The ending to ‘Of mice and men’ is tragic yet inevitable

One of the main aspects in John Steinbecks ‘Of Mice and Men’ is inevitability. Of Mice and Men is the story that two migrant workers follow, in order to achieve their dream. The main features in the novel are: The slow but sure shattering of the dream, and how it keeps going wrong due to one of Steinbeck’s character’s constant mistakes. Also the death of Curley’s wife, who, although was unimportant to the men on the ranch, had become an imperative yet inevitable event in the novel.

Another incident in the novel was the death of Lennie, a grown man yet dense and simple. Anger and fear was around at this time, and George

(Lennie’s close friend) shared them both.

The ending to ‘Of Mice and Men’ is tragic yet inevitable.

George and Lennie’s dream was to own large amounts of land, and tend animals, of which the tending the rabbits, Lennie was most interested in.

The stable buck on the ranch, known as Crooks, doesn’t believe that George and Lennie will ever obtain their dream. He says that all migrant workers have the same dream, and it doesn’t works out for any of them. Page.79-80 “You guy are just kiddin’ yourself. You’ll talk about it a hell of a lot but you won’t get no land. Seems like ever’ guy got land in his head, they never get none in their hand”

All through the book many setbacks and negative thoughts came out that their dream would never work out. Except George and Lennie who together kept the dreams heart alive throughout the novel.

George kept the dream alive for Lennies sake many times during the novel, and at one point we had the faith that it would work out. Yet it was inevitable that the dream was never going to work out. Seeing that many individuals in ‘Of Mice and Men’ were pessimistic about the dream ever succeeding. George often told Lennie of the dream, but never actually believed in the dream himself.

Page.99 “I guess I knew, maybe way back in my head I did”

So even George had some faith in the dream, but had his uncertainties.

The novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set in the 1930’s, the time of depression, when many banks where closed and the slump lead to a massive unemployment across many countries. Trying to gain land in that particular period was very hard. People seemed to be loosing land rather than getting hold of it. This could be a reason why the dream didn’t work out and why it was inevitable. ss

Many of Steinbecks characters had dreams of their own. Including Candy, who wanted to contribute to George and Lennies dream. He offered to but in a fair amount of money. And claimed he could help out even though he only had one hand. Candy was most likely very lonely on the ranch, and considered he had nothing to loose.

Page 62. “S’spose I went with you guys. Tha’s three hundred an’ fifty bucks I’d put in. I ain’t much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. How’d that be?”

It would take George and Lennie a long time to earn enough money, and George knew that. Furthermore, George goes and spends his money in town at the cathouse, along with the other workers at the ranch.

Although as Candy spoke out his ideas. This began to raise Georges hopes, in thinking that his life ambition may actually work out. And for Lennie, it raised his aspiration even more.

The fact that the broken dreams were inevitable, is also due to Lennies misfortune behaviour, which lead to them loosing to a series of jobs, this is what made George doubt dream even more. That they would not be able to get permanent job any where, and not earn enough money

Curleys wife was isolated on the ranch because she was the only woman on the ranch. It often shows throughout the novel that she is lonely. She fights her loneliness by claiming she is looking for Curley, however she is really seeking any company. Loneliness is one of the central themes in ‘Of Mice and Men’ and many people on the ranch experience loneliness.

Curleys wife has no name, she is just known as Curleys wife. This shows that she is unimportant to the men on the ranch.

Lennie likes to pet soft things, although doesn’t realise his own strength, he gets scared and panics easily. At the beginning of the novel Lennie kills a mouse by petting it to hard, he does this by mistake, as he doesn’t mean to. Furthermore, when George and Lennie were in Weed, Lennie saw a young girl wearing a dress made from a nice material, and because Lennie liked to pet soft things, he went up to the girl and touched her dress, which led to her screaming, Lennie panicking and kept hold on to the dress.

This is an example of how Lennie has no control of his strength, and his emotions. With Lennie’s habit of petting things and hurting them, foreshadows Curley’s wife’s death. As soon as Lennie starts to talk about how he likes to pet soft things the atmosphere builds up. Lennie does not understand sex therefore does not understand that Curleys wife is ‘flirting’. Soon he is petting her hair, which is another soft thing to pet. Again Lennie panics as she constantly asks him to stop and panics herself. Lennie puts her hand over her mouth to stop her screaming and subsequently she is dead. These events tell us that Lennie inevitably would keep on killing.

CONCLUSION—

The novel ‘Of Mice and Men’ is a story of voyage, courage and pain, the ending is tragic yet inevitable.

The three main features of the book were, the broken dreams, how it was slow but definite. The death of Curleys wife, (Lennie petting the mice all over again.) And finally Lennies death, so near to occur, yet so far.

Inevitability in this world is an thing

When he is away from George for the littlest time he gets himself in the trouble as he killed the puppy and Curley’s wife when George was only a short distance away from him. He has omence strength but doesn’t know this and if a normal man did what he did to Curley it would not of broken his hand but his strength crushed his had within minutes without even knowing he had hurt him that bad, he was only trying to stop Curley from punching him because George told him to fight back he grabbed Curleys hand and couldn’t let go because he panicked, this also happened in Weed when Lennie could not let go of the lady dress because he panicked when she screamed. Lennies child-like personality and his behaviour always get him into trouble which he cannot get out of and this causes him to kill another human being.

Which means that no matter how much George and Lennie plan, regardless of how much they hope and dream, their plans never come true. Therefore Inevitable =.

By killing Lennie, George eliminates a immense burden and a threat to his own life

(Lennie, of course, never threatened George directly but his actions had put George’s life in danger. ). The tragedy is that George, in effect, is forced to shoot his only companion, who made him different than many other workers, as well his own dream and admit that it has gone hopelessly awry.

Slim’s comfort at the end ” you hadda George ” indicates the sad truth that you have to surrender your dreams in order to survive, not the easiest of things to do in America, the Land of Promise.