Dennis Zeedyk-Of Mice & Men

Author of Book: John Steinbeck
Date Read: February 2, 2025

Book Report

Book: Of Mice & Men
Author: John Steinbeck
Pages: 107
Date: 2/2/25

I chose this book because it is a classic that I have heard about for a long time. Since I had the time to read it and it was in the prison library, I checked it out. It was easy to read and more people should read it since it is only 107 pages.

I learned the following from this book:
The book starts out with the two main characters camping out by a creek before they go to their new job at a ranch/farm in the morning. George is the leader of the group and Lenny is of tremendous size, but has the mind of a child. They have formed a “family,” clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. They had to leave their last job because Lenny liked the feel of the red dress of a woman. When he felt it, she started screaming and he panicked. When he panics, he cannot let go. The woman accused him of rape, even though he only touched her dress.

They have a dream of starting out with a 10 acre farm where they will grow vegetables and livestock for their own consumption. Lenny is obsessed about rabbits – feeding, growing & petting them. It is all he talks about.

When they get to the new farm, they are hired, but are scared of the farmer’s son, Curley, who seems to be interested in fighting everyone & has won several boxing matches. He got married two weeks before to a very pretty young woman. The book never mentions her name; it only refers to her as Curley’s wife. She likes to got to the barn and flirt with the farm workers. One evening, Curley is looking for his wife and Lenny is standing there smiling. Curley attacks Lenny punching him when George tells him to fight back. With his immense size & strenght, he crushed Curley’s fighting hand with his own hand. They had to take him to the doctor, but all agreed that they would say it was a farm accident.

The next day, Lenny is in the barn while all the others are outside throwing horseshoes. Curley’s wife comes out and starts talking & flirting with him because she can tell by the bruises on Lenny’s face that he is the one who beat Curley & crushed his hand. She tells Lenny that her hair is soft and that he should feel it, which he does. She then starts to yell at him because he is pulling too hard. He panics, covers her mouth and breaks her neck with his uncanny strength. George sees what Lenny has done and tells him to go back to the creek where the story started & he will come find him. He then goes into the barn to let the others find the body. When they do, they form a posse to find Lenny & kill him. They also realize that one of the men’s guns (a Luger) is missing and believe that Lenny took it. While searching for him, George finds him first and tells him some stories to calm him down. Right before they arrive, George pulls the gun from his own pocket and shoots Lenny in the back of the head so that no further harm can come to him.

I learned the following that will increase my prospects for success after prison:
1) You need friends to help you along the way. Even in prison, you develop friendships. My main friend in prison was initially a J6er. Now it is a doctor out of Chicago. When I get out, I intend to rely on my friends for support to get back into a job and help me stay focused on not committing any violations and renewing my relationship with my family.
2) Sometimes you have to cut bait. George realized that Lenny had become a liability. With his feeble mind and large size, it was going to be hard to keep him from doing things and ultimately harming himself. He decided to take matters into his own hand and kill him rather than have the posse wound him, torture him or have him committed to prison.
3) Lots of people have dreams that will never come to fruition because they do not want to do the work or make the sacrifices to make it happen. George & Lenny talked incessantly about finding their 10-acre farm. They were so possessed by the idea, that two of the farm workers intended to join them when they left to do it after they were paid a month’s wages. The latter two always thought of having something of their own. After Lenny died, they all realized that it was just talk and none of them were committed to the dream enough to actually do it. When I get out, I will have to come up with new dreams given that our family business will file bankruptcy while I am in prison. I am making a list now of things we can do so that when I get out, we can restart & rebuild.