The book "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck is a

fictional book about the lives of two men that are

trying to live their lives the way they've always

dreamed about. The setting of this book is the early

1900's in the United States. The story takes place in

a town a few miles South of Soledad, California. There

are a few references to past towns that the two men

have lived in, but the whole story basically takes

place on a ranch where they both work.

This book is about a man named George Milton and

his friend's nephew that he promised he'd look after

named Lennie Small. Lennie is a " Huge man, shapeless

of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping

shoulders. " (pg 2,P3, line 10) He isn't really smart

but he's huge and does a lot of work. It's George and

Lennie's dream to someday have a ranch of their own,

but it doesn't turn out that way. Lennie doesn't know

his own strength and accidentally kills a young girl.

When he runs and hides, he has people going after him

with guns, but his best friend George kills him,

because he knows that if the men find him, they'll

torture him and then hang him.

Many things in this book are significant based on

morals, but I think the main theme in the book is

friendship. Even though Lennie totally holds George

back from doing everything he wants, he still stays

with Lennie and makes sure he's taken care of. George

likes him, but he doesn't like the fact that he has to

put his life on hold to take care of his friend. He

gets frustrated and yells at Lennie, " Whatta I got, I

got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me ever' job

I get! " (pg.11,P1,line 13) He still likes Lennie,

because they are friends, but every once in a while, he

gets tired of him. George makes sure that Lennie knows

that if he's ever in trouble, that he'll take care of

him and make everything work out. He defends him

against people that are mean to him, and is proud of

him when he does the right things.

The author of the book uses narration throughout

the whole book, and is very descriptive. He even uses

the right dialogue and dialect that people would have

used in the time and place the story took place. When

Lennie asks George about the ranch they want to own one

day, he says: " George, how long's it gonna be till we

fit that little place an' live on the fatta the

lan'-an' rabbits? " (pg.56,p4,line 1) The author is

very consistent on using the right language in the

whole book. It's not just Lennie or George either, he

gives everyone a dialect.

In the beginning of the book, George is very

careful to protect Lennie from any kind of harm. As

big as Lennie is, he doesn't know any better than to

just stand there when someone is getting in his face.

In the middle of the book, the bosses son, Curley,

tries to pick a fight with Lennie and starts hitting

him. Lennie doesn't know what to do, and so he just

stands there. George tells him, " Get em' Lennie,

don't let him do it." (pg. 63,p2,line 2) Only when

George tells him to do something, Lennie will move. In

the end of the story, Lennie accidentally kills

Curley's wife, and runs away. George rushes to find

him before the men that want to kill him find him.

George knows that he can't run forever, and he tells

Lennie to sit on the ground and think about the ranch

that they wanted to have. George ends up shooting

Lennie in the head, because he cares about him to much

and he feels like it's his responsibility. He doesn't

want any harm to come to Lennie, so he makes sure that

the men wont torture him and he kills Lennie himself.

In my opinion, this was a really good book, and I

would recommend it to anyone. The author did a good

job describing situations and feelings, and he also

made sure that the reader would understand why George

killing Lennie was actually the right thing to do.

This story is about friendship and how it can happen

anytime to anyone.