Of Mice and Men

I feel like this will not be a popular opinion of this classic novel, but, well, I only kind of liked this book. I don't know why. I doubt one of those reasons was because it was short. The copy I had was a whopping 107 pages long.

I just didn't connect to the characters. I've read this book before, years ago, but I was in high school and as a result, well, not very good at subconsciously analyzing books. But now I am. And these characters just do not seem to have any depth.

I know why it's a classic. The themes, while a little hard to really grasp, are themes that can withstand the test of time. The keeping of someone who is difficult. The idea that accidents happen. But those characters. I just don't know about them.

Lennie is a character that you can feel kind of bad for. I mean, he's a little dumb. He's got the mind of a child, but the strength of a full grown man (and then some). He tends to kill little creatures because he doesn't really know his own strength.

George is, well, kind of cold hearted. He seems to only tolerate Lennie's presence. He travels with Lennie out of a sense of obligation, not because he wants to. Lennie is devoted to George and George just doesn't seem to care that much. It's kind of sad.

Most of the characters are rather flat, but it's not a terrible book. I read and somewhat enjoyed it. But I am glad that it was a short book.