20220217 - Review: Of Mice And Men

Think of the rabbits. \ Grabbing ahold of one's dreams, \ crush them in your hands.

#HAIKUPRAJNA - Review: Of Mice And Men

 

"Le's do it now. Le's get that place now." "Sure, right now. I gotta. We gotta."

Enjoyed "Of Mice And Men" by John Steinbeck more than I thought I would. This is a story about desires and how the vain daydreaming thereof leads to performing actions that are counterintuitive to one's goals, which is envisioned through the likes of George and Lennie who put themselves in places they don't want to be in order to keep chasing their dreams, but while George is smart, he schemes and longs for what he lacks, and though Lennie is stronger than anyone, he has the compulsive habit of grabbing what he wants.

"They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Everybody wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head. They're all the time talkin' about it, but it's jus' in their head"

The story goes to great lengths, despite its short size, to display how one's fears and desires shape those around them, where characters like Candy and George have to deal with the idea of death being better for someone whom one loves. Lines become blurred when one desires things for another person, a fine example being Lennie wanting to do good for George who has the occasional thought that he could do better without Lennie, while Lennie says he could leave, but George does love Lennie and wants to take care of him.

"I was only foolin’, George. I don’t want no ketchup. I wouldn’t eat no ketchup if it was right here beside me." "If it was here, you could have some." "But I wouldn’t eat none, George. I’d leave it all for you."

The blurring of the lines lead to situations that seem bound by fate, where the characters' perceptions of each other bind them to the existential facts about themselves, which limits one's existence and influences reactions, such as with the men and Curly's wife, who wants someone to think about her, despite everyone being too afraid of the boss's son, and such as with Crook's and everyone's abilities to be decent toward the marginalized, both of which shows how desire blinds one with an ill will that just needs an unjustified excuse to act upon.

 

These Goodreads poems will be collected in a future edition of the HaikuPrajna Collection. More can be found on my Book Reviews page, including my Goodreads Years in Review (add me as a friend!): https://haikuprajna.blogspot.com/p/goodreads-book-reviews.html

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Thank you for reading.

Until next time,

Allen W. McLean