„h 1937 „h 88 bladzijden „h The Story takes place in California near Salinas the town where Steinbeck was born. „h It is during the Great Depression, and ranch hands travel from one place to another, taking work wherever they can find it. The Action takes three days, from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. The story is situated in the thirties. Beschrijving van de drie belangrijkste hoofdfiguren: George Milton: He is a small, quick and clever man. George hates big man because he is small. He was a good friend of Lennie, he always tell Lennie what he must do and what not. He cares about Lennie and tries to keep him out of trouble. He protects Lennie for a lot of things. Some people see George as a courageous man, who has captured an armed killer. George is dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp, strong features. He has strong hands, slender arms a thin and bony nose. He¡¦s bright, self-assured, and a social leader. Lennie Small: He is a simple- minded guy but very big and strong. He likes to pet soft things. He¡¦s very strong and is crazy about mices and rabbits but they die very quick, because he breaks their necks. He isn¡¦t smart, but he can take orders and work very hard. Lennie want to tend rabbits, in their little farm, so he did. Lennie is a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws. He¡¦s na„¡ve, good-natured, simpleton, the stupid strength, the follower, and the victim. Very important is that Lennie forget things very quick, he doesn¡¦t remember what George tell him. Crooks (dit is eigenlijk meer een bijfiguur) He is a Negro who works in the stables, has a little room in the barn where he lives his lonely life. When Lennie had visited him, he asks if he could come and work for them. Crooks is a crippled Negro, who takes care of the horses. He¡¦s the owner of the ranch (the boss) He became friends with Lennie and George. He was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back. Crooks possessed several pairs of shoes, a pair of rubber boots, a big alarm clock, and a single- barrelled shot- gun, and he had two bocks. Summary
The Story: One hot evening two men come to a small pool of water beside a river. The first man, George, is small, dark and quick. Lennie, the other, is very big and slow. He starts drinking from the pool although George warns him not to drink too much dirty water. George complains about the bus driver who set them down too far away from the ranch they are going to. From the conversation it appears that Lennie is feebleminded. He keeps forgetting things, and he hides small animals in his pockets (mices) He likes to stroke their soft skins, but he is so strong that he kills them while-pet-ting them. They travels from ranch to ranch to get work. The last address, in Weed, they just wanted to feel the red dress. The girl didn¡¦t like this and she squawked this got Lennie so mixed up that he held on, because he was so scared that this was only thing he could do. As soon as the girl tells the guys in Weed about that, they have to leave the ranch. So they go to another ranch. George warns Lennie not to say a word once they are going to work. He does not to get in trouble again as they did in Weed. George complains that he could have a much better time without Lennie. But when Lennie says he will go live in a cave in the mountains and leave George alone, George is sorry about his words and promises him a puppy. They talk about their plan for the future, they want to buy a little farm and have rabbits, which Lennie can look after. George tells him that if he ever gets in trouble he should come back to this spot and hide in the brush near the pool. On the ranch an old swamper, Candy, shows them the buck-house, a bare, cheerless-building. When the boss comes in, he¡¦s angry because they were not there to begin work early that morning. When the boss had leave them, his son Curley came in, and the boss came back, so Curley goes. Candy tells a lot about him. Then they meet Slim, whose team they will be working in. Slim is the best cattle driver on the ranch, and is a thoughtful and authoritative man, respected by everyone. Candy has an old dog and Carlson, one of the ranch hands, think the old dog should be killed because it stinks. He would should the old dog, and he can get than a pup from Slim. It is Friday night. Slim has promised Lennie a pup when it is old enough. When Lennie comes into the bunkhouse hiding his pup under his jacket, George orders him to take it back to its nest in the barn. Then the other men come in. They have been playing horseshoes. Carlson said it again; he would shoot the dog. First Curley refuses, because he has had the dog a long time, but finally he is