Sections 5&6 OMAM

Part 5

First off, I want to make a reference to one of my earlier posts where I predicted Lennie would die and I was right! Also, I just want to say I am really frustrated at myself for not having any compassion for Curley’s Wife until now. I feel guilty now that I know about her past. Anyway, it’s time to get down to business and in all serious, there is much to discuss that happened at the end of the book.

The paragraph about Curley’s Wife and her appearance after her death interested me and gave me a clear description of her.“And the meanness and the plannings and the discontent and the ache for attention were all gone from her face. She was very pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young. Now her rouged cheeks and her reddened lips made her seem alive and sleeping very lightly. The curls, tiny little sausages, were spread on the hay behind her head, and her lips were parted.” What is ironic is she seemed more alive and well when she was dead as opposed to when she was actually alive. Based on this description, I personally believe she looked more beautiful while she was dead and not trying to attract attention.

Part 6

My head is so confused at how not confused I am and just, oh my gosh, George shot Lennie! He definitely had to have some reason behind shooting Lennie and I have dug into the depths of my brain to find out why he killed Lennie. Overall, I believe George really wanted to get away from Lennie and he was selfish. George had to spend so much time taking care of Lennie when he could’ve been living his own life. George decided he needed a break from it all. We’ve seen many examples throughout the book where he was slightly selfish and left Lennie to stand up for himself when he wasn’t capable of it. He encouraged Lennie to fight against Curley and left Lennie alone while he went to town. These events led to George’s realization that Lennie could not manage on his own and the only way to get rid of Lennie was to kill him so, he did. I also noticed some foreshadowing of this event. I once made a statement that Lennie reminded me of a mouse and a quote in the book was, “Trouble with mice is you always kill ‘em.” George was Lennie in this scenario and Lennie was the mouse George ended up killing.” I also saw foreshadowing in the death of Candy’s dog. Candy said, “I ought to have shot that dog myself, George. I shouldn't ought to have let no stranger shoot my dog” In this case, Lennie symbolizes the dog and George resembles Candy. He was going to shoot Lennie himself, and not let Curley and the rest of their mob get to Lennie. My justification for George killing Lennie consists of him getting tired of taking care of Lennie and not wanting someone else to kill him. They were like family but George just couldn’t take care of him any longer.