Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The novel, "Of Mice and Men", by John Steinbeck, is a story of two migrant farm workers, George and Lennie. Lennie has a mentally disability and does not know his own strength causing frequent problems, but on the other hand, George, his friend, is short in stature and appears to have a great deal of common sense. The two men had recently run away from a farm near Weed, where Lennie had been wrongly accused of raping a young woman; therefore, are on their way to a different ranch near Soledad, California where they hope to find work. After they are hired, the two men they hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land; Lennie's part of the dream is merely to tend to and touch the soft rabbits on the farm while George wants freedom to do whatever they please, with no rules to keep them from doing what they please. However, later on in the book, their dream is shattered when Lennie again gets into trouble and accidentally strangles the flirtatious wife of the ranch owner's son. This incident forces George and Lennie to again run for their lives, but this time it leads to a tragic end, for in order to save Lennie from being lynched by Curley, their boss' son and the other workers, George performs an act of mercy and shoots Lennie in the back of his head, leaving him feeling numb with grief, loneliness, and sorrow at the end of the book.