1. In the fifth and sixth chapters of Of Mice and Men, a lot of trauma happens-including death. The third chapter should be called "Death of Softness" because the death in these two chapters is because of how soft they are. Lennie's puppy dies, because the puppy is soft and Lennie has been petting its and taking it away from its mother. Lennie sort of panics thinking that he won’t be able to tend the rabbits. Also, Curley's wife walks into the barn where Lennie is, while everyone else is out playing horseshoes. Lennie tries to tell Curley's wife "If George sees me talkin' to you he'll give me hell,"(Steinbeck 96). However, she stays in there to talk and Lennie listens. She tells him how she doesn’t like Curley- "He isn’t a nice fella."(Steinbeck 97) she tells him. After talking for a while, Curley's wife tells Lennie that her hair is "soft and fine." (Steinbeck 99). She convinces Lennie to touch her hair but when she tells him to let go, he doesn’t. She begins freaking out because he will not let go, and he held tight on her because he wanted her to stop screaming. "She struggled violently under his hands" (Steinbeck 99). Lennie shakes her to try to get her to stop screaming so he can let go; but Lennie broke her neck. She was dead. Chapter six should be titled "Sometimes goodbye are the only way" because in the sixth chapter, Lennie escapes down by the river, as George told him before. At first Lennie hallucinates all these people talking to him; Aunt Clara and then a huge rabbbit. Once word gets around about what Lennie did, there is no doubt that one of the guys is going to kill him. So George does what he thinks is right, and find him before the others do. George talks to Lennie, and tells him everything is going to be okay. George tries to get Lennie to be happy, right before he shoots Lennie.
2. One character in chapter six that shows to be a true friend is George. Although he is the one that kills Lennie, he talks about "how its' gonna be" (Steinbeck 115) all about the little place that they're going to have. He does this in hopes that Lennie will think everything is going to be good, as if it will make him die happily. George steals the Carlson's Luger, he takes is so he can get to Lennie before the others. Lennie begs to George "Le's do it now. Le's get that place now." (Steinbeck 117) and George lets him believe they are going to. "And George raised the gun and steadied it, and he brought the muzzle of it close to the back of Lennie's head...his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger."(Steinbeck 117). That was it. Lennie was dead as well, but his death was much easier than what may have happened if the other guys got to him first. Curley said he was going to "shoot the guts outa that big bastard" (Steinbeck 107). So by George shooting Lennie, Lennie didn’t suffer as much as he would have. When all the guys get there, they all know that George shot him, but Carlson gives him an alibi on what happen, so that George will have a story for investigators. They will say that Lennie had the gun and that George got it away, and then killed him. Slim is the only one who notices realizes how hard that must have been for George, and says they should go get a drink. The book ends by Curley saying "Now what the hell ya suppose is eatin' them two guys?" (Steinbeck 118)
3. In these two chapters, the rabbits and what they meant to Lennie really shone through. For Lennie, the rabbits were much more than rabbits; they were a goal. He was so very proud to tell people he would be able to tend the rabbits and when he did something wrong that is what he could think about. He would think how George wouldn't let him tend the rabbits. It was a very serious matter for Lennie. When Lennie's puppy was dead, he whispered to himself "Now I won’t get to tend the rabbits. Now he won't let me." He rocked himself back and fourth in his sorrow' (Steinbeck 93) Once he realizes Curley's wife is dead and goes down by the river, after imagining Aunt Clara was there, he imagines a gigantic rabbit. The rabbit talks to him, and tells Lennie "You ain't fit to lick the boots of no rabbit. You'd forget 'em and let 'em go hungry."(Steinbeck 112). This angers Lennie, and tells the rabbit loudly that he would not forget. Lennie spends so much time thinking about the rabbits, and how disappointed George will be.
4. This part of the book reminds me of my cousin, because he made a lot of mistakes as a young kid; mistakes that his mom would always scornfully yell at him for. I used to always feel bad for him, and same as with the rest of my family. Everyone in a while my grandma was take him for the weekend, and we would all go out to ice cream and the beach and try to fun things. Still, he was annoying with us, but we tried our best not to yell and tried our best just to let him live a little and have fun. We knew that once he left our house to go back home he would have to deal with another month of being afraid. He used to be afraid of his own actions, but he tried his hardest to be good. It reminds me of how George is with Lennie, and how even though he did something so bad he tried to let Lennie die peacefully.
5. Overall, my thoughts on these last two chapters were mainly sorrow for Lennie. It’s hard to think that all he wanted in life was to tend rabbits, and how his chance was messed up. Such as simple aspiration and he didn’t even get to fulfill his dream. However I was proud of the way George handled it. Part of me feels sad for Curley's wife, but only because she does not like Curley. Lennie warned her when she came in the barn; even though she had no idea what was going to happen, she still should not have gone in.
6.
Gingham- cloth with usually a checkered pattern
Snooker- a pool game.
Writhed- contorted; twisted in pain or struggle
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