forced to give in. A few minutes later it was dead. Whit tells George how Curleys¡¦s wife always is hanging around the men, and then most of the men go out to the barn when Curley goes looking for Slim there, they expect to see a fight. Candy has been feeling sorry about his dog, George and Lennie begins to talk about their farm George says he knows of a little farm that is for sale. Candy was listening and asks if he may come with them if he contributes his savings of ƒr 300. George¡¦s first idea is to refuse, but then he begins to realise that with such a sum of money, the dream that had always seemed far away could come true quite soon. Curley is in a nasty mood; he became angrier when Carlson tells him he must better take care of his wife. He begins to fight with Lennie, Curley was fallen and must go to the doctor, Slim makes him promise to say that his hand got caught in a machine. On Saturday night most of the men have gone in to town but Lennie goes to Crooks (the Negro who works in the sables, has a little room in the barn where he lives his lonely life) He want to see his pup and tells him about the farm he and George plan to buy. Crook scares him by saying that George may have lied or may get hurt and never come back. When Candy comes in to talk to Lennie about the farm they are going to buy, crooks finally sees that their plan is serious and ask if he could come and work for them. Then Curley¡¦s wife came in. She complains, and she wants to know what happened to Curley¡¦s hand, when she sees Lennie¡¦s face she knew it. When the men come home from town, George doesn¡¦t like finding Lennie and Candy was talking to Crooks about the farm. On Sunday afternoon Lennie is sitting in the barn with a dead puppy, he has killed it accidentally and now he¡¦s afraid George will be angry and not allow him to look after the rabbits on their farm. Curley¡¦s wife lets Lennie feel her hair during they talking. Lenie does so, but to rough. Curley¡¦s wife gets frightened, Lennie panics and he breaks her neck. When Lennie sees that she is dead he realised that what he has done was wrong. He remembers what George told him he must hide if anything went wrong. So he goes to the place near the river. When Candy finds the body and shows it to George, he realised what has happened. Everybody assume that Lenie has killed the girl, and they set out to find him. George has stolen Carlson¡¦ s luger gun but tells nobody, so that they think Lennie has stolen the gun before leaving the ranch. Lennie was talking about the little farm and the rabbits then he heard Curley¡¦s men and shoots Lennie in the neck. When the other men arrive, Slim understands what has happened, but George lets the others believe that Lennie had the gun, and that George took it from him and then killed him. B Gedeelte wat ik in het Nederlands schrijf: In welke mate heeft het boek je aangesproken of niet? Ik vond het boek erg leuk om te lezen, het was een grappig, spannend en vooral humoristisch boek. Ik heb erg gelachen om wat er verteld werd. Het is ook grappig hoe George zijn problemen verteld aan Lennie, omdat hij luistert, maar dat Lennie zijn problemen niet begrijpt maakt niets uit. Er zit veel humor in. Ik heb ook de film naar aanleiding van het boek gezien, en die was ook erg leuk. Vraag/opdracht 2: Geef van drie personen in het boek aan wat je van ze vindt. Ik vind Lennie een grappige man, maar het is net een kleuter en je moet hem alles 100 x zeggen, maar je kunt wel met hem lachen. George is een knappe en slimme man, soms wel wat arrogant. Curley en zijn vrouw vond ik allebei zeer irritant. Curley zorgt en geeft weinig om zijn vrouw, en is erg onbeleefd tegen mensen. Curley¡¦s vrouw is een echte versierder en flirt erg veel met andere mannen. Ze staat graag in het middelpunt van de belangstelling. Vraag/opdracht 3: antwoord: Het leven kan niet altijd zo gaan als jij denkt, je kan wel eens geluk hebben, maar ook pech. Je kunt niet met iedereen vrienden worden en je moet mensen niet al te gauw vertrouwen, je weet niet wat er achter dat leuke lieve of juist arrogante en lelijke of knappe jongen of meisje zit. En je moet genieten van het leven, het leven kan in 1 seconde voorbij zijn. Dus pas op wie je vertrouwt, wees voorzichtig met je leven! Vraag/opdracht 4: Ik zou het boek wel aanraden, het is een leuk om te lezen, er zit van alles in, humor(dat vooral), spanning, drama. Het is leuk om te lezen, er zit een verhaal in, je bent het boekje zo door, en er zitten ook maar weinig pagina ¡¥s in. Het is geen saai boek en daarom wil je hem zo snel mogelijk uit lezen. Je wilt weten hoe het verhaal eindigt. En vooral door de humor in het verhaal is het extra leuk, en een aanrader voor iedereen om te lezen!