Why does Steinbeck add the part about Lennie’s visions about his Aunt Clara and the giant bunny?
 

I think that the ending is effective, but still, George doesn't have to kill Lennie. George and Lennie could have just ran again, like they did in Weed.
It doesnt really show what George does after he kills Lennie either. George must have thought of Lennie like Candy thought of his dog. In that, he should have killed him rather than somebody else.
 

After finishing up John Steinbeck's book Of Mice and Men, I felt a little caught off guard. Although I, like most everyone else, was not expecting George to shoot Lennie, I understand why it happened and I am not completely shocked. I also feel it was a well thought-up ending for the story. It was effective because it was very controversial and made the reader contemplate a few different questions. I think the purpose for ending the story this way was to send a message revealing ownership. Although George did not technically own Lennie, George did look after him and had an authority over him. Earlier in the book, Candy says to George, "I ought to of shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to of let no stranger shoot my dog" (61). This proves to be a parallel to what happens later in the book when George shoots Lennie. The message argues that in some situations, one may have to give up something of personal or, in this case, emotional value. If this happens, it is better to break the bond yourself. Candy regretted letting Carlson shoot his dog, and did not feel complete closure because of this. Did George feel more at ease in shooting Lennie himself, or will he still feel haunted by this decision in the future?
 

The ending of Of Mice and Men shocked me. I never expected George to do that, however after reading the ending a few times, I began to understand why George shot Lennie. I think Steinbeck's ending was very effective. Ending the novel like this shows that there really is no true "American dream," and that everything cannot always be perfect. Happily ever after would not be an appropriate ending for this book. All the difficulties the characters faced in the book led to this tragic ending. Lennie was always positive and wanted everyone else to be happy, so in a way, George killing him, was another way to make Lennie happy. George and the others were having a hard time succeeding with Lennie and if Lennie were able to comprehend that he would want to make them happy. When I re-read this ending I looked at it different the second and third times. At first it seemed like a horrible, sad ending but after reading it again it turned out to be a happy one. The dream Lennie had before, “Lennie giggled with happiness. ‘An’ live on the fatta the land’” (105), was not realistic for this group. Steinbeck ended the book this way to prove that a great house or car or job is not always the "American dream." All the characters were a part of their own dream and the ending of the book represented that.
Although I think it was good that George shot Lennie and it all went along with the plan to peruse the dream, why do you think George shot him, would it be easier if someone else did it? Why do you think Steinbeck chose George as the one to kill Lennie?
 

Although the ending in Of Mice and Men was saddening, I found it was quite expected. Lennie had comitted many injustices without knowing the actual consequences, but killing a human being is not just going to pass by people. Steinbeck used cruel justice to make a controversial ending to the story. To some people, George and Lennie seemed to be best friends, and it was only the right thing to put Lennie down. To others, George betrayed Lennie by killing him. "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" (106). This is the point where I realized George took Lennie's future in his own hands, and decided that a place full of piece is much better him. I cannot say that I completely agree with George's decision, but Lennie was going to be killed either way. Wouldn't have Lennie wanted to go in such a way? His death was painless.