Resumo de Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck

Meet George and Lennie, two itinerant farm workers bedding down beside the Salinas River one warm evening in California. Between them, an atypical ?brawns and brains? arrangement taken on by George, who assumes complete, voluntary responsibility for Lennie?s wellbeing.
They are on their way to a ranch where they plan to buck barley and make the stake they need to buy their own farm, the dream of every migrant worker in the Great Depression. They will have a kitchen, a vegetable patch and chickens, and, most importantly for Lennie, he will be allowed to care for the rabbits. But the plan doesn?t turn out as clear cut as George has in mind.
While George has to use his wit every day to save Lennie from his own massive strength, there are further curves thrown at the two men when they arrive on the ranch, in the shape of Curley, an ex boxer and his flirty wife.
One of the gifts of Steinbeck is that he does not hint at the private thoughts of any of the characters on any page in the book, yet I felt the turmoil George goes through on his extraordinary journey with Lennie. I could not fail to pick up his despair as he relates to one of the farm hands how Lennie had grabbed a girls dress in another town and not let go, and they had had to spend the night in an irrigation ditch up to their necks in water in order to avoid a lynch mob.
George insists after recounting this incident that Lennie is simple, but not dangerous and I had to wonder at this stage, if for George, this ranch is not the beginning of their dream, but a make or break gamble. Either they make it, or his journey with Lennie ends here.
Because of his fondness for petting animals, Lennie is given a pup to look after. Knowing Lennie as well as he does, George?s fears for it are well founded and two days later the pup, Curley?s wife and Lennie?s own, childish, fetish have undone all their plans.
This short novel is a tragedy that unfolds over just three days. The title comes from a Robert Burns poem which looks at the universal theme of thwarted plans. Steinbeck?s work is an unsympathetic account of human interaction, resulting in the destruction of two men?s plans and the devastating loss of a precious dream.
Although George couldn?t have known exactly what would happen when they arrived, I have to say I felt frustrated with him for staying at all, and wasn?t softened much by the position he is finally placed in. George?s gamble doesn?t pay off and after murder is done, he has a choice to make.
The dream is over, and the story ends where it began, by the Salinas River, where George and Lennie sit side by side, recalling their dream once again. Here, George must make another decision for Lennie, and determine, with yet another lynch mob nearby, exactly how the dream will end.

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