#tbt - Throw Back Thursday

I taught high school English.  I am a reader so maybe that means in a way I will always teach English.  I believe there are some books everyone should read - classics perhaps by some "experts" standard but definitely classics by mine.

Everyone should read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.  There is sadness and despair.  The Great Depression has made finding work almost impossible, but men who are willing to travel and move on can find limited work as laborers.  It can be a lonely life moving to one farm after another facing the role of "new guy."  But, Of Mice and Men shows this life in a different light.  

The two main characters George and Lenny travel together.  Nothing alike, they still manage to stave off loneliness offering each some sense of belonging even as they enter a new situation.  George is small but strong.  He has the brains.  Lenny is big but doesn't know his own strength.  He has the dream.  The dream - they are going to get themselves a little farm and Lenny will raise the rabbits.

They are closer to their dream than ever before when they settle in at the ranch in the Salinas valley. The guys they work with seem fair and hard working if they can just steer clear of Curley and his wife.  But Lenny likes pretty things, soft things and that sets them on the path to destruction.

The book is sad and it can make the reader angry.  After it has long been over, the beauty and love becomes evident and some of the darkness fades.  It is a short but powerful work.  Everyone owes it to themselves to set aside a weekend to spend with George and Lenny to learn the lesson of love.

There are several movie versions.  I have only seen two of them.  The 1981 version stars Robert Blake as George and Randy Quaid as Lenny.  The 1992 version stars Gary Sinise as George and John Malkovich as Lenny.  I liked both films but my favorite is 1992.  I love Gary Sinise.  Watch both and compare.  I am sure there is a 1939 film as well but I don't know about others.  Watch the movie after reading, please.  Both are fairly faithful to the story but the power of words will be diminished if the reader knows what is coming.