Why the dream went down the drain!

Great writers come up with great ways to end novels (hence the name "great writers"). But the end of Steinbeck's short novella Of Mice and Men is a particularly touching scene. After accidentally killing Curley's wife, George finds Lennie at the hiding space, and shoots him.

If this is how you described it to someone else, they would not think of it as touching. Violent, maybe. Jarring. But not touching. What actually makes this scene so profound is how Steinbeck executes it. He begins by describing the tranquil pond featured in the beginning of the book; the fact that this will be a scene of gruesome violence in pages to come is extremely ironic. Lennie than crashes through the bushes, and Steinbeck wrenches the reader's heart by describing the visions Lennie sees. These include his Aunt Clara, who berates him for being such a nuisance to George, and the rabbit, who cruelly taunts Lennie by saying he's going to leave him after his failed efforts. In a strong moment, the rabbit brings up the failed dream, saying, " 'Christ knows George done ever'thing he could to jack you outta the sewer, but it don't do no good. If you think George gonna let you tend rabbits, you're even crazier'n usual.' " I can make a connection between this and the plight of migrant workers in the 1930s, who didn't reach their dreams either.

Then, of course, George arrives, and as footsteps draw nearer, George and Lennie tearfully talk about the dream that was never realized. As they draw their relationship to a close, Lennie says, " 'An' I got you. We got each other, that's what, that gives a hoot in hell about us!' "

We all know what's happened next, and it seems like Lennie knows it's coming. With profound words like these, Steinbeck draws his novel to a close, a tragedy about the power of friendship and the American Dream in its purest form.