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OF MICE AND MEN
- JOHN STEINBECK

A man shoots his friend, his companion, right through the back of his head, in cold blood and yet you have second thoughts on deciding what his act constitutes; a murder or some sort of a mercy killing. Something utterly selfish or a thing that you would have done too, faced with a similar circumstance or situation? This is the dilemma that faces the reader as the last page of Of Mice And Men is read and flipped over.
A novel titled from a poem by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns and bearing allusion to the line, 'the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry', Of Mice And Men is set in the farmlands of Salinas Valley in Western California, where John Steinbeck was born and worked as a farm hand in his father's farm, as a young man. It is a story of two men, George and Lennie, homeless migrant workers in the unemployment-plagued America of the early 1930s.

The novel starts off with a tranquil scene by the river Salinas - peace and tranquility reigns by the riverbank, under the shade of the Sycamores in the cool California evening, with rabbits sitting on the sand and a lizard running among the leaves creating a great skittering. This peace is broken by the arrival of two humans, George and Lennie. Lennie is the stronger one of them two, but he is sort of slow in the head. George is smaller than Lennie but he is the smarter one and is the one in charge.

They are migrant farm workers and go around trying to find work on farms. They are always looking for work because of Lennie, he always seems to get them fired and sometimes in trouble. This time around too, when he wanted to pet a woman's dress because he thought it was pretty and held on when she tried to jerk away. The woman had raised assault charges and the two had to flee at night, they are thus, in Salinas now, on the way to a farm for work.

Lennie has a fixation for soft furry objects and likes touching them and petting them. On their way to the farm he has picked up a dead mouse, which he conceals but as usual George finds it and throws it. On being sent to gather firewood to heat the cans of beans for dinner, he wastes time trying to retrieve the dead mouse and gets George angry. He flares up and exclaims how much of a burden he is to him, about all the things that he could have done without him on his back and under his care. Lennie counters George's anger with a bout of a guilt trip and succeeds in calming him and making him narrate their dream; of owning a farm someday, the rabbits and the cows and the milk.

THE WAKE OF THE WHITETIGER
DIAMOND S.J.B RANA
These men were very close friends; they make a strange pair and are somehow bound to each other. Lennie clings on to George. Inspite of being a hulk he has the brain of a child and is totally incapable of taking care of himself without George. George on his part bears up with Lennie and his childish antics because of Aunt Clara, who wanted him to take care of Lennie, moreover, his conscience does not allow him to desert him.

In their new place of work, they meet up with many different characters and each of them wish to change their life in some way, but none are capable of doing so; they all have dreams, and it is only the dream that varies from person to person. Slim, their team leader, the wise and confident one, has nothing of his own and will remain a migrant worker throughout his life. Curley, the boss's son has a wife who has seen the hope of being an actress pass by and now must live a bitter life of empty hope. Crook epitomizes the bitterness felt by black workers in the face of the white folk and has his own dreams of equality and emancipation some day.

George is a shadow at all times to Lennie, preventing anyone from provoking him from his antics. However, one night when he goes to town with the other men, Lennie yet again is innocently lured into trouble, this time, though, much serious than the earlier one. Seeing him alone and not really knowing anything about him, Curley's wife tells him of her hate for him. During their talk, she discovers that he loves petting soft, silky and furry objects and invites him to feel her silky hair. Lennie reluctantly goes ahead but the feel of her hair on his fingers puts him in a trance and when she asks him to let go, he panics. In the struggle that ensues, he accidentally breaks her neck and she dies.

Realising what he has done, he recollects George's words on the riverbank, when he had shown him a place to hide if he had to run away for any reason, so, he runs and hides there. Meanwhile, the body is discovered at the barn and George knows that they are in trouble yet again. The men around him prepare for a manhunt and he reluctantly joins in the search for Lennie. He knows where he is hiding and he moves ahead of the search party, meeting up with him as expected by the river bank and then he shoots him behind his head, killing him instantly.

A novel of defeated hope, Of Mice And Men highlights the harsh reality of the American Dream. It ends in a rather sad note with George shooting Lennie. By shooting Lennie he not only shoots his companion but his dreams as well. A sad story, no doubt, but full of humanity, with flickers of companionship and the good in men and the bad too. An excellent read, gripping, humane and thought provoking, overall.